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2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Friday, November 22, 2013
What's the Most Difficult Kind of Review to Write? This Kind.
1:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
It's tough to diss a book when you request it from an author (who also happens to be related to a friend of yours), she gladly sends you one of her last copies, and is just super sweet about the whole thing. This is the hardest part of reviewing for me—wanting to be honest without offending kind, hardworking authors. It's most important, though, for my readers to trust me, so here we go with the honest-even-though-I-don't-want-to-be review:
I really, really, really wanted to love Dead Girls Don't Lie, Jennifer Shaw Wolf's second novel. But I just didn't. Since I grew up in a small town in rural Washington State, I did like the book's familiar setting as well as the conflict between Mexican migrant workers and small-minded local yokels (not that I like that kind of conflict, I just like that it's fresh, something I haven't encountered before in YA lit). It's a current kind of problem, one I observed firsthand while growing up; it's a hot topic even now, especially in states like Arizona (my current location), which border Mexico. The whole gang plot, though, seemed a little too melodramatic for rural Washington. It didn't ring very true to me. I also had a problem connecting to the characters in Dead Girls Don't Lie. None of them struck me as particularly likable. They didn't seem to like each other much either, as I felt little warmth between any of them. Add that to a far-fetched plotline with some big holes, and yeah, this one just didn't do a lot for me. Wolf's got lots of potential, though, so I'll keep an eye on her. Hopefully, her next venture will be a little more to my liking.
(Readalikes: I'm sure there are many, but nothing's coming to mind ...)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for language (no F-bombs), violence and sexual innuendo
To the FTC, with love: I received a finished copy of Dead Girls Don't Lie from the very generous Jennifer Shaw Wolf. Thank you!
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