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PBA® Bowling Challenge

Games and Entertainment

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App

Rise through the ranks against 22 of the PBA’s best bowlers as you compete for a variety of...

Shipwrecks of the P&O Line

Mike Roussel and Sam Warwick

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Book

The rich history of the P&O Line began in the 1830s when steam power was still in its infancy, and...

Missing Fay

Adam Thorpe

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Book

A spirited, restless fourteen-year-old, Fay, goes missing from a Lincoln council estate. Is she a...

literary fiction

Hazel (1853 KP) rated Crimson in Books

Dec 17, 2018

My rating 2.5

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. 

There is often a preconception that self-published books are not as good as those printed by world famous publishers. Yet, given a chance, there are a few that surprise you. Unfortunately, there are many issues with Laura Foster’s debut novel Crimson. The actual concept has promise of appealing to a range of readers due to falling into a variety of genres: fantasy, science fiction, young adult and paranormal/horror. Where the novel suffers is within the writing style and obvious lack of proof reading.

The storyline concentrates on a homeless young girl whose frightening nightmares have led her to believe she is in grave danger. Dawn Pearson, who the reader is led to believe is only twelve or thirteen years of age, is determined to get as far away from the creature in her dreams as possible. With the help of Mike, a friend she makes on the street, she narrowly escapes being captured by the red-eyed, irascible monster she has named Crimson.

While the pair flee, Dawn and Mike become aware of another terrifying beast, although neither understand why Dawn is being hunted. It soon manifests that Dawn harbours an ethereal power, suggesting that she is far from the human she believed herself to be. As the thrill of the chase heightens, readers are left with questions: who is Dawn? Who is the Crimson? Which characters can be trusted?

It is not clear what the target age group is, however the youthful ages of Dawn and Mike make it suitable for a young adult audience as well as adult readers in general. Dawn and Mike’s relationship, although sudden, becomes a key aspect of the story. For once a friendship between a male and female has no romantic connotations attached, thus not detracting from the surreal circumstances of the plot. Both Dawn and Mike show admiral traits of selflessness – something that ostracizes them from the remainder of ignoble characters.

Sadly, the dramatic climax spirals into confusion. Ever changing plot directions make it unclear who the heroes are, and perplexing scene descriptions make it difficult to picture what the author had in mind. This was a more prominent issue toward the conclusion of the book, resulting in an unsatisfying ending.

One of the major problems with the writing is the constant switching of points of view. Although written in third person, a narrative still speaks from one character’s perspective. This can change from character to character, but usually separated into different chapters. In Crimson, however, Foster alters the viewpoint from paragraph to paragraph. This occasionally makes the text difficult to follow.

As with any lengthy body of text, printing errors can occur – nobody is perfect. On the other hand, the amount of typos in Crimson makes it hard to believe that it had ever been proofread in the first place. Some mistakes are clearly typing errors that are (probably) not the author’s fault, however the repeated misuse of words such as seized/ceased and wondered/wandered are not easy to forgive.

Overall, the premise was there, the writing not so much. It is understood that Laura Foster is currently working on a sequel to Crimson, but its success rests on how well this first book is received. If people can tolerate the errors pinpointed above, then the author has nothing to worry about, yet as it stands, it does not look promising.