Anne Z. (aszanoni) reviewed on + 20 more book reviews
I started this book with high hopes.
They crashed.
Clunky writing as the book progresses... which I might have been able to excuse in a teen author who did NOT get published. But this author did get published, and her editor saw no reason to expend any effort on making the book shine. Thus failing author, book, and readers.
The sad thing is that the book begins promisingly.
(Minor quibble: And anyone who thinks a teenager in school could write 29 books [yes, TWENTY-NINE] in five years is insane. How would she have the time??? Granted, Alan Dean Foster publishes up to 8 books a year, but he's not a high school student; he's an adult *full-time* author. Not everyone can write whole novels in a month or two!)
However, the real problem is the "leper" Jessica. A classic bait and switch; by the time you find out why, you don't care, and it doesn't seem plausible either. It should be a revelation, this whole problem with Jessica and other people, and instead it comes across as something that got hastily shoehorned into the story.
DiMV had a cool premise which it did not live up to. I have a strong feeling that it was actually a short story that got stretched out too far.
I read just about everything, and this ranks with Vivian Vande Velde for disappointing fiction. It makes me grit my teeth for the sheer waste, because DiMV should have been able to live up to its promise.
They crashed.
Clunky writing as the book progresses... which I might have been able to excuse in a teen author who did NOT get published. But this author did get published, and her editor saw no reason to expend any effort on making the book shine. Thus failing author, book, and readers.
The sad thing is that the book begins promisingly.
(Minor quibble: And anyone who thinks a teenager in school could write 29 books [yes, TWENTY-NINE] in five years is insane. How would she have the time??? Granted, Alan Dean Foster publishes up to 8 books a year, but he's not a high school student; he's an adult *full-time* author. Not everyone can write whole novels in a month or two!)
However, the real problem is the "leper" Jessica. A classic bait and switch; by the time you find out why, you don't care, and it doesn't seem plausible either. It should be a revelation, this whole problem with Jessica and other people, and instead it comes across as something that got hastily shoehorned into the story.
DiMV had a cool premise which it did not live up to. I have a strong feeling that it was actually a short story that got stretched out too far.
I read just about everything, and this ranks with Vivian Vande Velde for disappointing fiction. It makes me grit my teeth for the sheer waste, because DiMV should have been able to live up to its promise.
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