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A review by juliat2006
Moral Compass by Danielle Steel
medium-paced
1.5
A pretty cover for a deceptive and disappointing book.
The blurb for this book was promising. However, as I read the book, I realised that the violence made out on the blurb was much different to that in the book. I picked up this book because I assumed the people had gotten into a brutal fight, not that the violence was sexual in nature. As far as I'm aware, there was no trigger warning for this book - and it should have come with one.
The whole incident came out of nowhere, was described very bluntly and then was over as soon as it started. My jaw was agape from shock over what I was reading. This is probably where I should have dropped the book, but I didn't. The aftermath of this wasn't treated to well either, since the author tried to gather sympathy for the rapist.
Let's go back to the beginning. In the first chapter, the majority of the characters were introduced to us. I am not joking when I say this, but I counted 33 named characters. Most of these characters are minor roles in the story and quite irrelevant, and shouldn't have been named in the first place. Who cares about all these parents? Most of them are skimmed past anyway.
There were so many characters and they had so little substance. They are literally one-dimensional. I wouldn't even be able to tell you their personalities, they were like a melting pot. I could only tell you their most defining features. Meet the riveting cast: The girl, The Bad Guy, The one the girl liked, The one with movie star parents, The Poor one, The Abused one, Police woman, Female School worker, The Nerd, The Asian one, Horrid dad #1, and Shepard.
Overloading your reader with information within the first few pages is not the way to go. There were several ways to start this book that would have made it more engaging, but infodumping was Danielle's choice. In fact, this type of narration is continued for the rest of the book. Tell, tell, tell and little show. And sometimes, when she tells, she tells something that was irrelevant to the conversation the characters were having. Please, do tell us the whole backstory of this married couple, it's not as if an investigation is taking place.
Moreover, the book treats the reader as if they are stupid and have the memory of Dory the fish. Information is repeated every few pages as if you hadn't just read it. Several pages could have been cut out if these parts were excluded, perhaps a third or even a half of this book.
Lastly, why on Earth was a romance added to this book at the end? I felt no chemistry between the two characters and it felt a little disgusting to add it in a book with such a serious topic matter. It felt like it was just slapped together at the last minute.
This is not worth the read. I am sure there are books that handle this topic much better than this one. Please consider other novel for your sanity. 2/5 stars.
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Key note: Shepard is named because he has the most horrid lines out of this book towards our female protagonist Vivienne and her unfortunate fate, since he would constantly slut-shame her. Shame. Shame on him.
Other note: The best line in this entire book was, "Lawrence Gray [...] had asked if they would be renaming the school Saint Sodom and Gomorrah" on page 3. I smiled at this as I understood the reference. The book only went downhill from here.
The blurb for this book was promising. However, as I read the book, I realised that the violence made out on the blurb was much different to that in the book. I picked up this book because I assumed the people had gotten into a brutal fight, not that the violence was sexual in nature. As far as I'm aware, there was no trigger warning for this book - and it should have come with one.
The whole incident came out of nowhere, was described very bluntly and then was over as soon as it started. My jaw was agape from shock over what I was reading. This is probably where I should have dropped the book, but I didn't. The aftermath of this wasn't treated to well either, since the author tried to gather sympathy for the rapist.
Let's go back to the beginning. In the first chapter, the majority of the characters were introduced to us. I am not joking when I say this, but I counted 33 named characters. Most of these characters are minor roles in the story and quite irrelevant, and shouldn't have been named in the first place. Who cares about all these parents? Most of them are skimmed past anyway.
There were so many characters and they had so little substance. They are literally one-dimensional. I wouldn't even be able to tell you their personalities, they were like a melting pot. I could only tell you their most defining features. Meet the riveting cast: The girl, The Bad Guy, The one the girl liked, The one with movie star parents, The Poor one, The Abused one, Police woman, Female School worker, The Nerd, The Asian one, Horrid dad #1, and Shepard.
Overloading your reader with information within the first few pages is not the way to go. There were several ways to start this book that would have made it more engaging, but infodumping was Danielle's choice. In fact, this type of narration is continued for the rest of the book. Tell, tell, tell and little show. And sometimes, when she tells, she tells something that was irrelevant to the conversation the characters were having. Please, do tell us the whole backstory of this married couple, it's not as if an investigation is taking place.
Moreover, the book treats the reader as if they are stupid and have the memory of Dory the fish. Information is repeated every few pages as if you hadn't just read it. Several pages could have been cut out if these parts were excluded, perhaps a third or even a half of this book.
Lastly, why on Earth was a romance added to this book at the end? I felt no chemistry between the two characters and it felt a little disgusting to add it in a book with such a serious topic matter. It felt like it was just slapped together at the last minute.
This is not worth the read. I am sure there are books that handle this topic much better than this one. Please consider other novel for your sanity. 2/5 stars.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Key note: Shepard is named because he has the most horrid lines out of this book towards our female protagonist Vivienne and her unfortunate fate, since he would constantly slut-shame her. Shame. Shame on him.
Other note: The best line in this entire book was, "Lawrence Gray [...] had asked if they would be renaming the school Saint Sodom and Gomorrah" on page 3. I smiled at this as I understood the reference. The book only went downhill from here.