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A review by arnrockwell
Forever 51 by Pamela Skjolsvik
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Let me preface this by saying I went into this book an unbiased as possible. I wasn't fond of the title, the cover, or the premise but I pushed through. Maybe this book would surprise me and turn out to be a favourite.
But no. It's actually one of the worst books I've read so far. Let me explain.
First, I don't read chick lit books (aka women's fiction). I don't like how they are usually written. And this book reads like chick lit. That was an automatic turn-off for me. That's probably because I don't act like a lot of women do, nor do I hang out with many women who do. I don't like talking about a lot of stuff women do. It's so boring, even in real life. No way that shit can keep my interest in a book.
Second, the cover is horrible. It looks cheap, like that author couldn't afford a proper cover artist. Since this is a self-pub book, that is likely to be true. The book cover is a book's single biggest piece of marketing material, and it completely fails on that front.
Third, the humour. It's supposed to be funny, apparently. I found nothing funny about it. I didn't laugh or chuckle at anything. I didn't even crack a smile. I'm sure the humour is perfect for some people, it just wasn't for me.
Fourth, which is probably the biggest one for me, the vampire lore and how it was handled. Now, I'm all for authors doing their own takes on vampires and vampirism. I'm happy when there's something new and different. However, I'm not too fond of how this was handled. Particularly how one can cure themselves of vampirism. All one has to do is [*spoilers*]sincerely apologize to a person for turning them info a vampire (and therefore taking that person's soul).[/*spoilers*] Do that to everyone you've done that to, if possible, and you become a human again.
There's no explanation for why such a thing works. There doesn't always need to be an explanation of such things, but it felt to me like something that needed justification. And there wasn't. To top it off, most of the book is the protagonist running around the US trying to find all those she turned so she can say sorry so she can have her life back. That wasn't interesting to me at all. Even the backstories of those people weren't interesting. It all felt like padding to me.
Now, a lot of this is me being heavily biased because I like a lot of fantasy in my vampire books. And if the fantasy in minimal, it must be done well. And this was not. 1-star is the most I can give.
If you loved this book, I'm glad for you. I wish I could. It just wasn't for me.
But no. It's actually one of the worst books I've read so far. Let me explain.
First, I don't read chick lit books (aka women's fiction). I don't like how they are usually written. And this book reads like chick lit. That was an automatic turn-off for me. That's probably because I don't act like a lot of women do, nor do I hang out with many women who do. I don't like talking about a lot of stuff women do. It's so boring, even in real life. No way that shit can keep my interest in a book.
Second, the cover is horrible. It looks cheap, like that author couldn't afford a proper cover artist. Since this is a self-pub book, that is likely to be true. The book cover is a book's single biggest piece of marketing material, and it completely fails on that front.
Third, the humour. It's supposed to be funny, apparently. I found nothing funny about it. I didn't laugh or chuckle at anything. I didn't even crack a smile. I'm sure the humour is perfect for some people, it just wasn't for me.
Fourth, which is probably the biggest one for me, the vampire lore and how it was handled. Now, I'm all for authors doing their own takes on vampires and vampirism. I'm happy when there's something new and different. However, I'm not too fond of how this was handled. Particularly how one can cure themselves of vampirism. All one has to do is [*spoilers*]sincerely apologize to a person for turning them info a vampire (and therefore taking that person's soul).[/*spoilers*] Do that to everyone you've done that to, if possible, and you become a human again.
There's no explanation for why such a thing works. There doesn't always need to be an explanation of such things, but it felt to me like something that needed justification. And there wasn't. To top it off, most of the book is the protagonist running around the US trying to find all those she turned so she can say sorry so she can have her life back. That wasn't interesting to me at all. Even the backstories of those people weren't interesting. It all felt like padding to me.
Now, a lot of this is me being heavily biased because I like a lot of fantasy in my vampire books. And if the fantasy in minimal, it must be done well. And this was not. 1-star is the most I can give.
If you loved this book, I'm glad for you. I wish I could. It just wasn't for me.