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Yuck. Sounds crazy. Hope that improves very soon.
Just started another friend's book because, well, I must be a masochist (not)
by Regan Black. I have been meaning and wanting to read this book for about a year now. I think I just finally got around to downloading a copy this summer, though. I had no idea it was #4 in the series when I started reading it. I remembered to add it to my "currently reading" shelf and was surprised to see it was not the first book of the series. The MC was introduced so smoothly, and the opening scene is so nice and gritty (like a classic gumshoe detective novel despite this being Urban Fantasy). This is a pleasant surprise and kind of like "brain bleach" for the poor writing in the previous book I was trying to read. (ETA: I never ever read UF and hate paranormal so I'm pleasantly surprised to be liking this so much despite it being an UF / paranormal *lol*)-sry
"Brain bleach" - hilarious! I'd tell your other friend that you prefer not to post a review until the book is properly edited, and tell her that the story idea is good (I think you said it was) but the editing needs help.
Vered wrote: ""Brain bleach" - hilarious! I'd tell your other friend that you prefer not to post a review until the book is properly edited, and tell her that the story idea is good (I think you said it was) but..."Thanks, Vered. Unfortunately, she thinks it already *is* edited. In fact, (gulp) she told me on Twitter that she used to WORK as an editor. That really floored me and made me less forgiving when it came to grammatical and structural issues.
I wish I could lay claim to coining the term "brain bleach" but alas, I didn't get there first ;-) it's one of my favorites, though.
Anyone else have a thought about how to handle the sticky situation with a friend's book? (good question, generally, isn't it?)
-sry
I finished
yestarday, and I loved it. And currently I'm almost half way thru
@ Sarah... I guess it depends entirely on what kind of friend it is... I tend to be brutally honest no matter who... and my closer friends are the same with me...I've had 2 friends who returned a book and apologised, saying they simply couldn't get into it... and then devoured the next suggestion... Reading is largely a personal choice...
Its my number one question when asked for a recommendation - what kind of book do you enjoy? What genre's have you already tried?... and then I try to recommend from there... But its still not a guaranteed success.
And being the bitch that I am, if your friend gets miffy with you for having a different opinion, then you don't really need that kind of negativity...
but then, I'm a grumpy reclusive antisocial... ;D
Jax wrote: "@ Sarah... I guess it depends entirely on what kind of friend it is... I tend to be brutally honest no matter who... and my closer friends are the same with me...I've had 2 friends who returned a ..."
Haha, Jax, thank you for saying this. That's kind of me, too, but I definitely do not like to hurt anyone's feelings. I care about making someone feel badly even if I'm being honest...it makes me feel badly to know I have hurt their feelings. It won't stop me from having an opinion but that's why I offer the option of "no review" versus "bad review." The whole, If you cannot say something nice, better to say nothing at all. theory.
I don't know her very well, but did like her. Unfortunately, I think the problem is she's not a very good writer (or maybe it's just lack of experience). Far worse IMO is the fact the so-called editors left grammatical, structural and basic punctuation "mistakes" in place--so obviously, not mistakes, just ignorance.
I mean, when the same error is repeated, it's not a mistake, right? Or I'd be inclined to conclude from the repetition that the person actually believes that *is* the correct way to say/punctuate/spell things. That's the part I cannot possibly say in a nice way so it'll make her rating and review negative.
I think I'm going to stick with the "no review" path.
-sry
Just finished
and was expecting more from the last book of the trilogy
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Jax wrote: "@ Sarah... I guess it depends entirely on what kind of friend it is... I tend to be brutally honest no matter who... and my closer friends are the same with me...I've had 2 friends who..."
Hmm... Then perhaps point out both the good and the bad.
Was the premise of the story good?
And then give your opinion on where improvements could be made.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a "bad" review.
But constructive criticism could go a long way to helping her improve....
In cases like this, I usually try and explain why I didn't really enjoy the book. even if its just me pointing out that it really isn't my cup of tea...
