I had hopes for The Captives, by Debra Jo Immergut. Somewhere I read that it was quality prose in a thriller genre. Turns out the prose is okay, nothing spectacular (why use question marks in dialog for one character and not for the reply which is also a question?) and the story? Disappointing. It opens with promise; setting us in the grown up view of a high school crush and […]
Review: The Captives
Sixfold
I am entered in the fall 2019 Sixfold competition. Sixfold is writer-reviewed. I was assigned six stories to rank and review. I was impressed by how few grammar errors I found. The grammar quality is far above most of the submissions that come to the online publication that I slush read for. I didn’t expect that and I don’t know what this means. Are these stories well workshopped and fixed? […]
Writing Review: You
I haven’t done a review for some time, but I haven’t been sparked to do so until now. You, by Caroline Kepnes has left me wondering. *Spoiler alert: many plot topics covered below.* I think I found the title via a list of novels that have surprise endings. I say “I think” because I’m not sure, and there is no surprise at the end. “You” is a narrative in second person […]
Word frequency counter; an add-in for Word
I have to give a shout-out to this word frequency counter add-in for Word: http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/word_usage_and_frequency_report.html Word frequency is something I review when self-editing. Get a count of each word, decide which ones I’m overusing, do a search-and-replace-with-highlight in Word and it’s easy to read and consider options. Word will count words, but not give you a frequency. There are web sites that will do this, but you have to upload […]
Writing Review: Nine Dragons and Burning Angel
I’ve recently read (some of) two novels: a randomly selected detective novel, Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly, and a cop novel that came recommended, Burning Angel by James Lee Burke. First, Nine Dragons. Grammatically fine, but the writing is not much beyond high school. The internal monologue is probably the best part, but the dialogue is flat and colorless. Often there are long stretches of dialogue with no action, no gestures, no […]
Weak Characters from Plot Writers? The Prophet, by Michael Koryta
I read a lot of fiction; largely novels, titles pulled from readers’ choice or bestseller lists regardless of genre or authors, downloaded from the library in ebook format. Every book is a surprise, a challenge. Some less so because of the title or the cover, but still, in almost every case I haven’t read any previous works by the author. I do this because I want to be unprepared, tested […]
Editing Review: Stranger in a Strange Land
I’m reading Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein, but not for the first time. Many, many years ago it was my ‘bible’; the good book that I read from before going to sleep. As an agnostic faux-intellectual college student I latched on to Heinlein’s unconvinced, usually cynical attitudes toward politics, government, society, and found solace in the advice of Jubal Harshaw and in the commune of the Nest. […]
Goodreads reading
I’m still working on my project; reading through various titles of a Goodreads list. My object is to sample recommendations from various genres with minimal bias or preparation. Since I’m reading only e-books downloaded from the library I don’t see the summary notes on the inside jacket, the glowing reviews, or more about the author. Just a cover, the title, and the author’s name. Reading e-books is different than reading […]
Review: And When She Was Good
I’ve always had difficulty finding enough good stuff to read. During the last three or four years I’ve been working my way through Pulitzer, Man Booker, and other award finalist collections, treating the lists as recommendations. Now I’m trying a new compilation; Google’s list of top books for 2012. I know nothing about these books. I download them from the library so I don’t see reviews or summaries, just the […]
Review: Gone Girl
Just finished reading “Gone Girl“. It sticks in my mind, and I’m not sure why, so I’m going to see if I can figure it out. One element about it; it strikes close to the balance that I’ve been striving for between literary and genre. Decent writing, decent characters, decent plot, and characters and plot titillating enough to carry casual readers. But writers have always found ways around that, most […]