Francine > Recent Status Updates

After 25%, I had to give up. I just couldn’t anymore. The writing is derivative, sub-par and the characters one dimensional.

And worse? The publisher or editors never bothered to check that the audiobook matched the text. Who does that?!

It’s unprofessional and irresponsible. This gives publishers and the publishing industry a bad name. Actually…I wouldn’t be surprised if this was self-published.

So far, as historical fiction, this is an okay book.

But one of my biggest pet peeves in historical fiction is an author’s poor research into the time period. As an example, the Narnia books were all written after WW2 and yet one of our main characters mentions that her friends and adventures were in Narnia.

Another concern is writers writing British fiction and not using appropriate British terms.

Two points currently:
1) I can see why people say this is like The Hunger Games and Red Rising. In my opinion however, anyone who says this is better than Red Rising is off their rocker. The writing is average. Suzanne Collins is a much stronger writer than Shawn Whitney. And don’t even get me started on any comparisons to Pierce Brown.
2) Poor editing and publishing. The audiobook doesn’t match the novel text.