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A review by subtlemurder
The Night Stalker by Chris Carter
2.0
I am rating this book 2/5 stars because I CANNOT stand the writing style.
Every single chapter ends on a cliffhanger:
OOPS. THE PHONE RANG. WHO COULD IT BE?! DUN DUN DUN!!
OMG. I OPENED A DRAW AND AM SHOCKED AT WHAT'S INSIDE. WHAT COULD IT BE?! DUN DUN DUN!!
SOMEONE CALLED ME AND TOLD ME SOMETHING ON THE PHONE, AND I HAD A REACTION. WHAT DID THEY SAY?! DUN DUN DUN!!
Stop. Just stop. This is an absolutely ridiculous way to build suspense in a novel. It's amateur writing. After three or four chapters I wanted to throw this book across the room because it made me so angry as a reader to be treated like I had the intelligence of a 5 year old. "Oops! Where did your nose go?! PEEKABOO!".
I also cannot fathom HOW characters like Garcia even made it into the police force when they're so blatantly stupid. Robert Hunter is the only person who is able to decipher anything, to have insight or outside perspective on cases, who is able to put threads together. Robert Hunter just /knows/ shit because he's apparently super buff, and super smart, and super amazing. Is Robert Hunter some kind of fantasy vehicle for the author? Because it reads that way and it is SUPER embarrassing if that's the case.
Also, if you're going to ask real life police detectives and forensic labs about the mechanisms of your plot devices, can you please NOT insert them into the narrative of your story as an almost word-for-word explanation of what they would have said to you? Good Lord. The amount of times I had to read something being explained to me - I don't need a forensic breakdown of the how and the why your plot mechanisms would work. Do you not believe in your own writing THAT much that you have to explain it to your readers?
I am so disappointed because I had heard nothing but good things about Chris Carter's books. Working in the book industry for 11+ years, I managed to accumulate some of his titles over time and this is the first time I'm sitting down to read them and I cannot believe the utter crap I have just subjected myself to. Is this what audiences have become these days? Throw a couple of grotesque deaths in there and people will turn a blind eye to God-awful writing skills? This is shameful.
I don't know if I will bother reading anymore from this author. I have a few others and, whilst the plots sound interesting (as the idea for this story was an interesting one), I wouldn't be able to read them if they're all written like this. You'd only end up seeing my ranting all over more of his reviews pages.
Peace out. :\
Every single chapter ends on a cliffhanger:
OOPS. THE PHONE RANG. WHO COULD IT BE?! DUN DUN DUN!!
OMG. I OPENED A DRAW AND AM SHOCKED AT WHAT'S INSIDE. WHAT COULD IT BE?! DUN DUN DUN!!
SOMEONE CALLED ME AND TOLD ME SOMETHING ON THE PHONE, AND I HAD A REACTION. WHAT DID THEY SAY?! DUN DUN DUN!!
Stop. Just stop. This is an absolutely ridiculous way to build suspense in a novel. It's amateur writing. After three or four chapters I wanted to throw this book across the room because it made me so angry as a reader to be treated like I had the intelligence of a 5 year old. "Oops! Where did your nose go?! PEEKABOO!".
I also cannot fathom HOW characters like Garcia even made it into the police force when they're so blatantly stupid. Robert Hunter is the only person who is able to decipher anything, to have insight or outside perspective on cases, who is able to put threads together. Robert Hunter just /knows/ shit because he's apparently super buff, and super smart, and super amazing. Is Robert Hunter some kind of fantasy vehicle for the author? Because it reads that way and it is SUPER embarrassing if that's the case.
Also, if you're going to ask real life police detectives and forensic labs about the mechanisms of your plot devices, can you please NOT insert them into the narrative of your story as an almost word-for-word explanation of what they would have said to you? Good Lord. The amount of times I had to read something being explained to me - I don't need a forensic breakdown of the how and the why your plot mechanisms would work. Do you not believe in your own writing THAT much that you have to explain it to your readers?
I am so disappointed because I had heard nothing but good things about Chris Carter's books. Working in the book industry for 11+ years, I managed to accumulate some of his titles over time and this is the first time I'm sitting down to read them and I cannot believe the utter crap I have just subjected myself to. Is this what audiences have become these days? Throw a couple of grotesque deaths in there and people will turn a blind eye to God-awful writing skills? This is shameful.
I don't know if I will bother reading anymore from this author. I have a few others and, whilst the plots sound interesting (as the idea for this story was an interesting one), I wouldn't be able to read them if they're all written like this. You'd only end up seeing my ranting all over more of his reviews pages.
Peace out. :\