How I Find a Novel (showing 1-13 of 13)

[Edward comment history]

Because I like to review Gothic novels, what I do is go to the Kindle store, select fiction, then horror, and then sort by publication date. That's how I find what has been newly published.

Unfortunately, most of it is dreck, and by that I mean very poorly edited works, short stories disguised as novels, novellas disguised as novels, silly rip-offs of more famous themes, an endless supply of vampire novels, and terrible formatting. Not to mention, most of the writers simply cannot write and would never have been published in any possible universe. Thank God I can sample before buying.

On top of that, a lot of publications are put out on a monthly basis. In fact, I have to look on a weekly basis or it's simply overwhelming.

I prefer to read novels by new independent author/publishers, but that's not always possible. In fact, it's becoming almost a liability, because if you look here at my reviews,or at my website The Gordon Composition Gothic Novel Review, you will see that the last few novels have been really bad and received low ghost-scores.

I started out looking for diamonds in the publishing rough, but man it's getting hard to find anything. But I still have faith.

If you know of a good novel by a lesser known author, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Edward
The Gordon Composition Gothic Novel Review
www.The-Gordon-Composition.com

[Gatorman comment history]

Try Seed by Ania Ahlborn. It's excellent.

[Edward comment history]

Gatorman wrote: "Try Seed by Ania Ahlborn. It's excellent."

Funny you should say: that's exactly the one I'm reading now. In another week or so, I'll write a review on it.

[Tressa , Moana Lisa comment history]

I am loving Seed. It takes a lot to scare me, but this one has been doing just that.

[Gatorman comment history]

That's how I felt. I thought I was past being scared with the number of spooky and creepy books I've read.

[Tressa , Moana Lisa comment history]

My piddly review can't do Seed justice. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, Gator. There were some hair-raising scenes in it that truly scared me. And I also thought I was inured to the scares in horror novels. Guess not!

[Teawench comment history]

I'm glad to hear that Seed was so well liked. I bought it on a whim for my nook since it was .99. Only problem now is I can't get it to transfer over. :-/

[Gatorman comment history]

Teawench wrote: "I'm glad to hear that Seed was so well liked. I bought it on a whim for my nook since it was .99. Only problem now is I can't get it to transfer over. :-/"

Try powering down the Nook and then re-booting. It always solves that problem for me.

[Gatorman comment history]

Tressa wrote: "My piddly review can't do Seed justice. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, Gator. There were some hair-raising scenes in it that truly scared me. And I also thought I was inured to..."

My pleasure. Always happy to pass on a hidden treasure.

[Teawench comment history]

Gatorman wrote: "Teawench wrote: "I'm glad to hear that Seed was so well liked. I bought it on a whim for my nook since it was .99. Only problem now is I can't get it to transfer over. :-/"

Try powering down the..."

That would be way too easy & not enough fun :-P

Normally I do that. Not sure why I didn't think of that this time. Not enough caffeine flowing through my veins apparently.

[Julian comment history]

Hi Edward

Just checked out your site. It's a really handsome piece of work and it's lovely to read such crisp, thoughtful reviews. Anyway, I'd be delighted if you'd take a glance at my horror novel The Diviners, out on various e-formats. I can give you a code for a copy from Smashwords if you're interested.

Thanks very much

Julian

[Edward comment history]

Julian wrote: "Hi Edward

Just checked out your site. It's a really handsome piece of work and it's lovely to read such crisp, thoughtful reviews. Anyway, I'd be delighted if you'd take a glance at my horror nove..."

Hello Julian,

Thanks for the compliment on my site. I will check out your novel, absolutely. But I don't want a free copy because that tends to bias my reviews. Also, and please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to talk to you anymore about this.

Let me explain: If your book is great, and I give it a great review, we may become lifelong friends. But if your book isn't good, I want to be able to say so without worrying that I'm ruining a friendship. Better that there was never a friendship to begin with; you know?

Take care, Julian. I will definitely be checking out "The Diviners," and I'm quite looking forward to it. If it is something I can review, I'll probably do so after I do "World War Z", by Max Brooks. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Sincerely,

Ed

UPDATE: I checked it out on Kindle and bought a copy. It meets all my initial criteria for Kindle formatting and the product description sounds interesting, so yeah, I'm going to review it. You'll know I'm reading it when you see it on the "What's Next" section of The Gordon Composition Gothic Novel Review. And like I said, I'm going to do it after WWZ.

[Marc-Antoine comment history]

I would love to read a book that could put the fear of god in me, any suggestions?