First off, whoever edited this book.....shame on you.
Was it an intern? Potentially.
I'm talking simple grammatical errors that were not fixed.
Can you find such errors in my blog on occasion? Certainly. But I'm not a New York Times Bestselling Author.
It took 250 pages, but finally LJ Smith started writing like LJ Smith again and I was up until 2 or 3 in the morning, until it started getting silly again.
It's difficult to review this one without giving away story details....
Let's just say it felt like a horribly contrived effort.
There seem to be remnants of other stories Smith has written (The Forbidden Game) tangled up in this and you, know...while I love supernatural thrillers....it can only be so supernatural before it gets ridiculous. This book got ridiculous time and again.
After the two hundred pages of brilliance winked out I started wondering if HarperCollins was going to start up a card game, like Chaotic or Bakugan. "And I meet your Power Flash 3500 with THE WINGS OF REDEMPTION!"
And then it got all Peter Pan, "Just think happy thoughts and they'll lift you off the ground!"
And then it was back and forth and back and forth and let's make this happen to cover over what I had to do back on page 375.
I got tired of it.
My other BIGGEST qualm was all the mindspeak. That wasn't a major component of the original story and it nearly ruined this one.
Fortunately LJ Smith's characters are so strong they could withstand this onslaught of underachievement. It pains me to write about an LJ Smith novel like this, but it's the truth.
I like to think that they twisted her arm into this and demanded that she meet an impossible deadline, because, more than anything, that's what I get from this novel...with the exception of those 200 pages of brilliance. If I can write as she did for those 200 pages, I will be happy indeed.
Now, on to the next one...Shadow Souls, I guess. May it be infinitely better than the last. (I am grateful that The Vampire Diaries~The Return: Midnight doesn't come out until July 1, 2010. It will be nice to spend time meeting some new characters.)
Showing posts with label CW series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CW series. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The New Vampire Diaries
I'm only at page 100 of the new book, whatever it's called and it has been extremely difficult to read.
Stefan sounds more like Edward Cullen and I'm trying not to throw up.
The story in the beginning is ridiculous and oozing with overdone sentimentality and feels more like Stephenie Meyer than LJ Smith, you have no idea how much it hurts me to say that.
None of the old pull to Damon exists, granted he's not quite himself, but he doesn't sound like good old Damon either.
And it's all gotten just a bit too...racey for me. That's why I like teen fiction. It's all the angst and suspense and drama without the sex. And no, there isn't sex, but it's symbolic and I don't appreciate it and if it was my twelve year-old wanting to read it, I would say no. Or I would at least rip out the page with the worst of it.
And yes, I do listen to the Outlander series, it's the one exception where I will tolerate such things, but that's dealing with adults and it isn't written for teens.
And it's really just ridiculous.
The entire opening of the story has been ridiculous and it's inconsistent with the voice of the other books. It seems dumbed down and overly explanatory and just plain silly.
And there are elements of it that are so like the Twilight saga that I checked the copyright date and then the copyright date of Breaking Dawn.
But there seems to be hope.
Maybe.
Now at page 100, it's starting to sound like the old LJ Smith, the one that deserves the title New York Times Bestselling Author. The one that deserves to have her story put onscreen (even if it should be the big screen and not the little one). I just hope it keeps getting better, because if LJ Smith continues to read like Stephenie Meyer, I'm not wasting my time reading the next one. It's one thing for Stephenie Meyer to sound like Stephenie Meyer but it's just wrong for LJ Smith to sound like her and to be so utterly silly.
If Stefan calls Elena, lovely love, one more time, I might wretch.
Romance is NOT sentimentality
Stefan sounds more like Edward Cullen and I'm trying not to throw up.
The story in the beginning is ridiculous and oozing with overdone sentimentality and feels more like Stephenie Meyer than LJ Smith, you have no idea how much it hurts me to say that.
None of the old pull to Damon exists, granted he's not quite himself, but he doesn't sound like good old Damon either.
And it's all gotten just a bit too...racey for me. That's why I like teen fiction. It's all the angst and suspense and drama without the sex. And no, there isn't sex, but it's symbolic and I don't appreciate it and if it was my twelve year-old wanting to read it, I would say no. Or I would at least rip out the page with the worst of it.
And yes, I do listen to the Outlander series, it's the one exception where I will tolerate such things, but that's dealing with adults and it isn't written for teens.
And it's really just ridiculous.
The entire opening of the story has been ridiculous and it's inconsistent with the voice of the other books. It seems dumbed down and overly explanatory and just plain silly.
And there are elements of it that are so like the Twilight saga that I checked the copyright date and then the copyright date of Breaking Dawn.
But there seems to be hope.
Maybe.
Now at page 100, it's starting to sound like the old LJ Smith, the one that deserves the title New York Times Bestselling Author. The one that deserves to have her story put onscreen (even if it should be the big screen and not the little one). I just hope it keeps getting better, because if LJ Smith continues to read like Stephenie Meyer, I'm not wasting my time reading the next one. It's one thing for Stephenie Meyer to sound like Stephenie Meyer but it's just wrong for LJ Smith to sound like her and to be so utterly silly.
If Stefan calls Elena, lovely love, one more time, I might wretch.
Romance is NOT sentimentality
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