A review by aperfectmjk
Dead Girls by Graeme Cameron
2.0
DNF - 50% Completion
Well folks, I tried, really I did. I really hate to give up on a novel, but, I decided after the last terrible book I suffered through, that I wouldn't do it again. I wouldn't waste the effort in attempting to get through it when there were certain factors involved. Let's face it, there are some novels where there are things that just won't change no matter how far you read into it, and this was one of those novels.
The first thing and probably the most important factor in my decision to abandon the novel was the narration. Good grief Charlie Brown! This thing was all over the place, I have never read a more jarring novel. One minute, you're reading along, trying to follow the storyline (not an easy task let me add) and then BAM, you're all the sudden reading something about another character that for all I know could be the past... maybe the present... it's hard to say. The author offers no page breaks to assist the reader, and this my friends as we all know just creates a very unpleasant reading experience.
The next factor in my decision to abandon the novel was the dialogue. The dialogue is very minimal, clunky, and often doesn't flow well. Many of the characters come across the same, and you often can't tell who is saying what. The constant cutting off of dialogue is very overdone and quite frankly annoying. A thought is often never finished and this interrupts not only the flow in dialogue, but also the reader's flow.
"That in itself raises questions, given what we think happened immediately afterwards, so the firs-"
"Wait," I said. "Wait wait wait. What do you mean, what we think happened?"
And the dialogue continues and the reader is never clued into what the complete thought was supposed to be. This happens way more often than it should.
Lastly... character development and overall plot. WHAT... THE.. HECK... PEOPLE?!? Okay, let me take a moment to acknowledge that yes, this is the second in the series, and yes, maybe I should have read the first before reading this one. That said, I have picked up plenty of novels that are parts two, three, and even further into a series, and have never felt so lost before. With this one, it was literally like walking into the movie theater mid movie and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Generally, an author will slowly starting filling the reader in throughout the novel with the backstory on the characters from the previous novel(s). In this case however, I'm pretty sure for the first 3 or 4 chapters I didn't even know who was narrating. There was no proper introduction, it just felt so off-putting. I tell ya, when an author can hook me mid series, and make me want to go back and read the previous novels in the series because the novel was just that good, then that's when you know it was done right. But when I need to stop reading the novel and go back and read the first in the series, well, then I can't say that character development and plot were really on point.
I want to thank NetGalley, Harlequin - Park Row Books, and Graeme Cameron for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my review. I'm sorry it just didn't work out so great for me.
Well folks, I tried, really I did. I really hate to give up on a novel, but, I decided after the last terrible book I suffered through, that I wouldn't do it again. I wouldn't waste the effort in attempting to get through it when there were certain factors involved. Let's face it, there are some novels where there are things that just won't change no matter how far you read into it, and this was one of those novels.
The first thing and probably the most important factor in my decision to abandon the novel was the narration. Good grief Charlie Brown! This thing was all over the place, I have never read a more jarring novel. One minute, you're reading along, trying to follow the storyline (not an easy task let me add) and then BAM, you're all the sudden reading something about another character that for all I know could be the past... maybe the present... it's hard to say. The author offers no page breaks to assist the reader, and this my friends as we all know just creates a very unpleasant reading experience.
The next factor in my decision to abandon the novel was the dialogue. The dialogue is very minimal, clunky, and often doesn't flow well. Many of the characters come across the same, and you often can't tell who is saying what. The constant cutting off of dialogue is very overdone and quite frankly annoying. A thought is often never finished and this interrupts not only the flow in dialogue, but also the reader's flow.
"That in itself raises questions, given what we think happened immediately afterwards, so the firs-"
"Wait," I said. "Wait wait wait. What do you mean, what we think happened?"
And the dialogue continues and the reader is never clued into what the complete thought was supposed to be. This happens way more often than it should.
Lastly... character development and overall plot. WHAT... THE.. HECK... PEOPLE?!? Okay, let me take a moment to acknowledge that yes, this is the second in the series, and yes, maybe I should have read the first before reading this one. That said, I have picked up plenty of novels that are parts two, three, and even further into a series, and have never felt so lost before. With this one, it was literally like walking into the movie theater mid movie and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Generally, an author will slowly starting filling the reader in throughout the novel with the backstory on the characters from the previous novel(s). In this case however, I'm pretty sure for the first 3 or 4 chapters I didn't even know who was narrating. There was no proper introduction, it just felt so off-putting. I tell ya, when an author can hook me mid series, and make me want to go back and read the previous novels in the series because the novel was just that good, then that's when you know it was done right. But when I need to stop reading the novel and go back and read the first in the series, well, then I can't say that character development and plot were really on point.
I want to thank NetGalley, Harlequin - Park Row Books, and Graeme Cameron for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my review. I'm sorry it just didn't work out so great for me.