Just finished
and 3/4's of the way through
;D
(5 stars) and am starting two books:
and
Finished
Although still a nice read, I must say there's no characters' growth whatsoever. So I'll take a break before reading the fifth in the series and I'll read
instead.
I'm currently about half way into
. Reminds me of a tamed down version of the movie Species
Ok, quite a list to add here:
and
and
and
and
Just finished:
- Absolutely hilarious!About to start:
Just finished
and loved it! Not sure what I'm gonna start next
Flora, did you read
? Just finished it and loved it. I'm now reading
and it's quite a different take on the steampunk theme.
Wow, Monica is really going into steampunk! Did you finish the Parasol Protectorate series? I'm going to treat myself for my birthday (which happens to be Christmas as well) and get the whole set.
Monica wrote: "Flora, did you read ? Just finished it and loved it. I'm now reading and it's quite a different take on the steampunk theme."No, I haven't read that but will have to look into it :)
Monica wrote: "Flora, did you read ? Just finished it and loved it. I'm now reading and it's quite a different take on the steampunk theme."Did you write a review?
Flora wrote: "Monica wrote: "Flora, did you read ? Just finished it and loved it. I'm now reading and it's quite a different take on the st..."No, so far I've only given ratings to the books I've read.
Vered wrote: "Wow, Monica is really going into steampunk! Did you finish the Parasol Protectorate series? I'm going to treat myself for my birthday (which happens to be Christmas as well) and get the whole set."I'haven't read the fifth one yet. Taking a break from it, because around the fourth I've noticed there's no characters' growth. Although still a great series, I'd like to see something changing in the interaction between the main characters.
Good to know. Still, I'm going to gift the rest of the series to me for my birthday - yeah! Right now, am reading the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series.
Vered wrote: "Good to know. Still, I'm going to gift the rest of the series to me for my birthday - yeah! Right now, am reading the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series."Despite what I said, it's a series to have. What do you think of Catching Fire so far?
OMG - I could not put Catching Fire down! I finished it this morning over breakfast, pretty much ignoring my kids who, fortunately, were also fixated on their books! YIKES! I'm so glad I already have #3 downloaded...
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Monica wrote: "First, I want to say that until a few months ago I never started a book I didn't finish reading. Then, I found the one (I won't give the title, but suffice to say it was so atrocious..."Still trying to read and like some of hers. My main problem with her writing is that her characters are too cinic. Maybe I wasn't patient enough and I should have read at least one story from beginning to end, but I couldn't.
Vered wrote: "OMG - I could not put Catching Fire down! I finished it this morning over breakfast, pretty much ignoring my kids who, fortunately, were also fixated on their books! YIKES! I'm so glad I already ha..."Then I'm curious to know what do you think of the final act :)
Stopped reading
, the idea was great: post-apocalyptic steampunk dystopia, but then there's some zombie romance and I'm out. There was something childish about the writing, or maybe all the characters said and did the same things, adults and teens alike. Not sure. Reading now
and it's very dark and moody. Another great concept: immagine two people living in the same body until one of the two fades from existence. What happens when they both survive? There're a few things in the setting that don't convince me, but let's see if the author delivers. Next, I'm very excited for
!
I'm about half way thru
. Which is really good so far. I'm also reading
and also
Finshed
and although the idea is interesting, I wasn't left with the urge of reading the rest of the series. Next are, our very book of the month
and
because I'm on steampunk withdrawal :)
Just finished
It's fun and made me smile.About to start
I'm almos half way thru
and this has been a fun read so far.
