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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night by James Patterson
2.0
There are times when no matter how hard you press down on the accelerator, the vehicle does not seem to go any faster. The needle appears to stay stationary and you feel frustration welling up inside you. Until I finished this book, I had bucketed these feelings to the time spent on a vehicle. There is a sense of stasis that this book imparts which is hard to break free of. While occasionally there are stories which help you breathe free, most of the reading experience is like swimming in amber. Every story is a good 20 pages and by the time you make sense of the characters, the story is over. It speaks volumes about craft as much as it does about a lack of interesting stories.
This anthology of short stories serves more as a follow-up to major novels that the contributing authors have written during their careers. You have backstories, minor characters from earlier novels that the author wants to explore and develop a tad more, a short incident in the life of an erstwhile major character etc. This essentially means that there very few standalone stories here. What I also felt as a reader was that most of the authors are well versed in the art of writing a longer story or a novel and what works in the novel form might not always work in the short story territory. This leaves the reader with stories that reach neither here nor there and sometimes are a chore to get through.
With the exception of a few good ones, the rest are pretty much in the meh ! territory.
Not really recommended unless you are a fan of the authors and want to get more of them.
This anthology of short stories serves more as a follow-up to major novels that the contributing authors have written during their careers. You have backstories, minor characters from earlier novels that the author wants to explore and develop a tad more, a short incident in the life of an erstwhile major character etc. This essentially means that there very few standalone stories here. What I also felt as a reader was that most of the authors are well versed in the art of writing a longer story or a novel and what works in the novel form might not always work in the short story territory. This leaves the reader with stories that reach neither here nor there and sometimes are a chore to get through.
With the exception of a few good ones, the rest are pretty much in the meh ! territory.
Not really recommended unless you are a fan of the authors and want to get more of them.