The Greed
The first book I read that I disliked was The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty and the second was Sunburn by Laura Lippman. The sad thing is that both had great potential, the summary of both books made them sound so interesting. Which is why I had bought them to begin with. And both had so much potential, they could have been excellent with better editing. And that’s where the greed comes in. I’ve noticed quite often that once an author “makes it” and enough of their books do well enough to make them a household name, publishers start caring a lot less about the quality of the book and start pushing out as many as possible and quickly as possible. This is currently happening with Freida McFadden, her more recent books have been getting just okay reviews compared to her older ones. And personally too, I don’t like her newer stuff as much as I liked her older books. Traditional publishers are so focused on simply selling as many copies as possible that they are sacrificing the very thing that made those authors famous- their writing. Greed is truly ruining the publishing business.Stay Inside The Box
I recently watched a video on social media by someone in the publishing industry and she said that writers need to write for a specific genre. Seeing someone say their book is “unique” and has no comparable titles, according to her, was a red flag. And that attitude right there is why most traditionally published books these days have similar plots, similar writing styles, even similar titles and covers. Because all they care about is selling the book and making sure they can market it using their tried and true formula. No one wants to take a chance on something unique, on unknown authors, on anything that’s even slightly different than the norm. The reason I’m bringing this up is because I have been reading a lot more books by WP authors recently. And you know what I’ve learnt? Every one of them was better than the two books I’ve mentioned in this post. They have been well written, interesting, great plots (for the fiction ones), and unique in their own way. Yet, many of them were self-published and will never get the amount of marketing and readers they deserve. It’s quite disappointing.
The Books
The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty
Back to the books because I feel I owe you guys a proper explanation on why I disliked both books. The first one by Moriarty is for a younger audience and I think I would have enjoyed it more in high school. But as an almost 30 year old, not so much. What bugged me was not the book itself but the fact that we read the entire story through emails, her journaling etc. Like a couple of entries are fine and would have enhanced the book but the entire book being that way made it so slow and kind of confusing at times. It made me skip a chunk of the middle part of the book because I felt like it was going nowhere. I wish an editor would have cut out some of the extremely unnecessary stuff (pages and pages of it!) that was left in.Sunburn by Laura Lippman
As for Sunburn by Laura Lippman, this was my first book by her. And I had heard such good stuff about her writing that I was excited. And the plot for this book was great but it was the execution I had an issue with. The start was great, very interesting. Instantly drew me in. But it went downhill fast. Firstly, there were way too many characters and POVs. More and more characters just kept coming and it got confusing because none of them were distinct. They all sounded like the same person. And they were all unlikeable and not in a good, interesting way. It was more like the entire time I’m sitting there like “are you an idiot? Is this your first day existing? Why are you being so stupid all the time?” Also, the characters had no chemistry including the love interests, they were flat and we were pretty much told they were in love without actually showing how they fell in love or why. There was a lot of telling and so little showing in this book and then randomly it would be like an entire chapter of just descriptions. The book started out so interesting and then completely fell flat about half way through. The end was weird and made no sense to me, it was illogical. Again, I feel like it was an editing issue more than the book itself. An editor should have cut out all the boring unnecessary parts. And should have warned her that there were parts of the book that were too slow for a book described as “suspenseful.” Plus, the editor should have told her to decrease the POVs and stop letting people easily get away somehow with zero explanation! One or two people, okay maybe they get away with it. One person getting away with murder multiple times in a span of a couple of years? With the flimsiest excuses possible? Come on.Final Thoughts
These are just my personal thoughts on these books, I’m not trying to be a hater. You may like the books or feel differently about them. I rarely share anything negative about books here, to be honest. If I don’t like a book I just don’t review it rather than bad-mouthing it. But these two weren’t just bad books. They were books that had potential and that’s what disappointed me the most. And they reminded me of everything that’s wrong with traditional publishers and the damage they are doing. Anyway, that was my rant for today lol. But don’t worry, a review for a book I actually enjoyed is coming tomorrow. It’s not all doom and gloom. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! My first novel, Perfect, is now on sale on Amazon. If you would like to read it, please click here.If you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment! Enjoyed this post? Then follow me on social media: Bluesky Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn HubPages Email me on(guest posts welcome!): insomniacwithanaccent@gmail.com
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