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A review by brennanaphone
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
2.0
Lol WHAT. Did this book think it could hide plagiarism by wrapping it in enough weirdness?
I was HERE for the weirdness, btw. Loved the Western/fantasy mash-up. Undead drudges, demigods, keys and strange houses, postal service anthropomorphized animals. Into that. And then, for no reason I can understand, it turned into the 1998 Nora Ephron rom-com You've Got Mail.
I don't mean like the plot of the book reflected the movie. After all, You've Got Mail is a remake of the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner, and the concept itself is older than dirt. I mean that there are at least three scenes that are lifted almost word-for-word, so much so that I read the dialogue variously in Dave Chapelle's, Meg Ryan's, and Tom Hanks' voices. In a fantasy Western! Why did Bannen feel the need to do this? Did she lose a bet??
I think I could have handled this strange tangent if she had done something new with it. Tom Hanks knowing Meg Ryan is his secret pen pal and using that knowledge to manipulate her into dating him was creepy, and I wish Bannen had done something else with this, or just left it out altogether.
I was HERE for the weirdness, btw. Loved the Western/fantasy mash-up. Undead drudges, demigods, keys and strange houses, postal service anthropomorphized animals. Into that. And then, for no reason I can understand, it turned into the 1998 Nora Ephron rom-com You've Got Mail.
I don't mean like the plot of the book reflected the movie. After all, You've Got Mail is a remake of the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner, and the concept itself is older than dirt. I mean that there are at least three scenes that are lifted almost word-for-word, so much so that I read the dialogue variously in Dave Chapelle's, Meg Ryan's, and Tom Hanks' voices. In a fantasy Western! Why did Bannen feel the need to do this? Did she lose a bet??
I think I could have handled this strange tangent if she had done something new with it. Tom Hanks knowing Meg Ryan is his secret pen pal and using that knowledge to manipulate her into dating him was creepy, and I wish Bannen had done something else with this, or just left it out altogether.