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What are you reading Wednesday
Aug. 12th, 2015 08:28 amNot going to bother listing the exact names because it doesn't actually matter (I will get around to "Go Set a Watchmen" eventually but haven't so far). I did have a bit of musing about what I've read lately though, mainly wondering how did I end up with books where people suffer so damn much? I realize part of it is that I'm cheap and have been reading Kindle-reads that are sometimes self-published or little niche publishers. The last two books I've read in their entirety were one or the other (haven't bothered to check which). Both had writers that were acceptable but oh-good-gracious they could have used editors. That's what's often missing in cheap self-published or quickie-published Kindles -- real editing. In the cases of these two books, I'm not complaining about grammar or typos. Both were as good in regards to grammar and typos as most professional stuff published for Kindle. What both these books needed was someone to advise the writers who had talent but not the skill to recognize when less was more, when more is more, and passive voice isn't doing the subject justice.
Book 1 Suffered "Return of the King"-itis. What I mean by that is that I remember when "LOTR: Return of the King" came out and there were complaints about how it had so many endings. It had multiple places where there could have been an end but, no, there was another endingto follow, and one more right behind that until you started to wonder -- is this the end? Am I still waiting?
This book suffered the same problem. It had more endings than it needed. Oh, and it piled misery on its heroine. Why stop at one or two tragedies when there can be an endless avalanche of them?
The heroine had an abusive father...so abusive that she stopped talking for 4 years. She was also horrifically bullied by her peers, and she was raped at the age of 13. The rapist scarred her face for life. And she got pregnant from the rape and had to hide it from her father for fear he would kill her over it.)
And that's before the novel started!
That's not the endless endings.
The endless endings (in a Medieval story)included: 1) "Happy ending" romantically.
2) Husband was taken hostage (by a Lord who just happened to have been her rapist). But, she rescues her husband and kills her rapist.
3) Happy ending and she's pregnant with her husband's child, but her abusive father resurfaces, but is taken care of.
4) But then her abusive father burns down the house.
5) The abusive father, his lover, and his minion escapes, but the father is killed. Still -- just to be safe -- the husband searches for the other two villains.... and the hero and heroine are separated for 8 months!
6) So the villainess, who followed the heroine, waits around for 7 months to then give the heroine some herb to abort the baby (why she wouldn't have been done way back when...well, it wouldn't make nearly the same tragedy, would it?) So at 9 months she nearly dies during the birthing process and the villainess is caught.
7) After a horrifying illness after nearly bleeding out (and thinking her baby had died) we get happy ending. And... was it the last ending? There was still one last villain roaming free. But, unlike all the others, this one must have finally decided that it wasn't worth dying to exact revenge. The book ends on ending 7 with the last villain still out there somewhere.
Really, the strongest ending was the one where the heroine rescued her husband and killed her rapist. Why there needed to be multiple endings after that, I seriously don't know.
I think an editor could have helped this writer with the abusive overkill and the multiple endings. Her characters were sympathetic and her dialog manageable (though she evangelized too much for a book that wasn't pitched at a religious market) but it was just too much abuse and too many endings.
The next book also suffered for abusing the heroine too damn much (though the way it was presented all in summary during a belated meltdown didn't make the abuse seem quite so oppressive as in the previous book). It was a curious book in that it seemed to spend as much or more time on a secondary character than on the hero or the heroine. (I thought there must be a book about this secondary character, but if there is one it hasn't been released as yet). The hero and heroine were both likable yet believably flawed. And when the heroine fell into a (near suicidal) depression it didn't seem overkill because it fit her situation in a believable way. If you were her and had been through what she had been through and had that sort of infection and blood loss and had at long last reached a situation where her daughter was safe and well cared for, then it was easy to believe the belated meltdown. She was actually free enough to lose her shit at that point. But, again, looking back the heroine actually had suffered TOO much abuse. Still, because of the way it was done that wasn't my biggest criticism. The problem with this one was using passive voice too often and too many events taking place off stage. There was a three year gap in the narrative where things happened that they simply skipped but were there to cause events in part three that were actually less involving than the accident in the three year gap that they skipped.
