Mini review: Prey by Melina Morel
Jun. 6th, 2009 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amerginaI did not finish this book.
It's marketed as a paranormal romance about werecats. Yes, I know. But I *like* cats.
There were several issues with the book:
1) The POV starts off as 3rd person, limited. That's what I expected, given a romance. It's usually two POVs, Heroine and hero. Maybe a third--the villain. But in this case, the POV devolved into 3rd person omniscient and we got to head hop into everyone! Villains, minions, main characters, everyone. bleh.
2) The book tells a lot. We're told that people are dumb. Or that all they want is money. Or that the hero finds the heroine sexy. Tell tell tell. Sometimes telling is necessary, but this reads more like a past-tense synopsis with a smattering of dialogue.
3) The flippant use of rape. The Leader of the heroine's werecat clan is out of control. We know this because he tries to rape the heroine. Of course, she is able to escape his clutches... but later, she finds out that two other women (married, I might add) are raped by the leader when they confide in her. And she does nothing. Nothing. She mentions the rapes to the hero as she *crawls into bed with him*.
That's when I put the book down. Because rape should not be casual pillow talk before getting it on. Ever.
It's going into the recycling. I don't usually toss books, but this one is actually trash. Had it just been 1 and 2, I would have finished it. But with 3, I realized that I need not waste my time.
The author supposedly wrote historicals a while back under another name. I wonder how long ago, because the writing felt like popular fiction from the 80s. Genre fiction writing has gotten much better in 20 years.
It's marketed as a paranormal romance about werecats. Yes, I know. But I *like* cats.
There were several issues with the book:
1) The POV starts off as 3rd person, limited. That's what I expected, given a romance. It's usually two POVs, Heroine and hero. Maybe a third--the villain. But in this case, the POV devolved into 3rd person omniscient and we got to head hop into everyone! Villains, minions, main characters, everyone. bleh.
2) The book tells a lot. We're told that people are dumb. Or that all they want is money. Or that the hero finds the heroine sexy. Tell tell tell. Sometimes telling is necessary, but this reads more like a past-tense synopsis with a smattering of dialogue.
3) The flippant use of rape. The Leader of the heroine's werecat clan is out of control. We know this because he tries to rape the heroine. Of course, she is able to escape his clutches... but later, she finds out that two other women (married, I might add) are raped by the leader when they confide in her. And she does nothing. Nothing. She mentions the rapes to the hero as she *crawls into bed with him*.
That's when I put the book down. Because rape should not be casual pillow talk before getting it on. Ever.
It's going into the recycling. I don't usually toss books, but this one is actually trash. Had it just been 1 and 2, I would have finished it. But with 3, I realized that I need not waste my time.
The author supposedly wrote historicals a while back under another name. I wonder how long ago, because the writing felt like popular fiction from the 80s. Genre fiction writing has gotten much better in 20 years.
