Lit Reader’s Reviews > Out of His Wits: A Pride and Prejudice Variation > Status Update

I've borrowed this from KU, but I haven't started it yet. Your comments remind me of the problems I've had with her other stories. This is another author who has good ideas but has no idea how to structure a story. Tedious repetition, a meandering plot that can't come to the point, and timelines that stretch too long (the months you mention): all this results in books that are 500-600 pages long that probably should have been half as long. I'm not sure I want to invest time in this.

The idea of the story waa sound, and the initial framing was not poorly presented; until two things started to become PROBEMS.

1) the needless repetition of paragraphs, scenes, thoughts, dialogues

2) the huge failings of the internal timeline; months stretch materially through the year for some things to develop through the story (Hurst’s evolution and makeover), while other matters don’t evolve at all, and remain stuck in time in a puzzling manner in which I seriously asked myself if I was rereading pages or got repeated chapters in my copy (what?!?)

To add to this, the objective timeline here ia different; the Meryton Assembly happens prior to the start of the story, allegedly in Midsummer (June), and the story itself jumps from August to March with no sense or pace to it !

Thank you for your detailed description! Since these are the types of problems that really annoy me, I’ll give this a pass. You’ve saved me time and irritation.

I remember a time when Abigail Reynolds, Lory Lilian, and other authors were churning Austenesque novels every month, and every one read fresh and wonderful !

I am living witness to genre exhaustion and trope saturation turning out in reader burn-out, and yet one still years for a good story, well written, in a logical, coherent manner… is that too much to ask???

The last soundly good, thoroughly original story I read was The Longbourn Letters by Rose Servitova — it was so delightful, delicate, funny, moving… and it didn’t even star Lizzy & Darcy !

Lit wrote: "I remember a time when Abigail Reynolds, Lory Lilian, and other authors were churning Austenesque novels every month, and every one read fresh and wonderful !

I am living witness to genre exhausti..."

I agree that the quality of new releases is rapidly declining. There are a number of newer authors who have come on the scene in the last couple of years, and they seem to feel they must publish a full novel every 6-8 weeks. The editing is nonexistent, the plot contrived and weak (and often incoherent), and the story itself padded with unnecessary, florid descriptions of everything. Sigh.

I read a FB post where an author was bemoaning the 90-day slump (the point at which sales/KU reads for a book start dropping off), and the other authors were encouraging her to keep publishing new novels within the 90-day window to keep revenues steady. This is what the genre has become. This is why it's now being flooded with AI-written/assisted stories by new authors who aren't on social media, and who publish 3-5 books each month, typically shorter works of less than 200 pages. Books that start well and then descend into absurdity.

I'm fortunate in that I took a seven-year break from reading JAFF to write my Robin Hood trilogy, and I just got back into it 3 years ago. There are a number of older titles for me to read, and I'm thinking of focusing on them instead of the newer ones. I've started a list of authors to ignore because they don't know what they're doing - whether in terms of editing or basic story structure. I confess that what bothers me more than editing are timeline mistakes and issues! How many authors seem to have no concept of the fact that there is ONE month between the Netherfield ball and Christmas? LOL

I always look for your reviews and updates for your honest, forthright opinions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read these rants and for a rare “meeting of the minds” regarding quality decline in this very niche world… whenever I see those 4-5 stars reviews on absolutely *horrible* books, I have a tiny moment of second-guessing my own sanity !

Picking up old stories instead of new ones from the churning machine seems wise; when my slump gets too bad I go back to treading fanfics (pre edited and many then turned into insta publishing anyway); somehow I am more forgiving in that format and quality wise stories are even a tad bit better than many of these abundant new releases.

You are not alone! I rarely read 5-star reviews unless it’s from a reviewer whom I feel I can trust, and not one of those reviewers who only give 5-stars. Sadly, there are too many who rarely give less than “4.5-stars rounded up.”