Dead and Pissed: Not A Good Combo

Okay, yes, I have to admit it right up front: last night I set aside the book I'm working on long enough to read someone else's book for my own edification. To tell the truth, I have to stop writing and read regularly or else I get such severe tunnel vision, I can't see the direction my own story is supposed to take. I just sit and spin in circles, wondering why it isn't working but unable to do anything about it.



And not only that, but reading recharges my emotional batteries. If it's a good book, the conflict, the buildup of tension, and that wonderful climax and oh-so-satisfying resolution just get all my happy creative juices flowing.



Unfortunately, the book I read tonight, though a fairly well written NY print book that got lots of good reviews on Amazon, did none of those things for me. In fact, it did exactly the opposite -- it left me feeling gutted, hopeless and trapped in an endless, barren wasteland. In short, it made me feel dead inside. And yet supremely pissed off at the same time.



Dead and pissed. Bad combo, author. Very bad. (I should have read the bad reviews, too. Dammit, why didn't I read the bad reviews, too?)



There are two main reasons why I feel this way:



1. The author subjected her poor hero and heroine to entirely too much pain and sorrow over the course of the book, and



2. Their resolution was so abbreviated and easy, and so much of their conflict was resolved separately rather than together, that I didn't buy into it. NOT. AT. ALL. I felt totally cheated.



I should have known when they had their HEA at the halfway point that things were about to go to hell. They'd worked so hard and overcome so much already, and they were so madly in love, so meant for each other, yada, yada, yada... And then BAM! BAM! BAM! One fucking tragedy after another, just angst and more angst piled on top of trauma and heartache and loss. Toss in an evil schemer actively working to stick it to both of them, and I just felt like I'd been put through absolute hell by the time it was over.



The heroine wound up being so dramatically changed by all the events of the story, it was like she was a completely different person at the end. She wasn't the heroine I'd fallen in love with. She'd suffered too much, lost too much, and was too hopelessly bound up in her pain and fear.



And yet her issues were basically resolved in one page. ONE. FUCKING. PAGE. After hundreds of pages of pain and suffering.



Can you say UNFULFILLED?! Jesus, throw me a bone here, author -- I know you're just as tired of this convoluted damn story as I am, but you need to balance all that terrible heartache with a longer, deeper resolution. He should have had to work harder and not just make a token gesture. She should have punished him a little more, even if he didn't necessarily deserve it, because by God, she'd SUFFERED for his decision. She suffered a HELL of a lot more than he did, and dammit, I wanted to feel his love more, to feel that he would go through anything to get her back. He paid lip service to it, but I didn't get to see him actually do it.



Oh, there was a happy enough prologue, but not anywhere close to the one I'd hoped for. That little slice of life, however much later it was, wouldn't have counted even if it felt realistic. I wanted to see her in the process of healing, not just all healed up.



/rant



*deep cleansing breath*



Now that I've purged my ire and cleansed my lungs, I have to admit this is a good lesson for me in what NOT to do in my own books. I just need to come back here and read this post periodically as a reminder.



Now quick, someone recommend a wonderful book for me to read! Something that will make me sigh with happiness when it's over.