I usually try new authors if the book is short enough and sounds promising enough. Which this one did. And sure, it was indeed short. Quality wise it left a lot to be desired.
It isn’t an easy or a nice task to rip a book that’s obviously someone’s beloved baby, gestated for seven long years despite the entire collection being only 130 pages. And this isn’t technically a rip. This is more of an I didn’t care for this book sort of thing. Tried, but in the end just didn’t.
It’s composed and plotted competently enough to be readable, but there was something diaphanous and oddly pompous about the style of writing that just didn’t work for me. But the most pompous thing of all was including a book club guide to it. Now that took balls. Sure, many books do that, but they are usually properly sized books from mainstream authors and major publishers, not a tiny collection by an unknown. Guess no matter what readers might think of his work, the author has a very high opinion of it, indeed.
It’s a nice, if misplaced, display of beef in one’s own talent. Or maybe it’s just wildly aspirational.
And then there’s another thing and that’s more likely on publishers, but at any rate, someone had to have been responsible for providing such a crappily formatted ARC with the word not for sale screaming at readers from every page often midsentence, among other formatting snafus. Seriously? Who’s going to steal this book? Why would they? Who’s even heard of it? All it does is detract dramatically from the reading enjoyment such as there was to be found here.
I read tons of Netgalley ARCs from a variety of publishers and seldom do I find one like this. Most seems to grasp that providing a messed up copy makes for a messed up reading experience and might affect reviews and isn’t the entire idea behind this to generate early praise for a book?
Anyway, no praise here, sorry, not sorry. Don’t even know if an author as self assured as this one needs it. This was a quick yet disappointing read that tried. Nothing fantastic here, though. Just some mildly entertaining tales of misfits and oddballs. There’s a Sasquatch, though, so that gets some credit. Otherwise, either pass or wait for a properly formatted copy. Thanks Netgalley.