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A review by secre
Suitcase Girl by Ty Hutchinson
2.0
This is one of those annoying books that doesn't actually end, it just... stops. It doesn't explain anything. It might as well be a prequel to the main event... just a three hundred page one. It also doesn't seem to know where to place itself - in some ways it's a crime thriller, in other ways it is venturing into science fiction. Now, I have nothing against science fiction, but it just didn't seem to fit here. It rang false and seemed out of place.
Whilst there's an interesting premise here, I don't think I will bother reading the rest of the trilogy for several reasons. First, I don't like feeling short-changed, and that's what this book did to me. It finishes and you turn the page expecting and... there's nothing there. If your narrative takes you more than one book, you need a good editor. If you are writing a trilogy, you need three individual narratives that tie together. This novel definitely doesn't manage that. Certainly the end of this one is virtually the in-breath to the beginning of the second and I'm not willing to play.
Secondly, the science fiction elements and full on shoot out aspects didn't work for me individually, let alone together. The author seemed to have missed a key sensor on realism here, and there were just too many moments where I was sat wondering what the hell this guy was smoking. Think James Bond, crank it up a few steps and add in some random DNA stuff that isn't quite cloning but probably isn't far off... in fact, it's probably even more advanced than cloning and we haven't even got that right yet with humans. Finally, this seemed to be trying to do too many things at the same time. It's trying to be action-adventure, psychological thriller and science fiction and the author just hasn't managed to combine the three properly. Instead it feels clumsy and I couldn't hold my suspension of disbelief... and my suspension of disbelief factor is pretty damn high. This just killed it.
Whilst there's an interesting premise here, I don't think I will bother reading the rest of the trilogy for several reasons. First, I don't like feeling short-changed, and that's what this book did to me. It finishes and you turn the page expecting and... there's nothing there. If your narrative takes you more than one book, you need a good editor. If you are writing a trilogy, you need three individual narratives that tie together. This novel definitely doesn't manage that. Certainly the end of this one is virtually the in-breath to the beginning of the second and I'm not willing to play.
Secondly, the science fiction elements and full on shoot out aspects didn't work for me individually, let alone together. The author seemed to have missed a key sensor on realism here, and there were just too many moments where I was sat wondering what the hell this guy was smoking. Think James Bond, crank it up a few steps and add in some random DNA stuff that isn't quite cloning but probably isn't far off... in fact, it's probably even more advanced than cloning and we haven't even got that right yet with humans. Finally, this seemed to be trying to do too many things at the same time. It's trying to be action-adventure, psychological thriller and science fiction and the author just hasn't managed to combine the three properly. Instead it feels clumsy and I couldn't hold my suspension of disbelief... and my suspension of disbelief factor is pretty damn high. This just killed it.