reptition repitition

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: This is the most repetitive book I've ever read. Not only does it repeat the entire plot of The Gold Coast, but every single point is made over and over again. And over and over and over. To top it all off, the writing is beyond trite. I'm sure it's very difficult to edit a book by such a prominent author, but if ever a book needed a rigorous editing, this book is it. And unfortunately, no matter how interested I might have been in finding out what happened to the characters of The Gold Coast (admittedly, not very much), the lack of editing, not to mention the ridiculously convenient ending, made me care even less.

too much other stuff

The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I found parts of this book to be a bit vague and confusing. What exactly was the worst thing? And who is the I? Perhaps both of those questions are meant to be left unanswered, which is fine.

But there's a lot of other distracting stuff in this book, including the commentary of radio psychologists and the fact that the confession (for lack of a better word) of one of the characters is cut off in the middle of a sentence every time. Some of these narrative devices take away from the story, which is, overall, a good one. I definitely wanted more of the story, and less of the fancy writing.