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Envy (Empty Coffin, #1)

Gregg Olsen

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Feb 12, 2012 Christina rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, mystery, published-2012

I give this book two stars for a interesting concept with the twins power and a awesome cover but that's it because I frankly hated this book with a burning passion.

Reasons I hated it:
The writing is HORRIBLE. Look, I get it, the author is formerly a true crime fiction writer and this is how those books are written. But you know what? This style doesn't work for fiction and definitely doesn't work for YA because it's cold and impersonal and it makes it hard for you to get into the story. Plus the I give this book two stars for a interesting concept with the twins power and a awesome cover but that's it because I frankly hated this book with a burning passion.

Reasons I hated it:
The writing is HORRIBLE. Look, I get it, the author is formerly a true crime fiction writer and this is how those books are written. But you know what? This style doesn't work for fiction and definitely doesn't work for YA because it's cold and impersonal and it makes it hard for you to get into the story. Plus the judgement dripping from every prose made me want to reach in and smack the narrator.

The judgement: This book was judgement city. It was very obvious how the author felt about each person and basically they thought they were slime (they were, but still). I'm sorry but I hate it when authors make their feelings known about stuff. It's annoying. Let me draw my own conclusions please. Also self-insert father who is obviously the author (please don't tell me otherwise, the guy even wrote true crime fiction), you don't exactly have the right to judge reporter girl cause guess what, true crime books kind of exploit people for personal gain too. Spare me your morality. Don't get me started on the judgement parade of teenagers going on in it. Considering teens would be the large part of the audience for this book, I don't understand why the author would choose to do this. I don't know about you but I hate people preaching to me through fiction. It's sort of why I can't get into Christian fiction usually with a few minor exceptions here and there.

The characters: Hated every one of them including the main characters. The only ones I mildly tolerated were the parents but they were so clueless and again, the father was obviously a self insert. The twins were shallow and I felt they were only looking into the death due to a guilty feeling and not for any sort of justice. The "friend" they had was horrible. Starla and her mom need to go die in a fire. Frankly all the characters were two-dimensional and never went beyond their cookie cutter status. I have a hard time getting into books where I hate every character, it's a funny thing I have.

The ending: Wow, way to use the Megan Meier case for your plot author. I'm guessing you didn't ask the parents permission to use it did you? And you have nerve to pass judgement on reporters? Plus the whole explanation for the death was rather stupid.

So yeah, I hated this book. The idea may have been there, but the author completely missed the mark on the enjoyment factor which is something important in fiction and especially in YA. I'd only look into it if you're a uber mystery fan and can tolerate unlikeable characters, bad writing, and ripped-off true story plots then I say check it out from the library. Otherwise, I really wouldn't waste my time with this. ...more

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