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A review by rocketiza
The Smack by Richard Lange
1.0
This is written for people who don't actually care about what they are reading.
This is maybe the laziest writing I have ever read. It's a genre book, where the author makes zero effort in any character development. Each situation is pre-ordained by a cookie cutter character, so how they act, their reactions, etc. are cliche and without any motivation being established prior. Lange seemed to feel needed no substance or building to anything. He takes the laziest short cuts to move the plot without making any effort beyond hey, this girl has a heart of gold, this girl hates him but you know for the story they got to reconcile, of course there's the threatening ex, etc. It's like a JJ Abrams movie - he knows what a good scene looks like, but has zero narrative ability to tell a story to make that scene actually impactful, or give the characters motivation to do what they do other than hey that looks cool and pushes them into another scene.
What is so bitterly disappointing is I love Lange's more literary short stories, and know he can do wonderful things with characters. Here he's either just selling out or cashing in.
This is maybe the laziest writing I have ever read. It's a genre book, where the author makes zero effort in any character development. Each situation is pre-ordained by a cookie cutter character, so how they act, their reactions, etc. are cliche and without any motivation being established prior. Lange seemed to feel needed no substance or building to anything. He takes the laziest short cuts to move the plot without making any effort beyond hey, this girl has a heart of gold, this girl hates him but you know for the story they got to reconcile, of course there's the threatening ex, etc. It's like a JJ Abrams movie - he knows what a good scene looks like, but has zero narrative ability to tell a story to make that scene actually impactful, or give the characters motivation to do what they do other than hey that looks cool and pushes them into another scene.
What is so bitterly disappointing is I love Lange's more literary short stories, and know he can do wonderful things with characters. Here he's either just selling out or cashing in.