Started 10/21/10Threw the towel in 11/9/10
Pages read: 386 out of 409
I just made one of the hardest decisions in my life: giving up on a book!
This is something I just simply do.not.do. so it is strange for me to admit defeat and just chuck Aurorarama to the side like this. And with only 22 pages left to go??? Well, I look at it this way... At least you can't say I didn't give it a fighting chance!
It started out really slow and rough for me. I couldn't get a handle on what the storyline was, and kept flipping back through the pages I had just finished reading to try to get a better understanding of what was taking place.
Then, just as my motivation started slipping, right around the 200 page mark, the book began to get incredibly creepy and twisted, and I finally found myself sucked in and unwilling to put it down.
And then, somehow, somewhere towards the end of the book, it all just started falling apart again. To the point where I found myself even more frustrated and confused than I was in the beginning!
The book has so much potential - An underground movement to purge New Venice of it's current leadership, street police and policy enforcers called Gentlemen of the Night, an evil magician, secret Siamese Twins, and Eskimo orgies.... Tell me this doesn't sound like the recipe for a great book?
I am thinking that this book needed a stronger editor - one who could take the mumble-jumbleness of the story and organize it into a cleaner, smoother novel. There was so much right about it - but in the end, it just didn't work for me.
So much so, that I simply could not bring myself to read the final 22 pages. I care that little about how the novel ends. It's just not worth my time to find out. My motivation finally packed it's bags and took off running down the road when I wasn't looking... Never to return.
Good for you! I understand how hard it can be to put a book down that you feel obligated to finish, but if you're not excited to pick it up, or dread reading it, then I say leave it be! Life is too short to waste on books that don't hold your interest. On to the next -- the next best book! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was such a hard decision to make. I kept pushing myself to take it further and further, and for awhile it worked... the book got better. But it's like it ran out of steam, or tried to do too much all at once towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI mean, 22 pages from the end? Seriously? But my concentration was just not there anymore :(