Skip to main content

#Indie Intro



#Review: Wolfbound by Jane Bailey


A 2 Star read

This is a story of two halves: the one in which a pack of werewolves feature prominently and the other where a young woman’s anxieties about her lack of attractiveness to the opposite sex are foremost.  The protagonist, Eileen, has always felt there’s something other about herself. She’s battled long and hard to push this side of her nature aside. I was engaged.  When the plot brought her and Zachariah together I got the sense he was going to either bring her otherness to the fore or help her rid herself of it completely. The opening chapters of the book are solid in their descriptions and the writing style easy to read.

However, this is where the plot unravels. Once a failed attempt at understanding Eileen’s true nature is described, the story loses its way and lingers far too long on her anxieties. The link between her relationship with Zachariah and who she truly is, is lost. Furthermore, I was very troubled by descriptions of the domestic abuse situation being described. I hoped the author was planning on extricating her character from this and wondered how she would achieve this. It was done clumsily. Two characters were added to further the plot and their inclusion felt forced. The attention given to the opening of this tale was missing further down the line and the ending felt rushed and cobbled together.

There was another disappointment in this reading. Initially I was very excited by the first few pages as it is set in Salford University, Manchester and environs nearby. As a Salford alumni I felt I was about to recapture a bit of my youth. But there is very little description of the campus, no mention of the Irwell or any of the iconic buildings. There is no real sense of place. The story could be in any university anywhere in the world. This can lend universality to the story but for me the lack of place was significant. Why bother mentioning the story is set in Salford if there is going to be very little sense of it during the story? I also feel the author missed a trick as it would have been the ideal opportunity to utilise sensual description so crucial to any writing which involves animal-human transformation.

Unfortunately, a disappointing read.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It's much appreciated as is the time you take to write a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Faetaera: A Triumvirate

  A Triumvirate Brairton’s minions slipped through a barely noticeable fissure.  The tear would close shortly.  Despite the increase in their regularity the breaches rarely stayed open very long.  To the three insidious spies, the stink of the new world was almost unbearable.  But in time the triumvirate would each become so used to it they would scarcely notice it at all.  That it poisoned them they did not know.  Brairton was not in the habit of informing his operatives of fatal consequences.  Their programming precluded any thought beyond the mission they must complete.  In this Brairton had been exact and had performed the necessary rituals himself. Each had their mission branded into their being.   They would travel together for some time but then slip off to their secret destinations one by one, never to see each other again. The threesome latched on to their individual targets and began their particular brand of individual mis...
Post a Comment
Read more

#Indie Intro

#Review: RED DESERT by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli 4 Star reading I must confess a certain attraction to the inhospitable red planet ever since I saw Total Recall . The Arnie version of course. There simply is no other. As many of you know, I’ve even squeezed a mention of Mars into my very own little eco SciFi number. So I was delighted to come across this translation of Deserto Rosso. It is written in diary format from the perspective of Anna Persson, an astronaut landed on Mars together with several colleagues. Together they are hoping to set up a primary colony. The opening is dramatic as use of the present tense and the narrator’s situation draws the reader in. The story line switches between events on Mars and flashbacks, in the past tense, in which we learn a great deal of backstory. I found these details and the relationships Anna has with other characters very engaging. I wanted to read on and in fact finished the book in only 4 sittings. Anna's compl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guest Post: Creative Recharge

Lindsay Bamfield started writing fiction about 10 years ago. She has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces and has been published in Greenacre Writers Anthology , Voices from the Web 2012, The Best of Café Lit 2012, Mslexia, Writers’ News and Writing Magazine.  She has won prizes in Writers’ News , Writing Magazine and Words with Jam competitions and has been shortlisted in others. She is currently re-working her first novel with advice from an editor and has a second novel on the back-burner.  How do I recharge my writing batteries? I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer this as my batteries are still somewhat depleted after illness and debilitating treatment, but my writing activity, although still less than ideal has bounced back to some extent. It was only after being ill that I understood just how much energy writing requires. Exhaustion does not engender creativity. After a frustrating dry-spell when I wanted to writ...
5 comments
Read more