Letters From Past and Discussion of Future

I honestly don’t know what to do about this book as I did not technically finish it, so please bare with me. I cannot, in my right mind, rate the book or give it a score. I feel doing so would be dishonest as well as hurtful to both the book and the author. As such I am not going to offer any scoring or a full critic. Instead, I am just going to talk about the book from what I read and my experience with it – aka ramble.

Adding to MY DNF List

I had to add this book to my DNF List – a list that now has only 4(?) books on it. I try to always finish books, especially ones that I say I will review, regardless if I truly enjoy them or not (something I hope my readers and authors appreciate) and why I do my scoring system rather than stars. (I am thinking of adapting my scoring system into something that is convertible – more on that later.) My thinking is that, just because I did not like the book doesn’t mean that someone else wouldn’t. Not finishing a book also makes me feel bad because I truly don’t know the different aspects of the book. However, I was done forcing myself through the book when I clearly wasn’t interested in reading it.

It wasn’t the story I was uninterested in, it was the writing style, though. Overall the premise of the story was interesting. Letters, found in a deceased family member’s attic, make up the story of their childhood. Unfortunately, as soon as the letters are introduced we lose sight of the present world and there is not enough build up of empathy for the characters to care about what is in the letters. We don’t know the main narrator who found the letters. We don’t know the family member that the letters are to. We have fragments, but not enough to make us root or want to know more about the characters. Maybe if I was given more information and details – more story really – with the main narrator/character I would feel different, but atlas this is not something I will ever know.

Discussion

Throughout January, I have been thinking about the differences between Mainstream Publishing and Independent Publishing and this book has lead me back to this path. For 2022, I started contacting more and more people/organizations/publishing companies about receiving ARCS – mainly because we can’t afford my reading rate and my local library isn’t very good at getting popular books in YA (that leads me onto a whole other rant though that is best saved for a different day). As a newbie in the Public Reviewing World, most of the books I have received are those that have been Independently Published – and I am so thankful for what they have given me – but I keep looking back and thinking “Wait a Minute”.

I have read 8 books this year and of those 8, only a couple have been published through mainstream companies. Needless to say, the others have been published independently – and quite frankly, I’ve found most of them to be a bit lacking.

While I understand that everyone can write, I also wish to acknowledge that not everyone can write well. Perhaps I am being harsh, but when I read a book, I want the author to be someone who can write well. I want the editor to be doing their job, correcting mistakes, picking out plot holes, making sure verb tense is correct, making sure pronouns and characters align.

I completely understand that independent authors put a lot of time, money, and work into their books, but honestly, I think that people need to come to the realization that just because they wrote a story doesn’t mean that the story is good – or that it should be published.

I’m not saying that the Mainstream Publishing companies are without fault. (They can really be brutal with continuous rejection letters, awful giving authors what they are owed, etc.) My point is that I can see a difference – and it makes me want to scream in frustration at authors independent publishing. Some of their ideas are so GOOD! but are not carried out to relieve that potential. (On the other side, a few mainstream authors are also very bad at writing themselves and people love them, so…) I still stand by my statement that as a reader – I want something written and edited well.

On that note, if you are a writer looking for an editor for a piece that you want to publish, let me know. I won’t sugarcoat things for ya. Your syntax sucks? I will let you know. Misplaced pronouns? I’ll point them all out. Misspellings? I got ya. Story has potential, but writing sucks? I’ll tell you and offer ways to make it better. You may not like what I have to say, but your writing will come out at least 90% better.

Comment your thoughts between Independent Publishing and Mainstream down below. Feel free to defend either/or (just keep everything cordial). You wanna take me up on the offer to look at your work? Send me a message through the Contact page. I don’t bite (hard) and I am not really that much of a pain to work with (honestly).