Night Life (Nocturne City, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jan 14, 2014 Susan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

The following might contain spoilers, but read knowing that I only read the first chapter. I also make reference to two other series/books (Anita Blake series and Dead Witch Walking) but only passing comments that do not spoil the entire series/book). But know that I do mention them, so read this review if you choose.

Also, please no comments chiding me for not finishing the book. I gave the book as much of a chance as I am going to and read one chapter. It annoyed me so much that I don't want to The following might contain spoilers, but read knowing that I only read the first chapter. I also make reference to two other series/books (Anita Blake series and Dead Witch Walking) but only passing comments that do not spoil the entire series/book). But know that I do mention them, so read this review if you choose.

Also, please no comments chiding me for not finishing the book. I gave the book as much of a chance as I am going to and read one chapter. It annoyed me so much that I don't want to waste time reading a book that will just bother me. Take this review with that in mind...I didn't finish it. This review is also a record for myself that I didn't like it, but others might like to know about the issues I had with just the first chapter.

After reading the first chapter of this book, I've decided to not continue reading. One reason is that this book is just not well written. I guess I used to be able to overlook that, or I didn't notice it, or perhaps other books in the genre were actually better, but who knows? I just can’t read these painful sentences that are clipped, without beauty, and just blah. Some are offensive. Some are just poor attempts at humor or character development. Other than the sexism in Night Life’s Luna’s workplace (police station), she makes a comment like this in reference to sexually harassing comments from a coworker: “I tend to have that effect on men [GIVE me a BREAK], even when it’s 3 AM and I’m wearing raggedy blue jeans and a T-shirt stained with fingerprinting ink. Not my off-duty attire to be sure, but you try cleaning blood out of a silk halter.” So what am I to glean from this statement? Yes, she’s attractive, but apparently she only attracts assholes and offensive men. She cannot get respect from her coworkers, so they must be the stereotypical asshole cops [that is really overdone lately]. So in this environment, we’re supposed to congratulate her for not kicking their asses? However, because she’s a were she does exactly that to the cop who touches her ass. And we’re to assume that she has tolerated this behavior why? What has kept her there where she endures this crap? Is this just how everyone is in her world? Is there a reason she can’t get hired elsewhere? There is nothing provided to explain why she hasn't tried to expect that the people she works with, and supposed to trust, act like decent people? And then there’s her “off-duty” clothing…a silk halter that gets stained with blood? This is interesting and perhaps my reading the other day influenced my hatred of this line, but in the Dead Witch Walking book [only first couple of pages, so no real spoiler here], the main character is ALSO wearing a halter, which of course, gets her mistaken for a hooker. No kidding. With that prior knowledge, my own hatred of the supposed need to dress women up like strippers in these books in some vain attempt to give them an edge or make them *hip* or something makes me hate this line in this book. What, they can’t wear a regular t shirt and jeans with athletic shoes? One thing I liked about the Anita Blake series (in the beginning) is that she wore professional office attire. Granted, it was mostly black because she got stained with blood a lot, but it was better than a halter top. For the Luna character in Night Life, what are we to learn from her usual clothing choices? I don’t get anything positive from that, unfortunately.

Her character isn't an appealing one. She would choose to fix a scratch she got on her black car with “Black Magick nail polish” as opposed to, I don't know - get it properly repainted or fixed? And she resorted to kicking the car belonging to the person parked in her spot (who we're to assume caused her to park like a idiot in a space her car could not fit, therefore scratching her car).

Oh, and then there’s one line that really got under my skin. This line occurred right after she zoned out thinking about the phrasing of putting down a were, because she is secretly a were, but the coroner’s comment got to her. “I put my attention back on Dr. Kronen. ‘Hmm?’ Great, could I manage to seem like more of an airhead?”

The line was okay up until this point. Yeah, her behavior might have seemed flighty. Let it go at that. But nope, Kittredge had to include this line: “Maybe if I showed up for work tomorrow in a pink sweater set.” Are you kidding me? A pink sweater set is synonymous with airhead? So how is that worse than a silk halter top stained with blood? Such a comment does tell us about the character, but the only thing I've learned by this point is that I really dislike this girl and don’t care to see her overcome her mistreatment and even think she brought some of it on herself with her attitude and actions. So, yeah. I won’t be reading this stupid book because I don’t like the character and don't want to follow the story line. The world seemed interesting when I read the map in the front of the book, but…nope.
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