Brown commits one of the biggest sins in fiction. Info dumping. Seriously, the characters are either scurrying around or talking endlessly. I began fantasizing about Silas The Killer Albino shooting one of them just so they'd shut up already.
My coworkers asked me if it was the "bestseller" label turning me off. I said, no. I mean, I've read many bestsellers that I thought were excellent reads (see: Tess Gerritsen). This was just boring. Really bloody boring. I'm sorry people, not getting the sheer majesty of it.
I've had about 24 hours to contemplate my reaction to it, and here are my developing theories:
- It's a better book to "read" than to "listen" to.
- I liked the identity of the bad guy. Truly. It just took forever to get there. I suspect other people feel this way and "forgave" Brown the sagging beginning and middle because the ending is good. Nothing wrong with this. I felt this way about Patricia Cornwell's last book (Predator).
- It's the kind of book that makes people feel "smart," yet it's still readable. Lots of European locales and endless talk about art and religion. Plus there aren't a lot of confusing "big words" and flowery description to bog the reader down.
Next audio book? I started Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich this morning.
4 comments:
I have this book sitting in my TBR pile and I have to say I tend to avoid anything that gets a lot of hype--I STILL haven't seen Something ABout Mary *sigh*
I saw the movie before reading the book. Intentionally. I figured I'd wanted that long to read it, I might as well go to the movie unspoiled.
After the movie - which I found okay - I started reading the book. I can see all of the writing sins so many people speak of when they claim this book is badly written; the info dump, some random head-hopping and the like. Even so, I don't mind it so much. I think this is because I expected it. I knew when picking this book up that there was no way it could live up to its hype.
But, I haven't finished it yet. And it's not burning a hole in my TB-finished pile, either, so I think that says something. I just don't get why it became the end-all be-all of books.
I totally agree with you on this one. It took me a month to finish the book and even then I knew what was going to happen. I took a class on the sacred feminine throughout history in my undergrad and hence, most of the book was boring for me.
Lynn - the entire time I was listening the book all I could think was, "No wonder the movie got mixed reviews." Frankly, I can't believe anyone thought this book would make a good movie! Then again they probably couldn't think straight what with the cash cow moo-ing in their ears.
Alie - Yeah, I think if you take any sort of college history course dealing with religion this book would be boring! I found myself going "yeah, yeah get on with it" when the author was talking about how the Catholic church incorporated the dates of pagan holidays.
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