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A review by tobin_elliott
The God Damn Dead by Colt Skinner
Did not finish book. Stopped at 56%.
Well, hell. I hate when this happens.
I hate when I find a book like this, that seems like a lot of fun, the writing's decent, but there's a point where all the little mistakes start adding up to a point where I'm so pulled out of the story that it's not worth continuing.
Most of the blame must fall on the utterly deplorable editing job. There's points where someone is crying, and the tears leave "steaks" on the person's face. There's a point where someone cowered away from something, but it was written as "coward." There's so many mentions of Beretta firearms, and it's always a toss up as to whether the term will be capitalized or not, however the more egregious error was that, with the exception of once in the 123 pages I got through, it's constantly spelled "Baretta"...which is the 70s cop show starring Robert Blake. Only once was it actually spelled "beretta" so I believe that was a "mistake" that made it through. There's a point where the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario, is mentioned, however, it's referred to as Smith Falls.
But there's other inconsistencies. For example, I was excited to have one of the main characters pull off the highway, right into my home town, then the character mentions getting on Highway 26... except, Hwy 26 is a solid hour and change away, connecting the towns of Barrie and Owen Sound. There's a Regional Road 26, but even that is in the neighbouring town of Whitby.
Am I being a stickler? Perhaps. But I'm a writer as well. And if I'm using real places, I'm going to do everything I can to ensure their accuracy. Do mistakes happen? Of course. But when "beretta" and "Smiths Falls" and "Highway 26" are a quick google search away, and the grammatical errors are, by the mid-point of the book, coming every 3-5 pages, I just can't.
Nothing against the author. As I said, he's a damn good writer, and if he gets something published with a different house and editor, I'll absolutely read him again. But this? I just can't.
DNF at page 123. No rating.
I hate when I find a book like this, that seems like a lot of fun, the writing's decent, but there's a point where all the little mistakes start adding up to a point where I'm so pulled out of the story that it's not worth continuing.
Most of the blame must fall on the utterly deplorable editing job. There's points where someone is crying, and the tears leave "steaks" on the person's face. There's a point where someone cowered away from something, but it was written as "coward." There's so many mentions of Beretta firearms, and it's always a toss up as to whether the term will be capitalized or not, however the more egregious error was that, with the exception of once in the 123 pages I got through, it's constantly spelled "Baretta"...which is the 70s cop show starring Robert Blake. Only once was it actually spelled "beretta" so I believe that was a "mistake" that made it through. There's a point where the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario, is mentioned, however, it's referred to as Smith Falls.
But there's other inconsistencies. For example, I was excited to have one of the main characters pull off the highway, right into my home town, then the character mentions getting on Highway 26... except, Hwy 26 is a solid hour and change away, connecting the towns of Barrie and Owen Sound. There's a Regional Road 26, but even that is in the neighbouring town of Whitby.
Am I being a stickler? Perhaps. But I'm a writer as well. And if I'm using real places, I'm going to do everything I can to ensure their accuracy. Do mistakes happen? Of course. But when "beretta" and "Smiths Falls" and "Highway 26" are a quick google search away, and the grammatical errors are, by the mid-point of the book, coming every 3-5 pages, I just can't.
Nothing against the author. As I said, he's a damn good writer, and if he gets something published with a different house and editor, I'll absolutely read him again. But this? I just can't.
DNF at page 123. No rating.