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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Broken Monsters in Books

Apr 27, 2018

Broken Monsters was what I call “High Concept, Poor Execution.” There were two major things that caused me to decide not to finish it.

The first reason: The story was written from several different characters perspectives, and it switched almost every chapter. Some books can get away with this (generally there are two or three PoV) but this one had like 5 different voices, and it was just too much to keep track of.

The second and most important reason: The relationship between the police officer and her daughter. Seriously, no police officer is going to pick up her high school daughter and start telling her all about the secret case they haven’t yet allowed the press to get wind of, or tell her details or hunches, or—what really set me off—have her daughter help her use a search engine to find photos from nasty crime scenes. You just don’t do that.

The premise was cool and the bad-guy was amazing (his PoV was my favorite) but I just couldn’t keep going with those two factors.

Kudos

Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated Spectre (Zoe Martinique #2) in Books

Mar 1, 2018

Hmm. Spectre feels less like a sequel to Wraith than a chapter two, if that makes any sense. Both books are full-sized novels, but they're so closely related that book two wouldn't make any sense without having read book 1 (and the novella in between). Unfortunately, Spectre ends on a cliff-hanger. I hate that.

At least I know (from her blog) that Weldon is working on the third book. I can only hope that it comes out soon and wraps up all the loose threads without introducing new ones that aren't left hanging again.

I do have to agree with another GR reviewer who mentioned that the main character carries on more like a 13-year-old kid than a 28-year-old woman. I have to agree. I understand that losing one parent early might, for some people, to a closer relationship with the surviving parent—but give me a break! Zoë apparently needs to move across the country to learn to live without Mommy. Or maybe Mommy should move?

Kudos

David McK (3372 KP) rated The Magic of Recluce (The Saga of Recluce #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

If ever there was an argument for Goodreads to expand beyond a 5-star rating system, this is it: better than some other books I've rated 1 star, but not as good as some others I've rated as 2 stars.

The first book in what has become known as The Saga of Recluce, I found this to be quite unusual in that (in this world world), it equates the White Wizards with evil (or chaos) and Black Wizards with good (or order). In many respects, this is also a coming-of-age tale, with the central protaganist maturing throughout the course of the story: a story that, I felt, could have been told in about 1/2 the number of pages if the author didn't insist on detailing each and every little iota of noise - who wants to read about (roughly, and all told) a page or two per chapter of Wheee-urrrggg (stomach noises) or caw-caw (bird noises) or thrum-thrum-thrum (hoof-beats)?!?