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Book Review of The Absence of Mercy

The Absence of Mercy
reviewed on + 46 more book reviews


I'm clearly in the minority here, but I didn't find this book to be interesting or well-written at all. It felt like maybe the author started out with a good novella, but the publisher wanted the book to be longer, so the author went through and beefed up his word count by adding huge chunks of pointless crap. I know descriptive writing is supposed to be good, but it shouldn't overpower the actual PLOT. Unfortunately, that's what happens over and over in this book -- pointless filler drags the reader away from the actual story.

For example, at one point, it takes three pages for two men to walk into an office and sit down because we have to hear about the sound of the key in the lock, the janitor who cleaned the floor and how often he did it and how much pride he took in it, how long ago one of the men stopped popping his knuckles, the sound the chairs make when they sit down, and the color of every single item in the room. We see the main couple argue because they both care about their kids? (Huh? I really didn't see how that conversation could possibly devolve into an argument.) We spend multiple pages being subjected to their perfect, Huxtable-esque parenting. There are multiple random flashbacks, just dropped into the middle of actual scenes, and whole chapters made up of dreams that don't really matter to the overall plot.

In short, this book would have been 50% shorter if the author had done what all authors are told to do and cut all scenes that didn't directly further the plot. I found myself skimming page after page after page, hoping to find the actual story again.