30 Day Book Meme (2014 version) - Day 18
May. 24th, 2014 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desertvixenDay 18 – A book that disappointed you
2010 Answer: Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy - Two Shall Become One
Okay, so this year's answer was not as bad as the last one. That would have taken some special talent.
This year's answer is more disappointing, because it could have been really good. Two For Sorrow by Nicola Upson features a 1930s writer, Josephine Tey (who in reality wrote Daughter of Time, which is quite good - also Tey was a penname for the actual author, to my understanding) and of course, she runs into mysteries. I tried another book by the same author when it was cheap on Kindle, but gave up on it because it was heavily focused on theatre personalities of the era, something I really don't care about.
My review on Amazon is here.
Two for Sorrow opens with Tey working on a novel based on a historical crime, the Finchley baby farmers. Of course, because she's a mystery writer in a mystery novel, we know this is not going to go well.
2010 Answer: Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy - Two Shall Become One
Okay, so this year's answer was not as bad as the last one. That would have taken some special talent.
This year's answer is more disappointing, because it could have been really good. Two For Sorrow by Nicola Upson features a 1930s writer, Josephine Tey (who in reality wrote Daughter of Time, which is quite good - also Tey was a penname for the actual author, to my understanding) and of course, she runs into mysteries. I tried another book by the same author when it was cheap on Kindle, but gave up on it because it was heavily focused on theatre personalities of the era, something I really don't care about.
My review on Amazon is here.
Two for Sorrow opens with Tey working on a novel based on a historical crime, the Finchley baby farmers. Of course, because she's a mystery writer in a mystery novel, we know this is not going to go well.
The novel features "draft chapters" interspersed with actual action. Stylistically, a nice touch, with a hint of reminder that people don't always tell the whole truth.
So, as I say in my Amazon review, the first murder was over-the-top calculated and brutal. And by "over-the-top calculated and brutal", I mean the killer went to the victim's place of work, drugged her with a paralytic so she was aware of what was going on and feeling the pain, force-fed her glass beads (so of course bleeding and choking), then sewed her lips together with a sack needle, THEN propped her up in front of a mirror to watch herself die by choking on her own vomit.
Yes, I almost stopped reading right then. The victim was attempting to blackmail the killer, but if you want to dispose of a threat, you do so with less sensation and obviousness, in my book. The second murder is brutal, but more expedient - pushed down a staircase with a big pan of hot cocoa - hello scalding and head injuries. There's another murder that happened first chronologically, but that we find out about last, that was also expedient rather than needlessly brutal.
Personal issues start bogging down the middle of the book, with a bunch of the people from the first book that I didn't care about then. There's a lesbian scene that I thought was tastefully done, although history is ambiguous on whether or not the actual person was.
Some of the plot twists were surprising until you looked back and they made sense. That part was well done. The ending was weak though, and would have been better served not to include the last "draft chapter" but to end it with Josephine's conversation with one of the other people involved - it would have been better dramatically and driven home the lesson, as well as linking her back to the beginning. The reader is left questioning the truthfulness of the end - I lean towards her writing a truth she wanted someone to read.
So, as I say in my Amazon review, the first murder was over-the-top calculated and brutal. And by "over-the-top calculated and brutal", I mean the killer went to the victim's place of work, drugged her with a paralytic so she was aware of what was going on and feeling the pain, force-fed her glass beads (so of course bleeding and choking), then sewed her lips together with a sack needle, THEN propped her up in front of a mirror to watch herself die by choking on her own vomit.
Yes, I almost stopped reading right then. The victim was attempting to blackmail the killer, but if you want to dispose of a threat, you do so with less sensation and obviousness, in my book. The second murder is brutal, but more expedient - pushed down a staircase with a big pan of hot cocoa - hello scalding and head injuries. There's another murder that happened first chronologically, but that we find out about last, that was also expedient rather than needlessly brutal.
Personal issues start bogging down the middle of the book, with a bunch of the people from the first book that I didn't care about then. There's a lesbian scene that I thought was tastefully done, although history is ambiguous on whether or not the actual person was.
Some of the plot twists were surprising until you looked back and they made sense. That part was well done. The ending was weak though, and would have been better served not to include the last "draft chapter" but to end it with Josephine's conversation with one of the other people involved - it would have been better dramatically and driven home the lesson, as well as linking her back to the beginning. The reader is left questioning the truthfulness of the end - I lean towards her writing a truth she wanted someone to read.
I just wanted to like it more than I did.
DV
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time
