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I don't think this was a bad book, so much as it's a bad book for me. There were two basic issues.
One is that of style. What I said to my husband is that the prose reminds me of the older uncle of Bret Easton Ellis & Chuck Palahniuk; in that same family of in-your-face prose, but trying harder to look/be/seem "cool" and not quite as successful. Problem is, I don't really like Ellis or Palahniuk, and I don't like it much with Winslow here. There's nothing wrong with it, objectively speaking, and the success of all three authors shows there's plenty of people who are into it, but I'm not one of them.
The other problem is tangentially related; another part of that particular literary style is a lack of overt affect and/or emotion. Character's emotions are sometimes stated, but it's all bloodless, there's nothing really there for the reader to latch on or feel in sympathy. Which, again, is a perfectly valid writing choice, but it's not what I want from my leisure reading.
I was excited to read this book because it's a mainstream novel that, in theory, centers around a polyamorous relationship. In a real and fundamental way, the relationship between Chon, Ben and O is the crux and center-point of the novel. For any of it to work, I needed to believe in that relationship above all else. But the distanced nature of the prose meant I could never feel that relationship the way I needed, to buy into it. So it became a rather unlikeable story about a lot of incredibly unlikeable people doing things that I couldn't bring myself to care very much about.
And while I'm willing to put up with a more emotionless story for the sake of a really great plot, Savages didn't have that, either. Everything (other than the poly) that happens in this story is stuff I've seen elsewhere and done better.
I was within 20 pages of finishing the book when I put it down and just stopped reading for about a month, because I just didn't like or care enough about the book to finish. Really, the only reason I did finally finish it was because a) I was so close to the end and b) the month off meant I was several books behind on my reading goals for the year and this was one more 'read' book toward my goal. Not a sterling recommendation.
One is that of style. What I said to my husband is that the prose reminds me of the older uncle of Bret Easton Ellis & Chuck Palahniuk; in that same family of in-your-face prose, but trying harder to look/be/seem "cool" and not quite as successful. Problem is, I don't really like Ellis or Palahniuk, and I don't like it much with Winslow here. There's nothing wrong with it, objectively speaking, and the success of all three authors shows there's plenty of people who are into it, but I'm not one of them.
The other problem is tangentially related; another part of that particular literary style is a lack of overt affect and/or emotion. Character's emotions are sometimes stated, but it's all bloodless, there's nothing really there for the reader to latch on or feel in sympathy. Which, again, is a perfectly valid writing choice, but it's not what I want from my leisure reading.
I was excited to read this book because it's a mainstream novel that, in theory, centers around a polyamorous relationship. In a real and fundamental way, the relationship between Chon, Ben and O is the crux and center-point of the novel. For any of it to work, I needed to believe in that relationship above all else. But the distanced nature of the prose meant I could never feel that relationship the way I needed, to buy into it. So it became a rather unlikeable story about a lot of incredibly unlikeable people doing things that I couldn't bring myself to care very much about.
And while I'm willing to put up with a more emotionless story for the sake of a really great plot, Savages didn't have that, either. Everything (other than the poly) that happens in this story is stuff I've seen elsewhere and done better.
I was within 20 pages of finishing the book when I put it down and just stopped reading for about a month, because I just didn't like or care enough about the book to finish. Really, the only reason I did finally finish it was because a) I was so close to the end and b) the month off meant I was several books behind on my reading goals for the year and this was one more 'read' book toward my goal. Not a sterling recommendation.