Strange Practice

A solid 3.5 star book, which could easily have been a 4+ star book with some tweaks to the writing. And by some tweaks I mean an editor should have sat down and slashed all of the self-conscious and second-guessing asides, and 99% of the qualifiers as well. A little doubt among characters is fine, but the inability of the main characters to make a definite, unqualified sentence was off-putting and distracting. It was too “look at me looking at myself”, which inevitably pulled me out of the story and, indeed, made me look at it. Examples:

“She always felt vaguely as if she ought to be draped in lace and ruffles, or possibly diaphanous peignoirs, whatever they were, in order to live up to the surroundings;” (emphasis in original) - why insert the phrase “whatever they were”, what does this aside add to the story? My suspicion is that the author believes a protagonist who knows about peignoirs will somehow alienate readers, and that the aside is meant to keep Greta “relatable”. Bad writing. Use the word with confidence or just scrap it altogether.

“She would not be the eleventh, if she had any say in the matter” (emphasis in original). This sentence is during a particularly dramatic scene, and comes at the pivotal moment in the action where Greta decides to fight for her life. Why, WHY is this moment diluted by the addition of “if she had any say in the matter”?! If someone has decided to fight off an attacker she is not going to be thinking about how much say she has in the matter, she is going to be thinking of how to survive. I think the author added this aside to show us how plucky our heroine is, but instead it creates a look-at-me-looking-at-myself moment that rings false and takes us right out of the action.

And so on and so forth throughout the book. Again, a good editor would have slashed out all the hedging and left us with a lean story that really zings along, but since that didn't happen we have to ask if the fantastic plot and characters outweigh the weak writing. For me, they did. As I moved through the book I became completely engrossed in the story, hedging asides and all, and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. Overall, a good read.