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A review by flyingleaps
Sedition by Katharine Grant
2.0
I was so excited to get this book from the Early Reviewer program over on LibraryThing, and then it took me this long to read it (whoops), so I can hardly call this review Early any more, but let me tell you why:
I just. Didn't. Like it.
I can't tell if it's that there's far too much going on in the story (which there was) or if it was just a lack of a cohesive idea underpinning it all but it was tiresome to get through. It's taken me since April to get through the book because I kept picking it up and putting it down again for something different.
I won't rehash the plot (or rather, what's the plot claims to be), because that can read any number of other places. The basic conceit is hardly new: five nouveau riche girls are in need of husbands, with titles if possible. I suppose this is where one set of reviewers drew the Jane Austen parallel. The approach was what was supposed to set this novel apart: a "wicked...romp", a "fun, lascivious gambol", "rowdy, elegant and kick-ass".
I want to find every one of these reviewers and find out how dull their lives are that these were the words they chose. That, and to present them with both dictionary and thesaurus so that they might find better, more accurate descriptors. Of all the ones claiming it was witty, I can agree that were moments, single passages that caught my attention. Here and there in this 306-page novel, there were half a dozen pairs of sentences that caught me for a moment with the beauty of the writing.
The rest of it was simultaneously dull and jarring. Too much time was spent on minutiae and major plot points were rushed through. None of the characters were fully developed and most of all, I care not a bit about any of them. Nor did the author ever, EVER give me reason to. A physical deformity is not going to make me care, one way or the other. I don't give a damn who someone sleeps with so you're going to have to try harder than that, too.
This was an interesting idea poorly executed. With another round of hard edits, the deletion of secondary plotlines and a general splash of caffeine to the language, characters and story as a whole, it might be worth recommending. At least they could do enough to punch of the story to make it worth such an evocative title.
I just. Didn't. Like it.
I can't tell if it's that there's far too much going on in the story (which there was) or if it was just a lack of a cohesive idea underpinning it all but it was tiresome to get through. It's taken me since April to get through the book because I kept picking it up and putting it down again for something different.
I won't rehash the plot (or rather, what's the plot claims to be), because that can read any number of other places. The basic conceit is hardly new: five nouveau riche girls are in need of husbands, with titles if possible. I suppose this is where one set of reviewers drew the Jane Austen parallel. The approach was what was supposed to set this novel apart: a "wicked...romp", a "fun, lascivious gambol", "rowdy, elegant and kick-ass".
I want to find every one of these reviewers and find out how dull their lives are that these were the words they chose. That, and to present them with both dictionary and thesaurus so that they might find better, more accurate descriptors. Of all the ones claiming it was witty, I can agree that were moments, single passages that caught my attention. Here and there in this 306-page novel, there were half a dozen pairs of sentences that caught me for a moment with the beauty of the writing.
The rest of it was simultaneously dull and jarring. Too much time was spent on minutiae and major plot points were rushed through. None of the characters were fully developed and most of all, I care not a bit about any of them. Nor did the author ever, EVER give me reason to. A physical deformity is not going to make me care, one way or the other. I don't give a damn who someone sleeps with so you're going to have to try harder than that, too.
This was an interesting idea poorly executed. With another round of hard edits, the deletion of secondary plotlines and a general splash of caffeine to the language, characters and story as a whole, it might be worth recommending. At least they could do enough to punch of the story to make it worth such an evocative title.