A review by raemelle
For a Few Demons More, by Kim Harrison
2.0
This author has a writing style I don't always get along with. It makes it hard for me to get through these books as quickly as others. Like, a character will express their impression of a situation, but then describe some object or adjective that somehow counters and goes against whatever overall impression they had. Like when Rachel describes David's house as clean, but in the next 'breath' says the carpet looks old. I don't know. It's not a direct contradiction, but it's not something I would mention if I were trying to give the reader the impression of a clean and well kept house.
Or characters will say something that makes no sense, and has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Then there's no explanation for it.
I also feel like, since the author has deviated somewhat from the traditional images of supernatural creatures, and created her own completely new world, she could do a better job explaining the rules of this world to the reader. Maybe she did that a bit in the first book, but that was written years ago! There are these literary laws she's come up with for her world, but since she doesn't always explain them to the reader, I'm left feeling uninformed. It's a bit frustrating.
The writing is sometimes jerky. One action doesn't flow into the next, and I'm left feeling disoriented. A character says something in one 'tone' and in the next sentence they're talking with a totally different inflection. It's just confusing. Sometimes I find myself sitting and staring at a paragraph, wondering how the heck it got to the point it's at. No warnings for a subject change, or emphasis change. If there are enough characters in a scene, it's difficult sometimes to even know who is talking.
I don't know if I'm even making sense, but this was my attempt at venting about my frustrations with this series. I can't read more than one of these books every half a year or so. The writing and characters get old pretty quickly for me. Not to mention I'm just plain tired of this supernatural kick the world seems to be on. I'm pretty fed up with books about romantic vampires and werewolves and witches and fairies. Can someone start a new fad now?
Or characters will say something that makes no sense, and has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Then there's no explanation for it.
I also feel like, since the author has deviated somewhat from the traditional images of supernatural creatures, and created her own completely new world, she could do a better job explaining the rules of this world to the reader. Maybe she did that a bit in the first book, but that was written years ago! There are these literary laws she's come up with for her world, but since she doesn't always explain them to the reader, I'm left feeling uninformed. It's a bit frustrating.
The writing is sometimes jerky. One action doesn't flow into the next, and I'm left feeling disoriented. A character says something in one 'tone' and in the next sentence they're talking with a totally different inflection. It's just confusing. Sometimes I find myself sitting and staring at a paragraph, wondering how the heck it got to the point it's at. No warnings for a subject change, or emphasis change. If there are enough characters in a scene, it's difficult sometimes to even know who is talking.
I don't know if I'm even making sense, but this was my attempt at venting about my frustrations with this series. I can't read more than one of these books every half a year or so. The writing and characters get old pretty quickly for me. Not to mention I'm just plain tired of this supernatural kick the world seems to be on. I'm pretty fed up with books about romantic vampires and werewolves and witches and fairies. Can someone start a new fad now?