Best book mistakes of all time

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Continuity mistake: In "A Kiss of Shadows" by Laurell K Hamilton at the beginning of chapter 8 it states that "It's eight o'clock Friday night". At the beginning of chapter 10 it says "Eight o'clock on a Saturday night". Between these two chapters only and hour or so of time has passed by. So which day is it, Friday or Saturday?

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Factual error: On the first page, it compares the differences between a dad and a mom's relationship with a baby, saying that it starts with the dad in the delivery room, but for the mom with conception. It says that in the delivery room, that is Day 1 for dad. But mom is on day 462. But a woman only carries a baby for 9 months. That is 270 days approximately. If it was 462 days, that would mean she was pregnant for 15 months.

Quantom X

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Continuity mistake: When Decker is reviewing the witness statements, he read that Melissa Dalton was at school early to take a make-up test, due to missing it for an illness. He then immediately notes that she had perfect attendance; she hadn't even had a tardy.

SomeSweetGirl

More Memory Man mistakes

Continuity mistake: In the previous book, Dark Assassin, Monk goes through Durban's notes and finds the only case of his which "remained a mystery" (Ch. 7). The case Monk reopens in the next book, Execution Dock, is also repeatedly referred to as "the one case Durban had not solved" (e.g., Ch. 1 and Ch. 5). The mistake is that there is no way these are the same case. The one from Dark Assassin involves the murder of a 40-year-old barber named Roger Thorwood; the one from Execution Dock is the sexual abuse and murder of a boy named Walter Figgis, by a man named Jericho Phillips. None of the suspects, victims, or witnesses in the two cases overlap at all. Of course Durban could have worked on both cases - but they can't both be the one single case he never solved. And if they are both unfinished, then it is wrong to say (as the author does repeatedly in Execution Dock) that there is only one case Durban didn't close. (It also can't be a character mistake on Monk's part, since he knows about both cases).

Aerinah

More Execution Dock mistakes

Continuity mistake: On page 305 of the first edition published 2012, Piper and Annabeth sent a dream vision to Camp Half-Blood, but on page 306 they refer to it as an Iris-message.

Meawesome828

More The Mark of Athena mistakes

Other mistake: During chapter 17, Kay Scarpetta (as narrator) refers to "Dr Anna Zimmer" who helped her deal with the death of Benton Wesley. However, in every other book in the Scarpetta series where she is mentioned, this character has the name "Dr Anna Zenner". It is definitely the same woman - a psychiatrist who speaks with a German accent.

More Black Notice mistakes

Continuity mistake: There's something funny going on with time in Chapters 20-21. Barney rescues Valancy from the rowdy dance shortly after 11 pm (Ch. 20), and takes her away in his car, which runs out of gas. They sit and talk for a long time (Ch. 21), until Valancy's uncle and cousin drive up. which supposedly happens at 10 pm - an hour before they even left. And Valancy tells her cousin Olive that she's been sitting there with Barney for three hours.

More The Blue Castle mistakes

Continuity mistake: Chapter 16 states that Tom Mahout's eyes are grey. His eyes were mentioned as being bright blue at the end of Chapter 31.

More Gerald's Game mistakes

Continuity mistake: When the three grandparents take an overdose of Willy Wonka's Wonkavite, it is revealed that their ages are around 80 years and Grandma Georgina is in fact 78. When introduced in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it is stated that all of them are above the age of 90.

More Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator mistakes

Continuity mistake: Alex is introduced to his fellow CIA agent, Tom Turner. Later, his name becomes Taylor. It proceeds to alternate throughout the book - changing within two paragraphs on page 128.

More Skeleton Key mistakes

Other mistake: In chapter 5 Peter slaps his face once with the left hand and once with the right. The only problem is he doesn't have a right hand.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This is false. The first slap was seen through a mirror. So the angle was flipped. But, he indeed hit himself with his same left hand. You can tell because the guy behind him appears over opposite shoulders in both shots, and because the first shot was through a mirror.

No...it's his right hand.

The correction is valid. The first slap is in the mirror. You can tell he slaps himself on the side of his face where his hair is hanging over his eye, which is his left side. When the 2nd slap happens, he slaps the side of his face where his hair is hanging over his eye, which is his left.

Bishop73

More The Lost Symbol mistakes

Other mistake: In chapter 30 of the American hardcover edition, Harry and Hermione find seats in the topmost row at the Quidditch match, but when Hagrid comes to tell them about Grawp he squeezes his way through the row behind them. If Harry and Hermione are in the topmost row, there cannot be a row behind them. (Corrected in later Editions).

More Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix mistakes

Continuity mistake: Just before the end of Chapter 38, Caius looks to Bella and asks her if her daughter is venomous. Right after she responds with a "no" it says that, "Nahuel's head snapped up at Aro's question." Aro was not the one asking the question, it was actually Caius.

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Continuity mistake: In chapter XII "The Tet Breaks", it states that when seeing Eddie's terrible head-wound, Susannah "leaped to her feet and began to scream again." The character of Susannah Dean is missing her lower legs, so there would be no feet to leap to.

More The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower VII mistakes

Plot hole: In the Book "Debt of Honour", Clarke and Chavez use a specially modified flashgun that stuns without killing. Why is this piece of technology not available for their team in Rainbow Six?

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Continuity mistake: On page 85, the first two lines. It's about the otter skin medicine bag. The book says, "the one she had brought with her from the Clan, the one Iza had given her." But when Ayla was pronounced dead by Broud, the new leader, her medicine bag was destroyed.

kh1616

More The Plains of Passage mistakes
More Best Friends mistakes

Continuity mistake: In Ch. 33, the rookie Ron Pulaski thinks about his wife and two kids - his toddler, Brad, who is described as old enough to crawl, and "their newborn daughter". But in Ch. 18 of the previous book, The Twelfth Card,it says Pulaski has one daughter and his wife is pregnant with another child. So the mistake is that the older child ought to be a girl, not a boy.

Aerinah

More The Cold Moon mistakes

Plot hole: The arms dealer tells Special Branch detectives that Charles Calthrop - wrongly suspected to be The Jackal - barely escaped with his life when Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, was assassinated in 1961. "The whole regime collapsed within hours." He tells them, relating how Calthrop was with the Police Minister at the time and had to flee, bribing a fisherman to take him off the island in order to escape the angry mobs of partisans who were rioting in the streets, indiscriminately killing anyone they thought had collaborated with Trujillo's regime. What cobblers. There were no partisans and no riots. Trujillo's regime continued uninterrupted. His brother Hector immediately took power and ruled absolutely and ruthlessly for another eight years. Calthrop would have nothing to worry about unless Trujillo himself had signed his pay cheque. Calthrop's alleged involvement in the assassination is a hugely important plot point as it inadvertently leads to the discovery of the false passport obtained by the Jackal and the uncovering of his false identity, and his name was only placed on file because of his rumoured involvement in events which simply did not take place.

PEDAUNT

More The Day of the Jackal mistakes

Plot hole: Any invisible man would be blind. This is because if your retina in the eye is as transparent as an invisible man's, any image that can form on it will pass right thorough it without generating any vision signal via optic nerve. Thus your brain gets no visual signal if you are invisible.

More The Invisible Man mistakes

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