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A review by ofliterarynature
Bummed Out City by Scott Burr
3.0
Thanks to artlessdodges for providing a free e-copy for review, I sincerely apologize for this taking so long! (please don’t hate me)
Just to start off, Bummed Out City is completely outside of my reading comfort zone, being neither YA, fantasy, or sci-fi, so I don’t really have a lot of comparison points when rating or talking about it. But now that I’ve mulled over it for a month…and a half (SO SORRY) I’ll keep it short and sweet. All of the characters, even David, I’m afraid, felt pretty flat and one sided – pretty much everyone was there to play one role and one role only, which wasn’t super interesting. Second, every line of dialogue (I mean every) included I say/he says/she says without variation or pause, and it drove me crazy because it kept making my brain skip. It’s too consistent to not be a deliberate choice, but it’s uber distracting.
BUT THE STORY. The failing, twenty-something wannabe author who has no idea what to do with his life? SPOT ON. Count me as both impressed and very terrified at how well Burr managed to translate that to the page (which admittedly slowed my reading down a bit because it was kind of painful). He managed to perfectly play on all of the fears I harbor about graduating and being shoved out into the big, scary world on my own. While the aspiring author angle did feel a little more relevant to me than it may to others, I think the feelings of inadequacy are common enough that other people will probably feel that same emotional punch I did.
TL;DR - A pretty decent book, but not really my thing (or a great comfort read)
Just to start off, Bummed Out City is completely outside of my reading comfort zone, being neither YA, fantasy, or sci-fi, so I don’t really have a lot of comparison points when rating or talking about it. But now that I’ve mulled over it for a month…and a half (SO SORRY) I’ll keep it short and sweet. All of the characters, even David, I’m afraid, felt pretty flat and one sided – pretty much everyone was there to play one role and one role only, which wasn’t super interesting. Second, every line of dialogue (I mean every) included I say/he says/she says without variation or pause, and it drove me crazy because it kept making my brain skip. It’s too consistent to not be a deliberate choice, but it’s uber distracting.
BUT THE STORY. The failing, twenty-something wannabe author who has no idea what to do with his life? SPOT ON. Count me as both impressed and very terrified at how well Burr managed to translate that to the page (which admittedly slowed my reading down a bit because it was kind of painful). He managed to perfectly play on all of the fears I harbor about graduating and being shoved out into the big, scary world on my own. While the aspiring author angle did feel a little more relevant to me than it may to others, I think the feelings of inadequacy are common enough that other people will probably feel that same emotional punch I did.
TL;DR - A pretty decent book, but not really my thing (or a great comfort read)