Monday, December 02, 2013

Beyond the Eyes

Beyond The Eyes (Book One)  by Rebekkah Ford
(downloaded free kindle edition)

Rebekkah Ford belongs to a writer/reviewer group I belong to on Facebook. I read the book at her request to review it, but I downloaded the book when it was offered for free by Amazon.com. I was not offered any compensation at all for my review.  

I can't tell you how many times I've begun this review and can't seem to find the right words to explain the basics of the story.  It could have been a pretty good book.  However, the grammar was unforgivably bad.  There was no subject/verb or tense agreement to be found. I'm not sure how this could have gotten past any proof reader or editor. I know that no matter who publishes a book, there are bound to be some problems with the e-version of the book.  You can find typos in the print version, but certainly never to the degree that you find mistakes in the electronic version of a book.  I expect it.  When you find the same mistake over and over again, you know it's a bigger problem.  A singular subject gets a singular verb, plural subjects get plural verbs.  See how I did that?  A sentence written in present tense, must be completely written in present tense.  You can't just switch up the tenses all willy nilly. 

Then there was Paige, the main character.  She's been living on her own for years. Her father died when she was four.  Her mother works as a traveling nurse and rarely comes home.  She's 17 years old and somehow she has completed all of her school assignments months before the end of the school year.  But, we'll let her have that.  She's fairly competent, responsible and disciplined enough that she cares for herself and her studies with no parental supervision at all.  Then she goes out with her friends one night and all of a sudden, she becomes the damsel in distress. Whenever there is a stressful situation, she gets sick or she faints.  Who wants to read about someone describes as completely rational and capable, who turns into someone with the personality and strength of a cooked noodle?  

There is a big jumble of mythology here, the big picture is sort of scrambled and most of the time that could be spent developing that, cluing the reader in on what it all means and giving a reason to support and root for Paige is spent with her being carried away from danger by the love interest and people putting wet washcloths on her head because she's ill or fainted again.  Paige deserves better.  The reader deserves better.  

I read this as part of the COYER challenge.







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