I am like my friend Lynda in that I read a lot and I like mysteries. Unlike Lynda, I have to finish a book once I start it. I am committed, no matter how poorly it is written or how tedious it is to complete ("A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") that I just have to get to the last page. Lynda read some of this book, decided she didn't like it and returned it to the library unfinished. I don't know what she found objectionable. That is her review to write; this is mine. I read the whole book.
When I first heard about "Full Bone Moon" I was excited because I thought it was a true-crime exploration of West Virginia University's Co-ed Murders from the '70s. When I learned that it was fiction and merely jumped off from that historical event, I decided not to spend my money on it. When I saw it in my local library last week, I satisfied my curiosity.
I wish the afterword had been a foreword. I knew it wasn't a true account and that the author changed the names of the original co-eds and the man who confessed to their murder for this work of fiction. However, I kept thinking about the real girls' families and what they might think of this man's treatment of their daughters' tragic memory. How must they feel when WVU is in the national news? Their grief must be fresh every time. It helped me a little to read at the end that the author wants readers to remember that it is fiction and the real horror of headless bodies is far more important than a story told for entertainment.
Note: This is paragraph was added when I edited my review. I was led to believe by the afterword that he changed the names of the coeds and the man convicted of their murder. Actually he used the coeds' real names and changed the murderer's from Schanning to Clawson. Why protect a confessed murderer and not the victims/their families? When I learned that he used their actual names, though he says in the afterword that he means no disrespect by it, I was angry enough to take away a star from my review. I think it is disrespectful -- I see it as using their names to get search engine hits for the book whenever someone searches about their deaths. I am a writer and I don't capitalize on the dead. I am very careful how I treat the memories of victims.
I have read books set in my state before and the details included rang true. This is the first time I would think of accusing the author of having no imagination. His strength must be in plotting and moving the story forward because his weakness is description.
It was well-plotted but overly familiar. He ripped off the settings of Morgantown. I have studied in Wise Library, I have crossed Grumbein Island in front of the "student union" called The Mountainlair. I've driven through Sunnyside. I've walked down High Street and stopped in Slight Indulgence. While I could picture these places as they are today I kept looking for description. Without a frame of reference, if you've never been there, what are you imagining these places look like? I couldn't say.
The lack of description extends to characters. I'm not sure he told me what Michael Chase or Carol Braxton looks like (does she have red hair?) I made their countenances up in my own head and I really couldn't describe it for you ... pieces are missing. But maybe I didn't pay close enough attention and I am guilty of the same crime as the folks who read "The Hunger Games", passed over the description of a character as black, then watched the movie, and discovered her ethnicity.
I was about to award points to the author for sending me to the dictionary. But when I got there I couldn't find the word. I think it's "collinsitive" or "collinsative." I took from the context that the word means cooperative or forthcoming with information. When I went back through the text of the book to find it and check the way I was spelling it, though it appears several times, I couldn't lay eyes on it again. I gave up looking because I already have wasted enough time on this book. Anyway, it was a $5 word.
Starting each section with a date and time that the action is taking place is distracting. I hate it. Eventually I ignored it. I think I can figure out when the action is taking place. And if I can't, shame on the author for not writing that in. I have seen this style before in the methamphetamine novel "Breckenridge County" by Andrew McNeill. I don't like it. I think it is lazy or weaselly.
There are so many misspellings, typos and poor word choices scattered throughout the text of "Full Bone Moon" it kept tripping up this editor. He wrote alter when he meant altar and curly-cues instead of curlicues and numerous others. Did no one proofread this book before it went to press? These are glaring errors, not subtle ones.
Despite not being able to fully picture the hero, Michael Chase, in my mind, I identified with him. Least of which, I, too, quit the Morgantown newspaper, where I had been mistreated, to follow my dream of freelancing. Moreso, I work like he does -- I procrastinate but when I do get a story sorted out in my head, it flows quickly.
I have to give the author props for his plotting though. I was disappointed with the first section because I felt like the author was showing/telling us too much about the villain. I felt like we were smart enough to figure it out on our own ... let the story unfold ... but I fell for the author's deception. At the risk of spoiling it, I won't go on.
