Kelly Washington's Blog: Small Fiction, page 5

The Returned, by Jason Mott (A Review) (2.5 Stars)

 

All over the world people’s loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it’s a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he’s their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

The premise of this story is utterly fantastic and I read, recently, in PEOPLE Magazine that Mr. Mott’s debut novel was film/TV optioned by Brad Pitt’s company. This is a good thing because I think the film adaptation will be better than the actual book itself.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to like this story.

     But I didn’t.

((Spoilers Ahead))

Nothing really happens — And So Much Could Have. This Could Have Been A Great-Great-Great Book.

I felt that Mr. Mott didn’t want the book to be about religion. And it wasn’t. I felt that he didn’t want it to be Political. And it wasn’t. I felt that he wanted it to be a quiet book about a couple in their 70′s that lost their 8-year-old son, Jacob, 50 years earlier who, suddenly, appears on the doorstep with a Government Agent. I have no doubt that parents and loved ones wish for this very fact each and every day.

The plot was great. Execution… well…

I wanted fireworks. I wanted questions. I wanted answers. But not much really happens. Harold Hargrave (Jacob’s dad) doesn’t want the boy. “He isn’t my son” but his wife, Lucille, does.

I kept thinking: Jacob is still eight. His parents are in their 70′s. If I were Jacob, I wouldn’t want to stay with them. They would be strangers to me. But, I digress. This isn’t my main issue with the story.

The Government Agent (Martin Bellamy) gets to know the family, because, you know, there’s a stack of paperwork to fill out. No one asks Jacob how he returned, why he’s returned, or what he knows. And if it is asked, it’s so glossed over and not answered, that many of the scenes do not add to the story whatsoever. Do you want to know what I’ve would have done instantly? I would have dug up that boy’s grave to find out if a body was still there.

Instead Harold Hargrave avoids the boy about as much as Lucille never lets Jacob leave her sight (which made sense, all things considered about this death). And Jacob’s a good boy. Always yes, ma’am this and yes, sir that. But that’s it. Jacob Hargrave # 2 doesn’t have a personality (except his love for candy). No character. Even when Jacob and Harold are locked up by the Bureau of the Returned, it’s just accepted by every single person in the world, Lucille, and the town of Arcadia. It’s nice, however, that Lucille is able to bring them food and fresh clothing. So, there’s that.

A couple of individuals (Fred Green and a few other misfits) have heartburn about The Returned, but their anger doesn’t seem real. It’s mostly juvenile-style actions they take against The Returned (the Wilson family sort of comes out of the blue in the story with zero introduction before that Church scene), and the Hargrave family.

Even Colonel Wallis (once the military roles into town) seems like a menacing guy without much substance behind it. There are a few military-style interrogation scenes that could have ramped up the tension.

Near the end, as violence comes into play, I had hoped that the ending would be explosive (figuratively speaking) in that, once all is revealed, the quietness of the book would make sense; that it was lulling me into a false sense of security. But it ends just as quietly as it begins. There is one part, however, when Jacob Hargrave’s “soliloquy” finally comes at the end, that a couple of things made sense about the river, music, and why the boy might have gone to the river on the day he died, and I was like: “Aha – this should have been closer to the front of the book, not at the end.”

After I finished reading and placed the book down, I was let down by the novel. Was the story about love, parental love, and the love Agent Martin Bellamy had for his own mother?

Yes.

Was it about The Returned?

No.

We never find out why they returned, how they returned, and, after everything ends, why they’ve disappeared into thin air. I felt zero resolution from start to finish.

Was the story about fear? Fear of the unknown?

Yes.

The reaction by many of The True Living was caused by fear. For the few months that The Returned were back and living on this Earth, they were not treated as equal citizens, rounded up, and some, killed.

My disappointment with the book is that I hoped and expected a different kind of story. It wasn’t that story.

If you enjoy quiet, slow-building novels, then I would recommend The Returned to you. If you enjoy fast-paced, tension-filled, suspenseful narratives with an edge to them, then you may not enjoy The Returned.

 

 

Doodle Saturday

Any day is a doodle day when I have the kiddo next to me and my Paper53 app up and running. I’m not the greatest doodler, but my son thinks I am, so it is no wonder that most of my doodles are for him, on characters he reads, or subjects he likes (like Ironman).

Marc Brown’s “Arthur” visited our house!!

 

To the left you’ll see Arthur, Marc Brown’s famous children’s series. The kiddo loves this series (we do, too) and so I drew this up for my son (whose name is Christian).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is the Froggy series.

Jonathon London’s “Froggy” came to our house!

 

We’ve recently discovered the Froggy books by Jonathon London. Just adorable, funny, and the kiddo likes the scraps Froggy gets into. So a couple of days ago I drew this right after we read “Froggy Goes To Hawaii”. As you can see by the shirt, it is a vacation book.

