What do you focus on when reading a fiction book?

White space. Easy on the eyes.

How well the story sticks together, how it flows, how the plot develops. If it doesn’t have a life, I’m going to bail.

I tend to focus on plot and writing style.

I don’t compartmentalise, it comes together as a whole, or not.

It’s the narrative. There’s a lot of visualization required of a reader engrossed in a ripping good yarn. The great works are those where the writing is so good that you forget to critique and pick at flaws.

Enjoying it.

I like a book that I can immerse myself in, like getting lost in a forest. If it’s a struggle to read, I don’t enjoy it. #1 is it has to be enjoyable (shout out to @janbb).

I step into the story. By stepping in, I mean that I become immersed in the world that the story create and I feel a wrench when I step out of the story. I struggle to enjoy it if I can’t do this.

You mean a novel? All of the elements you mentioned are important, not in the sense that I’m examining them all the time that I’m reading, but in the sense that if any one of them is crafted poorly, I will be taken out of the experience and the novel will not be enjoyable.