Saturday, April 29, 2006

Not every book recommendation is a good one

I've read two books written by Fern Michaels. They are recent ones so I can't even sluff off the bad dialogue as beginners error. I think Fern may be on speed. Certainly her characters are. The dialogue drove me nuts.In Pretty Woman, her characters mouths run on, flipping from one topic to the next in the same piece of dialogue and then the person they are conversing with answers in the same ADHD type conversation. It drove me nuts. I didn't love the characters. Didn't feel any sexual tension and what the hell is up with the totally evil, selfish, mean bad guy all of a sudden changing his ways in the 11th hour. For no apparent reason! I hated this book. But she was recommended to me and I liked where the plot could have taken me so I finished it. I picked up another of her books right away hoping she was just having a bad book or perhaps that was how she wanted these particular characters to speak. Although I really couldn't come up with an excuse for turning the bad guy good.
The first piece of dialogue made me scream with frustration. What is with these people I thought. Does Fern talk like this. Does anyone talk like this? Of course they don't. Maybe in the heat of an argument but not in every conversation with every person they meet. I kept at it for a few more chapters before threw it against the wall.
The sad thing is the story lines are intriguing. I want to see what she does with them but every time a character speaks I want to scream. So no more Fern Michaels for me.
Sorry to all her fans. I think it just goes to show that all writing styles have an audience.
The audience isn't always interchangeable

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