Ok, what with this thing that happened to Trish plus all the insightful conversations floating around the blogosphere about the honesty we owe our readers and the gentleness we owe authors as fellow human beings, I'm going to try a new trick over here at the 'done read.' Are you ready? *deep breath* I didn't like The Memorist but everybody else seems to have, and you probably will too.Since M J Rose seems like a level-headed person who won't threaten to sue me or call me nasty names for my opinion, I'm going to go ahead and admit that it was her writing that killed the story for me. Because the story! So exciting! There's this flute that can bring back memories of your past lives (because reincarnation is real, y'all!) and there's this gal who's been having flashbacks to a previous life since she was a wee one and maybe the flute can save her and there's this guy whose son is trapped in some sort of past-life-mantra-loop and maybe the flute can save him and there's this other guy whose wife and children were exploded and who is now hell-bent on exploding a concert hall full of Important People (which sounds irrelevant, and kind of is, but totally jibes with the rest of the hoo-hah) and there are Bad People who want to find the flute too, but first there is a great deal of clue-unlocking and ancient-manuscript-discovering and flashes-of-insight-during-power-outtages-occuring. Two scoops of action in every page!
But! There were a handful of stupid nitpicks that bothered me and will probably only bother me but how they bothered! Like the word 'except' when not followed by the word 'that.' Sentences like 'Except his head felt like it was exploding' and 'Except he couldn't give up now,' besides being about one-to-a-page, would be improved by a healthy 'that.' IN MY OPINION!
And then everyone's reactions are a little TOO extreme, and there's the odd grammatical error ('I'm going downstairs and get more candles'? Come now, editors. Where were you on that one?) and the occasional 'He'd never seen her before but he felt as if he'd never not seen her' (bawhaaaa?) and I know! Who am I? What have I written? M J, you are one (well, two, with one on the way) up on me.
So! My blog, my reviews, I didn't enjoy The Memorist. But! While there are plenty of books out there that are a complete waste of your time and I see trashing them as a way of throwing myself in front of the bullet for you, as it were, The Memorist isn't one of them. So read on, friends. You will probably enjoy.
Five caterpillars.
8 comments:
Ah! I'm glad you were honest, because all I keep hearing is good things about this book. I read the first one she wrote and didn't like it at all, but no one else seemed to agree with me. I think it's just not my style of book- thrillers and all.
I love it when reviewers are honest; it inspires me to be honest in my reviews as well (which reminds me--I really need to get cracking on my review of The Eight, and hopefully I'll mange to sound as nice as you do here about The Memoirist).
And I hate it when authors lash out at reviewers for a not-so-glowing review of their book.
Reviewer/Author Wars annoy me because it tends to turn people who are normally rather level headed into raving lunatics.
I for one have seen some bad form on both sides- so I tend to shy away from them anymore.
::shrug::
More on point: I loved MJ Rose's Dr Morgan Snow Series- I was wondering about this one ... thanks for you opinion!
I'm curious, would you happen to know if he/she writes under another name??
Raych: You're one of the first reviewers of which I thought when I heard about this whole "controversy." I'm glad you can still stay honest. Not that we'd expect anything else. :)
Here's to an honest review. That is what book blogging is all about and you are right, a bad review does not keep me away from a book if it is something I really want to read.
I just finished reading The Memorist and I did love it - I didn't notice any of the things you pointed out. I've read two of her books and her writing is what I like -- but the reason I'm writing is about you -I don't think you should apologize for having problems with a book. That's the whole point of there being so many books - some for everyone's taste.
I'm confused because when I saw the name MJ Rose, all I could think about was this super dirty book I bought on accident a long time ago(although I have been known on occassion to buy dirty books intentionally, this one seriously was an accident). I swear it was by MJ Rose. Does anyone know - does she write dirty books too?
Was it 'Lying in Bed'? How about 'Lip Service'? Or maybe 'Flesh Tones'? Because those were all hers, and they certainly SEEM dirty.
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