That’s it for today. I might have an excerpt from my LOVE ME series up today. I’m hard at work on book four!! FOUR!! I’m at 109,000 words right now (in total). I think my brain is seeping out because I can’t believe I’ve written 109,000 words this year.

Thankfully I have hot coffee to fuel me. Coffee, I love you.

You know those good intentions you planned…?

My fabulous editor, Susan Gottfried, recently sent back some edits and I’m about to start working on re-writing the parts she (rightly) dinged me on. Susan is a great editor and I completely recommend her. Make sure to check out her website to see what she edits.

Anyway, my intent was to do a complete edit of her edits over July 4th Holiday, but another story captured my attention and I put the edits aside and continued to work on my LOVE ME series (currently writing book 4). However, good intentions can’t make me productive. ha! My mind was torn between both stories: the one I needed to edit and the one I needed to write.

So what did I do? Poured myself a glass of wine (um, maybe several glasses) and read THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley. Which, if you haven’t read, you should!

Not a bad way to go when every plan you, well, planned fails. Not a bad way to go, at all.

 

My Current Book Hangover – SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo

Okay, I’m *finally* getting to reading a few books on my TBR pile and I picked up SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo last night.

Big frickin mistake because I stayed up WAAYYYY to late reading it (I got 1/2 way through) and I have a book hangover.

What’s a book hangover?

It’s where you keep reading “just one more chapter” and then I’ll go to sleep. I have “four hours until I *have* to wake up — let me read just one more frickin awesome chapter”.

And this is a good book. Okay, let me amend that: it’s a *really* good book. Probably the best I’ve read all year, and I’m not even done reading it yet.

So, yeah, go buy this book. The sequel came out a few weeks ago. I know what I’ll be doing very shortly: buying the second book.

 

(SPOILER)

Oh, and I’m a pretty good judge of books and how I think they’ll end up. While I have a good idea of how this book will end, I was caught off-guard (in a good way) when The Darkling kisses Alina.

 

Romance, Erotic Romance, and Erotica… the difference?

Under my Kelly Washington alias I write both Erotic Romance and Erotica. There is a difference and, depending on the author, it might not be that much of a difference. She might want a happily ever after (aka, HEA), thus classifying it under the Erotic Romance because her two characters (regardless of gender) fall in love, are already in love, or the elements of their sexy time, while erotically charged and explicit, are loving and tender.

Most of my titles fall under the Erotic Romance category. I don’t think I’m giving much away by stating that my characters love each other (secretly) and my stories — hopefully — illustrate this. Is there sex? Hell ya! That’s the fun part, I think. Right?

However, one title (to date) really isn’t Erotic Romance. It’s full-on-in-your-face Erotica. So why the difference? Because the sex is the plot of the entire short story. Almost every scene revolves around these two characters having sex, thinking about sex, and having more sex.

Which title is it, you wonder? (You are wondering, right?)

Tabatha On Fire

The e-book cover pretty much sums up what type of story it is, right? Why did I choose this cover? (actually, I changed the cover three times before this one) It’s sexy. It’s sultry. It’s sensual. It’s hot (hawt!). And it conveys that this story *might* contain characters with little to no clothing.

Even with this cover, I’d say this story isn’t one of my top sellers. Why? I don’t know, to be honest. It might be because many of my readers prefer a loving erotic romance versus straight sex and nothing more. Maybe it isn’t that great of a premise for a story. Maybe my characters aren’t easy to relate to. Could be all of that, none of that, or something else. Maybe you, my dear reader, hate the name Tabatha…

It’s all an experiment for me. An experiment that I love doing. I wrote Tabatha on Fire a year ago. It’s been a fun year with other stories after this one. I’m learning the ropes. I’m having fun. And I get to dream about, think about, and write about hawt sex!

Can it get any better?

Um, no.

So whether you enjoy Erotic Romance or straight up Erotica, I hope I have you covered.

A character sketch of ROLAND

This is Roland, the male lead in my LOVE ME/SAVE ME series (currently in the works). Roland is scarred from a fire. A good portion of his face (seen here), his chest, and back are all scarred.

Would like to know your thoughts!!!

An Ironman Doodle I made with my kiddo

An Ironman Doodle

I drew an older version of Ironman from a comic image.

A sketch of my character, Roland

Meet Roland, one of the main men in one of my upcoming romance series

Woo Hoo - I've gotten an actual review of one of my stories

Folks, friends, strangers!!! Today is a happy day for me, and I'll tell you why, but with a small bit of background first:

I rarely check my stats on Amazon, GoodReads, Smashwords. I just write and keep writing and hope that I become a better story-teller. Today, however, I checked my Amazon stats and I have a review! And not just a rating, but an actual review to go along with it. Wow, thank you!!!

It is a very valid review and the gentleman rated my story at 2 stars but he wrote in constructive and valid points about my story and for that I am very thankful to him! THANK YOU! I love feedback and because of his honest review I know I need to take another look at the story and make it better.

Great day, folks, great day!

Kelly