I would not say this is a book I couldn't put down. I wouldn't put it down. Because that's how I am. Are you like me or like my friend Lynda? Either way, this is worth checking out of the library for the plot alone ... don't spend money on it ... and know you'll have to excuse or overlook some things.
When I first heard about "Full Bone Moon" I was excited because I thought it was a true-crime exploration of West Virginia University's Co-ed Murders from the '70s. When I learned that it was fiction and merely jumped off from that historical event, I decided not to spend my money on it. When I saw it in my local library last week, I satisfied my curiosity.
I wish the afterword had been a foreword. I knew it wasn't a true account and that the author changed the names of the original co-eds and the man who confessed to their murder for this work of fiction. However, I kept thinking about the real girls' families and what they might think of this man's treatment of their daughters' tragic memory. How must they feel when WVU is in the national news? Their grief must be fresh every time. It helped me a little to read at the end that the author wants readers to remember that it is fiction and the real horror of headless bodies is far more important than a story told for entertainment.
Note: This is paragraph was added when I edited my review. I was led to believe by the afterword that he changed the names of the coeds and the man convicted of their murder. Actually he used the coeds' real names and changed the murderer's from Schanning to Clawson. Why protect a confessed murderer and not the victims/their families? When I learned that he used their actual names, though he says in the afterword that he means no disrespect by it, I was angry enough to take away a star from my review. I think it is disrespectful -- I see it as using their names to get search engine hits for the book whenever someone searches about their deaths. I am a writer and I don't capitalize on the dead. I am very careful how I treat the memories of victims.
I have read books set in my state before and the details included rang true. This is the first time I would think of accusing the author of having no imagination. His strength must be in plotting and moving the story forward because his weakness is description.
It was well-plotted but overly familiar. He ripped off the settings of Morgantown. I have studied in Wise Library, I have crossed Grumbein Island in front of the "student union" called The Mountainlair. I've driven through Sunnyside. I've walked down High Street and stopped in Slight Indulgence. While I could picture these places as they are today I kept looking for description. Without a frame of reference, if you've never been there, what are you imagining these places look like? I couldn't say.
The lack of description extends to characters. I'm not sure he told me what Michael Chase or Carol Braxton looks like (does she have red hair?) I made their countenances up in my own head and I really couldn't describe it for you ... pieces are missing. But maybe I didn't pay close enough attention and I am guilty of the same crime as the folks who read "The Hunger Games", passed over the description of a character as black, then watched the movie, and discovered her ethnicity.
I was about to award points to the author for sending me to the dictionary. But when I got there I couldn't find the word. I think it's "collinsitive" or "collinsative." I took from the context that the word means cooperative or forthcoming with information. When I went back through the text of the book to find it and check the way I was spelling it, though it appears several times, I couldn't lay eyes on it again. I gave up looking because I already have wasted enough time on this book. Anyway, it was a $5 word.
Starting each section with a date and time that the action is taking place is distracting. I hate it. Eventually I ignored it. I think I can figure out when the action is taking place. And if I can't, shame on the author for not writing that in. I have seen this style before in the methamphetamine novel "Breckenridge County" by Andrew McNeill. I don't like it. I think it is lazy or weaselly.
There are so many misspellings, typos and poor word choices scattered throughout the text of "Full Bone Moon" it kept tripping up this editor. He wrote alter when he meant altar and curly-cues instead of curlicues and numerous others. Did no one proofread this book before it went to press? These are glaring errors, not subtle ones.
Despite not being able to fully picture the hero, Michael Chase, in my mind, I identified with him. Least of which, I, too, quit the Morgantown newspaper, where I had been mistreated, to follow my dream of freelancing. Moreso, I work like he does -- I procrastinate but when I do get a story sorted out in my head, it flows quickly.
I have to give the author props for his plotting though. I was disappointed with the first section because I felt like the author was showing/telling us too much about the villain. I felt like we were smart enough to figure it out on our own ... let the story unfold ... but I fell for the author's deception. At the risk of spoiling it, I won't go on.
I would not say this is a book I couldn't put down. I wouldn't put it down. Because that's how I am. Are you like me or like my friend Lynda? Either way, this is worth checking out of the library for the plot alone ... don't spend money on it ... and know you'll have to excuse or overlook some things.
