Short Book Reviews: Great Concepts, Disappointing Execution

Dark Earth, by Rebecca Stott (Random House)

I requested this book from Netgalley based on thedescription. I loved the idea of an underworld of rebel women living secretly amid the ruins.Alas, the opening was so sedate and the characters so bland and unrelatable, Igave up in the middle of the second chapter. There simply wasn’t enough to keepme reading. By contrast, the next book I picked up grabbed me right away, so I sawno reason to take another look.

The Hundred Loves of Juliet, by Evelyn Skye (DelRey)

What a great premise — Romeo and Juliet, reincarnated manytimes over the centuries, always drawn together and always linked in tragedy. Inan added twist, Romeo is immortal and remembers all his previous loves. Heknows, for example, that whoever Juliet is in any given lifetime, she will diewithin two years. Juliet, on the other hand, has no idea of their historytogether. Now in the 21st Century, writer “Juliette” and sea captain“Romeo” find themselves thrown together by fate and consuming attraction. Canthey break the cycle?

Well, maybe, if he would just sit down with her and have acandid conversation. Clearly, he’s failed to do that before, only to watch hisbeloved-of-this-century die, usually horribly. You would think he’d learn fromhis disasters. Of all the failings of a typical romance novel, the stupidity ofkeeping secrets ranks top of my list. Even if “Juliet” thinks he’s delusionaland doesn’t believe him, at least he would have given her a rationale for himwalking away from her. Which he tries to do, but because she has no idea why,it doesn’t work.

I had other quibbles, including the passages supposedlydiaries and so forth from past centuries but laden with contemporarysensibilities, that the heroine tries way too hard to be likeable, that thehero is an example of “female-gaze” and not a real person. Although the proseis for the most part pretty good, it slips into tone deafness all too often.

I suspect that this is a romance with fantastic elements,rather than a reincarnation/time-travel fantasy with a love story, and thatscience fiction/fantasy readers like myself will have a much harder time withit than romance readers. Regardless, I gave up around the 24% mark. I simplydidn’t care what happened next as long as the characters were being sodishonest with each other and themselves.