Calling Rain
The premise of Karen Marie Christa Minns' Calling Rain is intriguing enough: woman scientist discovers a species of North American great apes living in caves in the mountains, thereby solving the mystery of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch mythology; a young female college student is intrigued and joins her there to study them; then there's a lesbian romance.
Okay.
But the book fails on multiple levels. It is neither well-written nor well-edited. It includes such winning lines as this one, describing the feeling of the protagonist after being startled awake, "My heart is a racing marmot." (I suspect the author was going for vividly poetic here, but I just think it's hilarious.) And the ending is raced through and makes very little sense. The supposedly intelligent and ethical primatologist starts acting like a jerk and making insane demands of her companions, including her lover. And then, though I consider myself a good reader, I am actually not sure about what's happening in the epilogue (plot is the most basic element of a novel! I should be able to figure this out!).
Also, I never did figure out what the title is supposed to mean.
Okay.
But the book fails on multiple levels. It is neither well-written nor well-edited. It includes such winning lines as this one, describing the feeling of the protagonist after being startled awake, "My heart is a racing marmot." (I suspect the author was going for vividly poetic here, but I just think it's hilarious.) And the ending is raced through and makes very little sense. The supposedly intelligent and ethical primatologist starts acting like a jerk and making insane demands of her companions, including her lover. And then, though I consider myself a good reader, I am actually not sure about what's happening in the epilogue (plot is the most basic element of a novel! I should be able to figure this out!).
Also, I never did figure out what the title is supposed to mean.