In summation, I can see potential in both authors. Their 'voices' weren't bad and their characters were sympathetic. However, they desperately needed editors to tell them when to cut down on some stuff and when to fill in on others. And where the stronger end to a story might be.
What am I reading next? After listening to Smart Bitches' pod cast the other week I'm waffling between The Other Daughter and The Lure of the Moonflower. Both are by the same author.
Book 1 Suffered "Return of the King"-itis. What I mean by that is that I remember when "LOTR: Return of the King" came out and there were complaints about how it had so many endings. It had multiple places where there could have been an end but, no, there was another endingto follow, and one more right behind that until you started to wonder -- is this the end? Am I still waiting?
This book suffered the same problem. It had more endings than it needed. Oh, and it piled misery on its heroine. Why stop at one or two tragedies when there can be an endless avalanche of them?
The heroine had an abusive father...so abusive that she stopped talking for 4 years. She was also horrifically bullied by her peers, and she was raped at the age of 13. The rapist scarred her face for life. And she got pregnant from the rape and had to hide it from her father for fear he would kill her over it.)
And that's before the novel started!
That's not the endless endings.
The endless endings (in a Medieval story)included: 1) "Happy ending" romantically.
2) Husband was taken hostage (by a Lord who just happened to have been her rapist). But, she rescues her husband and kills her rapist.
3) Happy ending and she's pregnant with her husband's child, but her abusive father resurfaces, but is taken care of.
4) But then her abusive father burns down the house.
5) The abusive father, his lover, and his minion escapes, but the father is killed. Still -- just to be safe -- the husband searches for the other two villains.... and the hero and heroine are separated for 8 months!
6) So the villainess, who followed the heroine, waits around for 7 months to then give the heroine some herb to abort the baby (why she wouldn't have been done way back when...well, it wouldn't make nearly the same tragedy, would it?) So at 9 months she nearly dies during the birthing process and the villainess is caught.
7) After a horrifying illness after nearly bleeding out (and thinking her baby had died) we get happy ending. And... was it the last ending? There was still one last villain roaming free. But, unlike all the others, this one must have finally decided that it wasn't worth dying to exact revenge. The book ends on ending 7 with the last villain still out there somewhere.
Really, the strongest ending was the one where the heroine rescued her husband and killed her rapist. Why there needed to be multiple endings after that, I seriously don't know.
I think an editor could have helped this writer with the abusive overkill and the multiple endings. Her characters were sympathetic and her dialog manageable (though she evangelized too much for a book that wasn't pitched at a religious market) but it was just too much abuse and too many endings.
The next book also suffered for abusing the heroine too damn much (though the way it was presented all in summary during a belated meltdown didn't make the abuse seem quite so oppressive as in the previous book). It was a curious book in that it seemed to spend as much or more time on a secondary character than on the hero or the heroine. (I thought there must be a book about this secondary character, but if there is one it hasn't been released as yet). The hero and heroine were both likable yet believably flawed. And when the heroine fell into a (near suicidal) depression it didn't seem overkill because it fit her situation in a believable way. If you were her and had been through what she had been through and had that sort of infection and blood loss and had at long last reached a situation where her daughter was safe and well cared for, then it was easy to believe the belated meltdown. She was actually free enough to lose her shit at that point. But, again, looking back the heroine actually had suffered TOO much abuse. Still, because of the way it was done that wasn't my biggest criticism. The problem with this one was using passive voice too often and too many events taking place off stage. There was a three year gap in the narrative where things happened that they simply skipped but were there to cause events in part three that were actually less involving than the accident in the three year gap that they skipped.
In summation, I can see potential in both authors. Their 'voices' weren't bad and their characters were sympathetic. However, they desperately needed editors to tell them when to cut down on some stuff and when to fill in on others. And where the stronger end to a story might be.
What am I reading next? After listening to Smart Bitches' pod cast the other week I'm waffling between The Other Daughter and The Lure of the Moonflower. Both are by the same author.
