I'm reading this book. It's totally at a critical part. It's surely not time to put down the book. And about 30 pages are missing. Just gone. This really suck.
I feel for you. But you can blame the writer, as Kurt Vonnegut might have done: "Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages."
I would blame the writer if it was self published, but it wasn't. And Vonnegut's saying doesn't really work. The missing pages were in the middle. And the whole book was leading up to this part and... it's just not there. I was thinking of contacting the publisher. I kind of want to read those missing pages.
You definitely should. I assume you just bought the book? You deserve to get your money's worth. Also, maybe it was a mistake in when the books were being put together, and you contacting them would correct it, or at least they could pull the defective books off the shelves.
Was it a physical book or e-book? And if it was the former, was there a gap in the spine, or did the pages skip from 100 to 130 or something with no absent paper?
It's a physical book. It's a hard copy of Newtown. A friend who never read it gave it to me. The whole part about him killing his mother is missing. This is a hard book to read emotionally, especially because you know what's coming. But the to prepare yourself to read this and have a big, important part missing is just awful. The book is really well done. I kept reading to finish the book, but I would go back and read the missing pages. Do you think the publisher might send me just the missing pages? Is that weird to ask? It's weird that the book is missing these pages. Could it be just my copy or do you think it's all of them? Has this ever happened to any of you? It's a first for me.
That does make it a bit of a problem, doesn't it? From your description, it seems to be a defect in the binding process, which happens once in a while. I agree that it would be a kindness to let the publisher know that your copy was defective, and ask that a good copy be sent to you. Since you presumably don't have a sales receipt, it would be hard for them ascertain where all those defective copies went, but the more they know about the situation, the better they'll be able to correct it. On the other hand, since you didn't pay anything for the book, they might just encourage you to buy a copy of your own instead. And if that one is bad, you have much more solid grounds for complaint.