Book (not) Bingo #15

[dancingpony]

Checked Out  by Elizabeth Spann Craig

Comments

[tinturtle]

[tinturtle]

It does sound like a fun premise. It's a shame it wasn't better.

[dancingpony]

Yes. My impression was that the author wasn’t having fun, and that makes a big difference.

[lee_the_t]

Just read a sample on Amazon and OMG I see what you mean. The writing is rushed, impersonal, clumsy, wholly without details (the kind that bring things to life) and in the short snippet I've already seen a few typos (like missing words). Surely these are self-published? Reading on, I find that her pants, which were black when she was kneeling in the culvert, are now khaki. And she had to describe her shoulder length black hair from her inevitable pause to gaze in a mirror. Argh. It's bad.

[dancingpony]

Actually, there were some descriptive details, but they seemed to be thrown in at random. Most of the book, though, was just “I did this, and then I did that, and then I did this….” In a flat voice. Things that should have been exciting, or at least interesting, came across as perfunctory. For instance, when our librarian started getting threatening notes warning her to stop snooping, did the police chief warn her to stay out of his investigation? Nope. He just told her that she was a grown up and could make her own decisions but she should be careful. It was like nobody really cared about anything.

[nakeisha]

What a shame, I thought it sounded, as you did, really interesting and should have been a good read.

[dancingpony]

This is another series, unfortunately, where “the book covers are really cute” is one of the highlights.

[gilda_elise]

Sounds like she's really not much of a writer. Are the books self-published? They sure sound that way.

[dancingpony]

I’m not sure. Her bio on Amazon sort of implies that she has a publisher (Penguin Random House) but most of her book listings show her as the publisher. My guess is that one or a few of her earliest books were published by PRH but that her current series are self-published. Maybe she showed some early potential but opted for quantity over quality?? That does seem to be the case with some writers who self-publish.