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Cliffhangers

A good cliffhanger can keep me reading for hours. Some authors have really mastered the skill of keeping their readers captivated. But some take it a bit too far, weaving too many story arcs that intervene each others.

Building up the suspense towards the end of the chapter keep you continuing to the next one just to find out what will happen. But if the next chapter isn't going to resolve that suspense it gets a bit tiring. It might answer the open questions from the few chapters back, but then you need to let go of the desire to know what happens next on the story of the chapter you just finished. You also need to recall what happened in that previous chapter the next one will continue on.

This is still bearable if there are only a few different story arcs going on simultaneously. But I have read books where there are half a dozen or even more things happening "at the same time". It just gets frustrating having to read a hundred pages before you get your answers. By that time you have a whole bunch of new ones waiting to be unfurled.