Spoiler
A spoiler is any detail about a story that gives away something the reader hasn’t reached yet.
Endings, deaths and twists are the obvious ones. The sneaky ones catch people out: that a certain character exists at all, that two people end up together, that there’s a twist coming, or that the narrator can’t be trusted. Even knowing a reveal is on its way changes how you read everything before it.
Whether spoilers actually make a book less enjoyable is up for debate. A well-known set of studies at UC San Diego in 2011 found people rated short stories slightly higher when they’d been told the ending first, and that result gets quoted a lot. Later research hasn’t backed it up cleanly, and a short story isn’t the same as a long, plot-heavy novel you’ve been dodging spoilers for since it was announced. Either way, plenty of readers really hate being spoiled.
Spoiler etiquette mostly comes down to giving people a choice. Warn before you spoil, use spoiler tags or blur, keep spoilers out of titles, thumbnails and the first line of a review, and say which book in a series you’re talking about. Let people decide when they find out.
In BookBubble
This is what BookBubble is built around. Wiki entries and reactions unlock as you read, so the app only shows you what’s safe for the chapter you’re on.
Spoiler: common questions
What counts as a spoiler?
Anything that gives away something the reader hasn’t got to yet. That includes the fact that there’s a twist, whether a character survives, or who ends up with who. It isn’t just the ending.
Do spoilers ruin a book?
Depends on the reader and the book. The research is mixed, but plenty of readers say being spoiled takes the fun out of a first read, especially with mysteries, thrillers and anything built around a big reveal.
How long until something stops being a spoiler?
There’s no official cutoff. The usual approach is to tag spoilers no matter how old the book is, since someone out there is reading it for the first time this week.