Sunday Book Review

Today I'm talking to you about a book I heard a lot about, and because of the buzz, looked forward to reading. It's a collection of mystery/suspense/thriller short stories called Killer Year.

First let me start off by saying I like the premise of this book. A group of people from International Thriller Writers got together and decided to promote the work of their debut members, and with those thirteen stories, they added in three from bigger name novelists who also belong to ITW. Each of the thirteen stories has an introduction by someone more recognizable, and I was interested to see who said what and how it compared to the story being presented.

Unfortunately, most of the stories missed the mark for me, and many of those I never finished reading.

Now I'm the kind of gal who, when she slaps down good money for a book, wants to read all of the book (except the sex scenes - I'm no prude, but I'm just not into reading that anymore, and I'm fine with skipping those pages). I try my hardest to finish reading stories I start. In the cases of some of these stories, I just couldn't make myself finish, and in one or two cases, I couldn't make myself move beyond the first couple paragraphs.

Of course, in keeping with my mantra of 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything', I'm not going to point out which stories were which. Let's just say for some of them the voice threw me, and in others the subject matter, and with at least one, the total negative sense of life made me want to rip out my eyes.

I really wanted to like this book - partly because I'm a fan of the genres, and partly because I wanted to see what the industry is putting out there. With the latter, knowing that this may be what the industry is looking for was just depressing. I can't write what I won't read, and I don't really want to. I don't read books to become depressed, and I don't know anyone who does. Sure I like a good cry when the writing is so awesome I get sucked into the character and crying is called for, but I don't want to come through the crying and feel like life is hopeless.

So, in the end, I'm dreadfully sorry I paid for this book. If I'd known what it was going to be like, I might've still checked it out through the library - read the few good stories, and been content - without shelling out my limited book funds. I'm even a little pissed that I put a research book on forensic science back on the shelf so I could buy this. Live and learn.

Next week on Sunday Book Review look for a positive review. I hate writing negative reviews, but I think this one just needed to be written.