A book review
I posted this on Amazon for this book: Vanish
I normally don't post reviews because someone has already posted my thoughts on a book but this is an exception.
The only reason I read this was because it was either free or like 1$ (I can't remember) for Kindle. I found a few good reads while dredging the fire-sale bin on kindle books before so I took a chance based on the star rating. Holy crap I should have read some reviews...
After about 15 pages I could tell there was some sort of religious tone to this book but brushed it aside because only one character made religion a blatant issue in his life. I should have listened to my gut instinct and just stopped reading. The 2 star rating is just for the simple fact that I finished the book instead of lighting my Kindle on fire to release the demon I had un-wittingly downloaded into it.
First off, the writing style is really frantic and chaotic that never really sits you down and tells you what the hell is going on. You know something is afoot, but spend most of the first quarter of the book trying to string together some sort of rational reason for following all these different people. You also don't really give a crap about the characters and the book is devoid of a character description so by about halfway through the book you find out one of them is covered in Tattoos (which apparently you should have known because he's a scummy mechanic, DUH MAINSTREAM AMERICA!). The only sort of talent here is that the author can build suspense, even if its the gimmicky way of cutting to another characters while leaving a cliff hanger with the other.
Once I realized the plot and dialogue never get deeper than the surface I started to skim through the random chatter until these "Aliens" showed up. This is where a Formula started to appear and I'll kindly lay it out for you:
1."Aliens" Show up.
2.PANIC!
3."Aliens" are unstoppable and grab someone and that person disappears forever.
4.Everyone flees and talks about it until they show up again.
Between the basically racist characterization of two black teens and the awful attempt at making this mechanic a "tough guy" you get the sense a certain High-Brow view of the Author. That, coupled with the increasing religious tone of the book were making me wonder if this book in paper-back were sold on a bible-belt book tour or just mailed directly to southern baptist churches to be dispersed amongst the sheltered "white picket fence" owners.
This would be a great read for a bored house-wife that only leaves the home for church and maybe a nice G-Rated Movie. It would fly of the little book rack at the check in counter of the town's Winn-Dixie. As far as it being on any sort of must-read list for people who actually want decent objective, creative, insightful and original story than you would be sorely let down. I actually started to prey that the book would improve, that's about the only way this book affected my faith...
I normally don't post reviews because someone has already posted my thoughts on a book but this is an exception.
The only reason I read this was because it was either free or like 1$ (I can't remember) for Kindle. I found a few good reads while dredging the fire-sale bin on kindle books before so I took a chance based on the star rating. Holy crap I should have read some reviews...
After about 15 pages I could tell there was some sort of religious tone to this book but brushed it aside because only one character made religion a blatant issue in his life. I should have listened to my gut instinct and just stopped reading. The 2 star rating is just for the simple fact that I finished the book instead of lighting my Kindle on fire to release the demon I had un-wittingly downloaded into it.
First off, the writing style is really frantic and chaotic that never really sits you down and tells you what the hell is going on. You know something is afoot, but spend most of the first quarter of the book trying to string together some sort of rational reason for following all these different people. You also don't really give a crap about the characters and the book is devoid of a character description so by about halfway through the book you find out one of them is covered in Tattoos (which apparently you should have known because he's a scummy mechanic, DUH MAINSTREAM AMERICA!). The only sort of talent here is that the author can build suspense, even if its the gimmicky way of cutting to another characters while leaving a cliff hanger with the other.
Once I realized the plot and dialogue never get deeper than the surface I started to skim through the random chatter until these "Aliens" showed up. This is where a Formula started to appear and I'll kindly lay it out for you:
1."Aliens" Show up.
2.PANIC!
3."Aliens" are unstoppable and grab someone and that person disappears forever.
4.Everyone flees and talks about it until they show up again.
Between the basically racist characterization of two black teens and the awful attempt at making this mechanic a "tough guy" you get the sense a certain High-Brow view of the Author. That, coupled with the increasing religious tone of the book were making me wonder if this book in paper-back were sold on a bible-belt book tour or just mailed directly to southern baptist churches to be dispersed amongst the sheltered "white picket fence" owners.
This would be a great read for a bored house-wife that only leaves the home for church and maybe a nice G-Rated Movie. It would fly of the little book rack at the check in counter of the town's Winn-Dixie. As far as it being on any sort of must-read list for people who actually want decent objective, creative, insightful and original story than you would be sorely let down. I actually started to prey that the book would improve, that's about the only way this book affected my faith...