Worse Books Ever

I feel honored when a writer asks me to review their book. This year alone, the privileged has been granted to me five times. I never thought I would come across a book which I would have no desire to finish. That day has arrived.

A debut novel can sink or swim an author’s first baby steps in to the publishing world. You write the book. You wring it through several editing sessions. Research publishers and agents. When one or both are obtained, then you begin further edits and later marketing. All steps are very crucial towards a success. You shoot for the huge success but smaller ones are gratifying in their own right.

I began reading a debut novel that put every self publishing fear about writing in to retrospect. The right margins were completely wonky. A lot of the dialogue contained commas and only commas (I assume the guy didn’t know what a period or question mark was). The whole novel was in present tense. I understand some novels flow better in present tense. This was not one of them. The 20-year-old community college protagonist read like he was twelve. The supposed villain was more Mr. Wizard than anything. This was all in the first twenty-one pages of the book. Unfortunately, he can’t blame himself and self publishing for this major miss. A small press publisher agreed to digitally mass produce this one.

It’s just a shame. Reading a little about the author, he seemed very excited to be published even though he thinks most writers use pseudonyms. This book is suppose to be the first in a series. I don’t have much hope for it until the guy goes back and learns the fundamentals of storytelling.

What is the worse book you’ve ever read? Did you read it cover to cover? Why or why not?

Andrea hates to stomp all over a writer’s dream but sometimes it’s necessary to push them to do better.