I just finished
and this author-friend has completely blown me away. Regan Black and I met on Twitter a year or so ago and have been tweeting but I never read any of her work until this past month. Wow. Brain bleach for the last friend's book I was reading. Check out my review on my blog or you can check it out right here on Goodreads, since you're already here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/442091006
Also, be sure to enter the
giveaway now - ends at midnight Monday, 11/19, and winners will be announced on my Tuesday Tip blog. Regan's giving away 2 copies of Tracking Shadows (Book 4) and 1 copy of the "set" that includes Books 1, 2 and 3 and two short stories in the series world. I have not read any of those five stories (yet).http://webbiegrrl.blogspot.com/p/giveaways.html
-sry
@webbiegrrl
Over the past couple weeks, I've read:
,
, (loved them both!) 
(ok),
(seriously spooky) and
(wonderful).
Finished
and loved it. Started
and it's great fun
Finished
and really liked it.I've just started
which I'm finding very boring and dry so far. I hope it gets better. I'm also reading
which is gonna be a fun read I can tell already. And I'm reading
which is also good so far.
Flora, I'm curious to know your final verdict about Casual Vacancy.
Monica wrote: "Flora, I'm curious to know your final verdict about Casual Vacancy."I'm about half way thru it so I should have a review in a couple of days. But at the moment I'm finding it all a bit boring.
Just finished
and loved it!About to start
Finished both
and
and loved them. Reading
and allow me some shameless promotion, but all the proceeds go to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCDAV) so it is for a worthy cause :)
Just finished
and WOW. So, so good. And heartbreaking.Starting
Hi - just finished a few books:
- fun and interesting twist on the Butterfly effect (recommended for any light SciFi buffs)
- if you like the Night Huntress series, you may like this one
- LOVED THIS! Like X-Men, but better, highly recommend it
- Loved this one too! moody, well written, unusual dystopian / SciFi, highly recommend it!
Vered wrote: "Hi - just finished a few books: - fun and interesting twist on the Butterfly effect (recommended for any light SciFi buffs) - if you like ..."Just read Kimberly's short in the Christmas Lites anthology and I thought it was nice and left me curious for some more.
Reviews for the Literary Inclined
Books mentioned in this topic
Fyre (other topics)After The Ending (other topics)
Black Mamba (other topics)
The Wedding Shroud (other topics)
EVERWUD The TREE, The BOY & The DOG (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Regan Black (other topics)Richelle Mead (other topics)
Do you write a bad review? Do you decline to review it at all? Do you even tell your friend, "I didn't like it because.... and explain what bugged you?
I couldn't keep plodding through the numerous grammatical mistakes in this book (it was sentence structure and verb tenses) because I had to read things 3-4 times just to comprehend what she was saying. It completely disrupted any "flow" of the story that might have existed--and the story didn't flow all that well from the halfway point forward either, given she has increased the frequency of the time/POV scene changes to flashback/forward between the two times set 5 years apart. It's awkwardly done and driving me to distraction. Add to that I'm a speed reader and dyslexic so whenever I hit one of those erroneously constructed sentences that I have to read repeatedly to comprehend, it's like a speed bump at about 250 mph (regular typos are like speed bumps at 100 mph). It tosses me out of the story completely, maybe irrevocably, given I decided to "not finish" this book.
Advice on how to handle the review would be appreciated. I'm tempted to just not say anything more. I deliberately did not add the stasuses to my Twitter feed and have only written statuses which I'm tempted to delete. Oh, she did have one other review that complained about this exact same problem--grammatical errors making it impossible to read--but the rest of the reviews are glowing 4- and 5-star reviews. Not sure what to make of that. Even setting aside the grammar, punctuation and other editorial errors, the storyline, itself, is a bit immature in voice, leans a bit to the melodramatic. Maybe it's supposed to be a YA novel? I thought it was a romantic suspense for grownups but I see some of hte reviewers talking about a Christian Inspirational meme. At 47% through that has yet to show up (only a new villain was introduced at 45% through). She's doing a lot of the newbie mistake of thinking if she withholds information, that makes it suspenseful. If I write a review, I feel compelled to note that, too.
I don't seem to have much "good" to say about this book. I've shelved it "did not finish" - anything else I should do?
-sry