Fated by Allyson
Noel. I hated this book. I’m not going to get into it because I disliked it that
much. If I hadn’t read it for school, I would have put it down after the first
paragraph.
More than Midnight by
Brian James Freeman.
“What They Left Behind” A cool, creepy story. There was just
enough subtly not right about the scenes to give it a pervasively unsettling
feeling.
“The Final Lesson” A revenge story, which isn’t usually my
thing, but this focused more on the mourning than the quest or act of revenge,
which is almost an afterthought, while being the climax, of the story.
“Among Us” A monster story with lawyers. Nice twist. In the
end it takes the concept a bit too far, I think, but Brian pulls it off.
“Pulled Into Darkness” Strong suspense. Most of the story is
waiting, and that is driven—as it should be—by expectation. A great suspense
story.
“Answering the Call” I’ve told many people over the years
that this is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read—even had a discussion
with Tom Monteleone a few years back about the genius of it. Brian builds it
slowly, almost like Charlie Grant would, and it’s unique. He gets everything
right in this story. Really great.
I've been hearing a lot of negative buzz about FATED on the SHU board and from my ex-numbers.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, I'm glad that MORE THAN MIDNIGHT is so great. As you know, I do love short fiction, and horror-ish stories will always own a dark corner of my heart.
It's really awful. The author's had some big sellers and has published a lot of books, so I'm thinking it's just this book, but I don't know. It might be like Scott's Sarah Pinborough pick. She is an amazing writer who has many phenomenal books, and he picked the one bad one for the class and turned them all off to her, which is a shame. As for the other, Brian should be a much bigger name. He's a great writer.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on Fated on page 40. I may try to pick it up again after my family leaves, but... It's not even romance, so I feel like I'm wasting my time. Not to mention that it is just a very bad book. And you're right about Breeding Ground--that made me never want to read Sarah Pinborough again, which is unfortunate. But I may give her another try based on your opinion of her.
ReplyDeleteI only gave up on a Tess Gerritsen book for SHU, but FATED is tempting me. The only thing making me what to finish it is to have complete knowledge of the story to better refute anyone saying this was a good romance, let alone a good book, for us to read in the program.
ReplyDeletefor those that gave up on Sarah Pinborough, I highly recommend either THE TAKEN, THE LANGUAGE OF DYING, or A MATTER OF BLOOD. There are others, but those are the ones I tend to recommend to people first.
Definitely looking forward to checking out MORE THAN MIDNIGHT.