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A review by maebeebookish
Through High Waters by Allison Paige
1.0
*No spoilers* I was an ARC reader for this book, so I was provided a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I’ve really struggled with writing this review because I hate writing negative reviews, especially for indie authors. However, I promised an honest review, so here it goes.
I want to preface this by saying that nearly all of the issues I had with this book could’ve been solved with a proper editor. The author’s concept for the story is really interesting, but I feel like the execution didn’t do it justice at all.
I’m not going to go into great detail, but I did want to list some of the main issues I had that made this book difficult for me to read and enjoy.
On a surface level, there were multiple spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. While the general sentence structure and flow had improved from the first book, it was still unnatural, and even confusing in many places. That made it hard to remain engaged in the story, especially when I had to stop to decipher what the author was trying to say.
The larger issues I had were with character and plot development. The main character frequently contradicted herself with regards to her feelings about situations and other characters. While the author may have been intending to write a character who was conflicted and frequently changing her mind, there was no explanation or seeming cause for it. Within a couple of sentences, she would express two thoughts or emotions that would be completely opposed, with no explanation, which left me as the reader incredibly confused. It made it hard to understand or connect with the character, and was honestly just really frustrating.
Additionally, while I understand and appreciate the dark/horror romance genre, one particular sex scene made no sense. He rips through her cervix to her internal organs, and she’s described as bleeding profusely and experiencing excruciating pain that she does not enjoy. Then, with nothing described as changing, a sentence or two later, she orgasms. It would be different if she was described as having enjoyed it despite the pain, with a buildup to the orgasm, but that is not how it was written. As a reader, I was not experiencing any of the emotions I would expect from a sex scene. I was confused and turned off, and because it wasn’t believable, it read almost comically, but not in a good way.
Lastly, the plot development was oddly paced and had a lot of holes. There were incredibly important plot points that simply were not explained, yet the book continued on as though the reader should know exactly what was being referred to. There were major, dramatic scenes that didn’t have enough description for me to feel as though the scene made sense, or for me to be able to imagine it. This was confusing, as there were many places where the author did a great job of describing scenes and elaborating on points, but few of those were actually important comparatively. The pacing was jarring as well. Over half of the book moved slowly, with little advancement to the overall plot, and then suddenly it’s going so fast that the plot isn’t fleshed out enough, and it feels rushed.
Overall, I had an incredibly hard time getting through this book, and I didn’t enjoy it. But I’ll state again that these issues should have been pointed out and corrected by an editor before the book was finalized. This is a really interesting story premise, but even the greatest concept has to be executed well in order to be enjoyable. Unfortunately, this was not.
I want to preface this by saying that nearly all of the issues I had with this book could’ve been solved with a proper editor. The author’s concept for the story is really interesting, but I feel like the execution didn’t do it justice at all.
I’m not going to go into great detail, but I did want to list some of the main issues I had that made this book difficult for me to read and enjoy.
On a surface level, there were multiple spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. While the general sentence structure and flow had improved from the first book, it was still unnatural, and even confusing in many places. That made it hard to remain engaged in the story, especially when I had to stop to decipher what the author was trying to say.
The larger issues I had were with character and plot development. The main character frequently contradicted herself with regards to her feelings about situations and other characters. While the author may have been intending to write a character who was conflicted and frequently changing her mind, there was no explanation or seeming cause for it. Within a couple of sentences, she would express two thoughts or emotions that would be completely opposed, with no explanation, which left me as the reader incredibly confused. It made it hard to understand or connect with the character, and was honestly just really frustrating.
Additionally, while I understand and appreciate the dark/horror romance genre, one particular sex scene made no sense. He rips through her cervix to her internal organs, and she’s described as bleeding profusely and experiencing excruciating pain that she does not enjoy. Then, with nothing described as changing, a sentence or two later, she orgasms. It would be different if she was described as having enjoyed it despite the pain, with a buildup to the orgasm, but that is not how it was written. As a reader, I was not experiencing any of the emotions I would expect from a sex scene. I was confused and turned off, and because it wasn’t believable, it read almost comically, but not in a good way.
Lastly, the plot development was oddly paced and had a lot of holes. There were incredibly important plot points that simply were not explained, yet the book continued on as though the reader should know exactly what was being referred to. There were major, dramatic scenes that didn’t have enough description for me to feel as though the scene made sense, or for me to be able to imagine it. This was confusing, as there were many places where the author did a great job of describing scenes and elaborating on points, but few of those were actually important comparatively. The pacing was jarring as well. Over half of the book moved slowly, with little advancement to the overall plot, and then suddenly it’s going so fast that the plot isn’t fleshed out enough, and it feels rushed.
Overall, I had an incredibly hard time getting through this book, and I didn’t enjoy it. But I’ll state again that these issues should have been pointed out and corrected by an editor before the book was finalized. This is a really interesting story premise, but even the greatest concept has to be executed well in order to be enjoyable. Unfortunately, this was not.