Shelbie > Recent Status Updates

Just now noticing the “Christian fiction” label which clarifies a LOT and I will likely be dropping this. My first warning should have been the MC is from a plantation family, which is a common theme in Christian romances. There was a line about switching out old slaves for “fresh ones” and the MC concurs it’s not a bad idea. The total lack of “this is wrong” tells me the setting is VERY romanticized.

Why is everyone insufferable?

Oh boy this is totally going to be another example of “capitalism is greed personified” and ima be mad hahaha.

If the MC doesn’t want to be involved in an inheritance game he could just leave and walk a few miles to the main.…

It’s interesting BUT the male lens is strong: noted women outnumbered men 2:1 in psych wards with no suggestion as to WHY, male doctors removed female anatomy to cure madness was just a thing no big deal, and Arthur Sackler reveals to his girlfriend he’s married with kids and apparently she’s totally okay with this. Can’t help but feel a female author would have a slightly different take on some topics.

The writing is so good but the stories are absolutely underwhelming. “A wildly imaginative collection of macabre tales” this isn’t, yet.

Not sure how I feel about this yet. It remains utterly emotionless, the war wasn’t necessary for the story beyond the opening chapter (I still have no idea why it happened), and there was no build up in the relationship between Ijeoma and Amina. Within two short chapters they went from barely talking to a sexual relationship…at age 12. And why is the “grammar school teacher” never given an actual name?

This is, unfortunately, increasingly frustrating.

So far the tone of this is quite flat. The opening few chapters as war breaks out were extremely interesting, but we seem to have already left this issue. And there are SO many Bible verses, which I was not expecting.

I love David Attenborough but I’m still waiting for the point. Which I suspect will be “we can do better,” which…duh?

I’m struggling with this one. The world is interesting but it’s already gone from “djinn were released into the world,” to “folklore exists everywhere” which changes the tone to general urban fantasy vs. what I thought would be a radically and maybe destructively altered timeline. The writing can be incredibly jumbled at times and hard to follow. Worse, the characters feel really flat so far.

I was so excited for a Hidalgo-esque travel narrative with a dive into Mongolian history and culture. Instead I’m following a super privileged British teen who hasn’t tried to prep for this race in any way, dislikes the American endurance rider who did, and there are sporadic history one-liners that seem shoved in so it’s not entirely about her. Hoping it’ll improve as the race goes on.

I’m sorry but this is so poorly written I kept wondering if it was AI. Research suggests it’s not, but likely self published. Nothing wrong with that but it clearly bypassed an editor. May need to drop it and move on.

My first warning should have been the missed punctuation in the printed book summary.

My copy of this book has a very AI-looking art cover. This is influencing my inability to tell if this story also feels a bit AI or if it’s just that juvenile in writing and in serious need of editing.