Book #26 of 2014: Sheepsquatch // Sleep Study: UGH
Sheepsquatch by I. Ronik
Rating: 2/disliked (1-5/hated-loved)
(Book received free for review from Streetlight Graphics Publishing .)
You know, if a book bills itself as being bad, it should be. With a title like Sheepsquatch, I thought this book would have to be amusingly bad. It wasn't. It wasn't even plain-bad (though it wasn't good, either).
A comment on Amazon compared it to one of those bad SyFy movies, which was pretty accurate. Unfortunately, what works for a movie (not caring about the characters because they're all stupid and will be dead soon) doesn't work in a book.
There's not much plot to explain. A Sheepsquatch (or, I suppose to be more exact, a were-sheepsquatch) is loose in the woods and likes to kidnap women. The police are trying to catch it. Unfortunately the chief of police has a fatal flaw: When he saw a dead woman, he had a massive heart attack and died. The book outright said it was because he saw a dead body. (Not grossly killed or gory or anything.) How in the world does one survive as a copy long enough to become chief if he will fall over dead when he sees a dead body? (I know, I know, the book description says "it's best not taken seriously", but how can one read a book without questioning things like that?)
The subtitle was what sold the book to me. "It's ba-aaad." Sheepsquatch. Ba-aad. I'm easily amused.
The writing was surprisingly good. Not like "wow I have to stop reading to admire that sentence!" good, but no typos and no grammar issues. That was a nice change from the books I've been reading lately.
There was one odd issue: There must have been a typo in the file name(?). On the home screen of my Kindle, the book's title shows as Sleepsquatch instead of Sheep.
---
Speaking of sleep... This five day sleep study is going to be the death of me. I didn't sleep Sunday night, so I came into this already very short on sleep. I got about 45 minutes of sleep last night (30 minutes of that when I took off the stupid machine and tried to get a brief nap in before my alarm went off).
Forget about waterboarding, they should put the Guantanamo detainees on CPAP machines.
For those lucky enough not to know, CPAP machines force air into you while you sleep, to keep you breathing steadily. Your mouth/nose gets covered with a mask, a hose attached to the mask, and air is pushed in at wind tunnel force. I'm not exaggerating, there is real wind coming out of the hose. So yeah, you're trying to sleep with a mask on, if the mask slips at all you get WIND hitting you in the eyes, the mask is attached to a big hose, the hose to a small-ish machine (so don't turn over or it might knock the machine off your bedside stand!). Plus for these first five days I get to be wired up to a finger oxygen/pulse sensor as well.
I'm a light sleeper. Someone walking by on the sidewalk outside my apartment wakes me up. I also can't sleep with the covers even touching my chin, let alone anything covering my mouth. And I'm supposed to be able to sleep with this setup?
I have to do this for four more nights. I've gotten three hours of sleep total in the last two nights, and I doubt I'll get much more while on this damned study. I'm so exhausted now, I think I'll be a danger near the end of the week.
Why am I doing this? The third in a series of miserable sleep studies? Just another damned hoop I have to jump through to get surgery. Sigh.
Rating: 2/disliked (1-5/hated-loved)
(Book received free for review from Streetlight Graphics Publishing .)
You know, if a book bills itself as being bad, it should be. With a title like Sheepsquatch, I thought this book would have to be amusingly bad. It wasn't. It wasn't even plain-bad (though it wasn't good, either).
A comment on Amazon compared it to one of those bad SyFy movies, which was pretty accurate. Unfortunately, what works for a movie (not caring about the characters because they're all stupid and will be dead soon) doesn't work in a book.
There's not much plot to explain. A Sheepsquatch (or, I suppose to be more exact, a were-sheepsquatch) is loose in the woods and likes to kidnap women. The police are trying to catch it. Unfortunately the chief of police has a fatal flaw: When he saw a dead woman, he had a massive heart attack and died. The book outright said it was because he saw a dead body. (Not grossly killed or gory or anything.) How in the world does one survive as a copy long enough to become chief if he will fall over dead when he sees a dead body? (I know, I know, the book description says "it's best not taken seriously", but how can one read a book without questioning things like that?)
The subtitle was what sold the book to me. "It's ba-aaad." Sheepsquatch. Ba-aad. I'm easily amused.
The writing was surprisingly good. Not like "wow I have to stop reading to admire that sentence!" good, but no typos and no grammar issues. That was a nice change from the books I've been reading lately.
There was one odd issue: There must have been a typo in the file name(?). On the home screen of my Kindle, the book's title shows as Sleepsquatch instead of Sheep.
---
Speaking of sleep... This five day sleep study is going to be the death of me. I didn't sleep Sunday night, so I came into this already very short on sleep. I got about 45 minutes of sleep last night (30 minutes of that when I took off the stupid machine and tried to get a brief nap in before my alarm went off).
Forget about waterboarding, they should put the Guantanamo detainees on CPAP machines.
For those lucky enough not to know, CPAP machines force air into you while you sleep, to keep you breathing steadily. Your mouth/nose gets covered with a mask, a hose attached to the mask, and air is pushed in at wind tunnel force. I'm not exaggerating, there is real wind coming out of the hose. So yeah, you're trying to sleep with a mask on, if the mask slips at all you get WIND hitting you in the eyes, the mask is attached to a big hose, the hose to a small-ish machine (so don't turn over or it might knock the machine off your bedside stand!). Plus for these first five days I get to be wired up to a finger oxygen/pulse sensor as well.
I'm a light sleeper. Someone walking by on the sidewalk outside my apartment wakes me up. I also can't sleep with the covers even touching my chin, let alone anything covering my mouth. And I'm supposed to be able to sleep with this setup?
I have to do this for four more nights. I've gotten three hours of sleep total in the last two nights, and I doubt I'll get much more while on this damned study. I'm so exhausted now, I think I'll be a danger near the end of the week.
Why am I doing this? The third in a series of miserable sleep studies? Just another damned hoop I have to jump through to get surgery. Sigh.