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littlemimus 's review for:
The Less-Dead
by April Lurie
I. Finally. Finished! After.... like a month. It was a tough one to read, not because of the content, but because of the poorly conceived mystery, characters that were not developed well enough, and irritating writing style. Still, I did not hate it enough to give it one star.
Let's start with the good. I appreciate the author's efforts in writing about such a topic, which isn't the easiest to delve into because of the many debates over it. It was nice to read a book about a topic that I don't usually read about, and refresh my knowledge.
However, I personally do not think Lurie did enough of a job to earn more than two stars. She did not bring to light anything new to think about, for many of the ideas in the book were ones often told to us, clichéd ones. The plot was not the most original either, and was hard to trudge through (it got easier, up until the halfway point, and then it slowed down). The "mystery" was easy to solve, and I quickly knew who the murderer was. So, I ended up skimming most of the pages.
Let's talk about the characters, who were flat, boring, and forced. The conversations did not feel real for people their age and lines were not original. Never did I think: wow, now that's brilliant. My thought process was more like: stop being a whiny, melodramatic, stereotypical teen that I don't want to root for! The author also tried to add elements of romance, but they did not work (romantic events were too sudden). For such a short novel, she really should have just worked on developing her characters.
The writing was not that great either. Specifically, I didn't like how Lurie explained what everything is, including "prosthetic". I didn't like how she over dramatized things, like Will's " very tragic long story", which, okay, is sad, but it loses the effect when you keep using the word "tragic" to describe it!
Okay, I'm done rambling now. It sucks how sometimes, little things like quirks in the writing style can ruin one's reading experience. I'm disappointed. I haven't read anything good in a while, I noticed... I blame this on the slump. Sorry for the rushed and bad quality review.
Let's start with the good. I appreciate the author's efforts in writing about such a topic, which isn't the easiest to delve into because of the many debates over it. It was nice to read a book about a topic that I don't usually read about, and refresh my knowledge.
However, I personally do not think Lurie did enough of a job to earn more than two stars. She did not bring to light anything new to think about, for many of the ideas in the book were ones often told to us, clichéd ones. The plot was not the most original either, and was hard to trudge through (it got easier, up until the halfway point, and then it slowed down). The "mystery" was easy to solve, and I quickly knew who the murderer was. So, I ended up skimming most of the pages.
Let's talk about the characters, who were flat, boring, and forced. The conversations did not feel real for people their age and lines were not original. Never did I think: wow, now that's brilliant. My thought process was more like: stop being a whiny, melodramatic, stereotypical teen that I don't want to root for! The author also tried to add elements of romance, but they did not work (romantic events were too sudden). For such a short novel, she really should have just worked on developing her characters.
The writing was not that great either. Specifically, I didn't like how Lurie explained what everything is, including "prosthetic". I didn't like how she over dramatized things, like Will's " very tragic long story", which, okay, is sad, but it loses the effect when you keep using the word "tragic" to describe it!
Okay, I'm done rambling now. It sucks how sometimes, little things like quirks in the writing style can ruin one's reading experience. I'm disappointed. I haven't read anything good in a while, I noticed... I blame this on the slump. Sorry for the rushed and bad quality review.