It's written in a very accessible style characteristic of YA and there's enough going on that it's never BORING; it's just particularly GOOD.
Did you mean "it just ISN'T particularly GOOD" or am I just totally misreading the sentence?
Here's what I've discovered about Marr of late: her published novels read like first or second drafts that need SUPER insightful beta readers to work out the kinks and the holes and help the author patch them up. It's not to say she doesn't already have people doing this, mind you. It just scares the shit out of me to think how bad her real first drafts really are if THIS is the end result. She needs new critical readers, people who aren't afraid of hurting her feelings.
But hey, what do I know? I know I'll be passing on this, that's for sure. :) I haven't been happy ever since reading Fragile Eternity.
Woops, thanks for pointing out that mistake -- definitely meant "*isn't* good".
I read another review for this book that said something very similar to what you're saying -- this book (and a lot of her work) reads like a first draft that really needs some hardcore editing.
From a writerly standpoint, it kind of pisses me off. It's lazy, but she's published because she's a best-seller. It's not even the same kind of laziness I see in Meyer or Rowling or Stephen King: at least with them, they don't come out with a book a year (except King, but he's been publishing SO LONG), and they're SO big editors are afraid to do too much, you know?
Marr's just trying to do too much, too fast. Don't get me wrong, I get that this is how she makes her living, but just like some authors can't handle the pressure of churning out two books a year, I now firmly believe that Marr can't handle the pressure of churning out one book a year.
Just imagine how much better her recent books would have been if she had put another year into writing and polishing each of them?
Oh, and can you edit your post to fix that? I thought all accounts had the ability to edit posts, but I've been a permanent user for so long I might be out of touch!
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Did you mean "it just ISN'T particularly GOOD" or am I just totally misreading the sentence?
Here's what I've discovered about Marr of late: her published novels read like first or second drafts that need SUPER insightful beta readers to work out the kinks and the holes and help the author patch them up. It's not to say she doesn't already have people doing this, mind you. It just scares the shit out of me to think how bad her real first drafts really are if THIS is the end result. She needs new critical readers, people who aren't afraid of hurting her feelings.
But hey, what do I know? I know I'll be passing on this, that's for sure. :) I haven't been happy ever since reading Fragile Eternity.
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I read another review for this book that said something very similar to what you're saying -- this book (and a lot of her work) reads like a first draft that really needs some hardcore editing.
Reply
Marr's just trying to do too much, too fast. Don't get me wrong, I get that this is how she makes her living, but just like some authors can't handle the pressure of churning out two books a year, I now firmly believe that Marr can't handle the pressure of churning out one book a year.
Just imagine how much better her recent books would have been if she had put another year into writing and polishing each of them?
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