I'm in a quandary. I've been sitting on a book review that I'd written a few weeks ago, but hesitate to post. Not only is it not a flattering review, but any explanation as to why will give away some major plot points and I don't want to be accused of disclosing any surprises. It's not as though I've never given a book a bad review, but with this one I realize that the examples I'd need to show to prove my point would not be fair to the author or the reader, which is why I have decided not to reveal the title of this work of fiction.
The shame is that I liked the premise of this particular novel when I was sent a review copy and felt that it would be something I'd enjoy reading, but after I had a couple chapters behind me, I was reminded of an activity I used to do as a child where I would cut out the models from my mother's previous season's Sears & Roebuck catalog and play with the makeshift paper dolls for hours. And oh, the drama I created with the men, women and children all in various poses scattered across my bedroom floor was unbelievable. Seriously. The stories I made up were from an overactive imagination where details rarely mattered because it was easy to dispense with reality in order to relish in tragedy and romance; after all, the architect was a child who couldn't discern the difference between a good plot line and character development from a bad one. I was just having fun, but I'd like to think that I now know a one dimensional character and a storyline that goes off the rails when I see one.
Like someone creating a world from paper dolls, there were far too many contrived situations in this novel, leading me to think that the author was determined to make the plot work via characters that were not fully realized. Again, what I want to quibble about will ruin those aforementioned spoilers; however, I can let you know why I was put off at the very beginning when cliches, such as "his skin began to crawl" and "shaken to his core" were implemented. In addition, far too much dialogue was used to fill in a back story, making it seemed strained and unnatural. Unfortunately, though, the bigger issues I had with this debut novel must remain ambiguous, but I could tell the author was determined to have the characters go through the motions, often for no other reason than to stick to the predetermined outline. Maybe it is because the author states on her Web site that she was inspired by an actual event to write this story, which leads me to think that perhaps she is just too close and couldn't stretch fact into fiction to believability.
Either way, the novelist had the makings of what could have been a powerful story, so I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was just me. After all, she was nominated twice for an Emmy and the book was published by Doubleday, even receiving some nice blurbs from some weighty names. Without sounding jaded, though, I've been around long enough to know that it's good to have connections willing to support a new novelist, but I also thought perhaps maybe there was something I was missing. Since the novel isn't scheduled to be released until this coming Tuesday, the only review I could find for it was from Publishers Weekly. I was hoping that there'd be a revelation in that review that would give me an epiphany and I'd discover what I missed. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Instead, PW validated my take:
"Falls short in execution." "...often reads like outtakes from a soap opera."
Okay, so there you have it, and quite possibly there will be other, more favorable reviews, but mine will not be in the mix. It has gotten me to wonder, though, does Sears & Roebuck still send out catalogs?