I keep a long list of books I want to read, added to a website called GoodReads, and whenever I am looking for my next book I see what is available from that list at the library. Often times I can’t remember how the book got onto my list, so I am truly going in blind. When reading ebooks, I don’t even have the sleeve or back cover to get a summary.
Sometimes this produces a profoundly sublime experience – I don’t even know the genre I am reading so there is plenty of room for surprise and mostly they are pleasant. However this book produced some surprises that had me going, “WTF?”
This book is set in New York in 2015, including all the technology and pop culture from the time, and already six years afterwards it feels dated. The story revolves around a couple of people in love, and then careens out of control to include witches on forgotten New York islands off the shores of Brooklyn, spooky hackers and underground dwelling demons.
I suppose I could have gone along with the story but since it started out so normally I couldn’t really suspend disbelief long enough to get caught up in it. In addition, I thought the dialogue between characters had a amateurish quality that didn’t ring true, and too much needless info was written in that could have easily been cut.
I’m no writer and it isn’t for me to judge, but it seemed like a good editor would have gone a long way here. Let’s hope the book turns out to be a learning experience for the author.
The next book I’m reading is Four Lost Cities, a non-fiction book on ancient lost cities by Annalee Newitz.
