Oct. 28th, 2019

charlie_cochrane: (Default)
I've ummed and ahhed about posting this, with my disappointment eventually winning the argument, so here's the tale of my reading another much lauded m/m book, one that had been recommended to me years ago but which was out of print. I was delighted to see it republished earlier this year, so imagine my happy face at having it in my paws. And imagine my sad face at reading the thing.
Trouble is, it's AU fanfiction. Now there's nothing wrong with that per se: I've read a number of good books that started life that way, but they'd all had the fanfic foibles edited out. Unfortunately, this hasn't. So...
The storyline jumps along episodically, with lots of things happening but no cohesive story arc.
There's a bewildering array of characters but little depth of characterisation.
Promising story threads appear but then fizzle out.
The story is strewn with the sort of things I deliberately put into a piece of text to be picked out in an editing exercise for Havant Writers.
The relationship journey between the two m/cs early in the book - from annoying each other to being lovers - is underdeveloped, bordering on, "They get together because I'm shipping them."
I'm guessing that the editing the book has undergone has been overly reverential towards the original text. Maybe this is an iconic work within the fandom with the characters and incidents making sense to fans. I get that, I really do, but if I'm paying £8+ for a paperback I'm expecting a proper book, not a zine from a fandom I've never been part of.
Rant over.
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