Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

First of all, if you don't know about the major twist in Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and you plan to read it, go no further in this topic and in fact don't read any reviews or anything else about the book, since almost all commentary reveals it!

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have read the book if I hadn't known about it ahead of time, and in fact some editions apparently reveal it in the cover blurb (although my copy doesn't) so it's debatable whether this is actually a spoiler. But it's clear from reading the book that the author did not intend for it to be known ahead of time.

So to get to the point, the Goodreads description of the book includes this "spoiler." I'm thinking that mention should be deleted. Any objections or other input from readers who already know what I'm taking about? I recently got librarian privileges and will be happy to take care of it; just wanted some input from some veteran librarians first if possible.

Thanks!

The description comes straight from the publisher. I'd leave it be.

Spoilers in descriptions from users are fair game for removal. Ones that come from the publisher usually aren't.

Yeah, I figured - it just seems unfortunate that the publisher has clearly gone against the writer's intention in this case. I know their goal is to sell books, which is in the author's interest too, but I think it does a disservice to both writer and reader here.

It is clear from review sites that many reviews don't approve of the book blurb. This NYTimes review has a good take on the issue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/boo...

and this one:
http://gawker.com/dont-ask-questions-...

The author website also avoids the spoiler, at least on the front page:
http://karenjoyfowler.com/

It is a huge spoiler. Could we use the blurb from the author site rather than the publisher?

Banjomike wrote: "Could we use the blurb from the author site rather than the publisher?"

That seems reasonable.

Would it ever be okay to use the spoiler codes in a book description? In case a better description wasn't readily available from a good data source.

Debbie wrote: "Would it ever be okay to use the spoiler codes in a book description? In case a better description wasn't readily available from a good data source."

In this specific case almost the entire blurb is a spoiler. I've replaced the default blurb with the one from the author site.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

Good job - exactly what I was hoping for; thanks!

Debbie wrote: "Would it ever be okay to use the spoiler codes in a book description?"

No.

And I added a librarians note asking not to use the book cover blurb.