Author: Sulari Gentill
Publisher: The Poisoned Pen
Review:
This is an exciting easy action packed read for those who are new to the world of mystery books. Sulari Gentill delivered a fast-paced narrative that will capture you into flipping into the next page with high anticipation of what will happen next. Her characters are alive, very relatable, and very human. As the reader, you can feel what they feel and understand why they did what they did. The story is very simple and straightforward but still an interesting read.
Reflection
(Some spoilers ahead! You have been warned).
I liked this book and would recommend it to others to read, BUT I do have to give it only 4 stars. I think this is still a good mark, but I just left a lot of room for improvement. I have two big comments about the book: one, there are a lot of instances where SHOWING us who the characters are is a lot better than TELLING readers who they are. Two, the pacing can be off putting.
The first point: instead of describing to the readers who the characters are or who they are, Gentill tends to just tell us. There is definitely a lot of merit for this choice of storytelling, but I think that laying out clues for the readers to pick up can be much more compelling. For example, one of the characters is a hardcore conspiracy theorist and we are told that he is one. Instead of giving us clues to what that character is about, she just tells us who that person seemingly to remove any doubts and then proves that point by sharing with the readers what made him a conspiracy theorist like the lizard people. I really do think that if the readers were just allowed to question and doubt his identity as a conspiracy theorist then there would be another layer of mystery to the mystery — which would be great.
Another element that could add to the layer of mystery is the pacing, which goes to my second point: the pacing of the story can be quite off putting because of inconsistency. There are times when the storytelling is fast paced (as particularly well-done for the action-packed scenes) but there are times when sections would feel sluggish. It almost feels like the story was on fast run and then it abruptly stops to a snail like speed. Yes, I do acknowledge that some do this for effect to give the characters some down time and breathing room, but I am talking about the manner of telling events. Some passages have events that are told as if the writer is trying to remember a lot of things in short period of time and then the next it sounds like Tolkien took over and wrote that part of the story with every detail accounted for. I would like to have a little bit more consistency on this part.
Either way, the story is still enjoyable!
Thoughts?