“No Cigar
I normally don’t talk about other people’s reviews in mine, but right about now I am scratching my head and wondering what book everyone else read. You like apples and I like oranges. You have your opinion and I have mine. Well I’m not talking about that here. You can like what you wanna like, but when a book is fundamentally flawed and you overlook that, something is wrong. An author can’t grow and fix what’s wrong if you don’t point it out. So let me tell you about the book I read.
“Beastmode” by newcomer Joe Awsum (I like that name) tells the story of one ambitious family. Sixteen-year-old twins Twon and Qwon wake on Christmas morning to find their mother dead of an overdose. It’s an intentional overdose and she leaves the boys a cryptic note about their future. Life as the twins know it has ended. Will the boys step up to the plate to meet their new destiny?
Okay, that’s all I can say without giving the book away. A lot happens from there. The a lot happening is where the book goes wrong. “Beastmode” simply relies on too many coincidences, many of which are downright unbelievable. Yes, this is a work of fiction and as such an author is allowed to take certain liberties, but this read more like fantasy. Readers are asked to believe too many things, to take constant leaps of faith and to throw logic out the window. That can be fine in itself, but readers need something to base the unbelievable and illogical on, and the author does not provide that. “Beastmode” lacks in development of plot and character. The delivery is very choppy. There are editing issues. I could not connect with the characters. I had no feeling for them, did not care what happened to them. I was just curious to see what would happen with the plot, how the author would tie everything together and I hoped that the ending would justify the means. It did not. Instead, it appears this book will fall victim to the sequel/trilogy/series plague. Now, with that said, this book is not unredeemable. The majority of its flaws can be fixed with the aid of a good and qualified developmental and copy editor.
What I liked and what saved this book from a 1-star rating (hated it) is its unique and interesting concept. On that alone I couldn’t hate this book. I didn’t like it (hence the 2 stars) but I didn’t hate it. Joe is on to something, doing what I haven’t read anyone else in this genre doing. We need more authors like that, being ambitious and thinking outside the box. However, the poor execution almost buried it. Awsum put forth a valiant effort and I give him credit for that. I would love to see this book redone with heavy emphasis on developmental editing and realism.
Now that’s the REAL on the book that I read. I don’t know what everyone else read.”
Ms Toni wrote this review Monday, September 19, 2011.
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