I’m happy to join Kat and the Unravelers today, with just a bit of Hitchhiker knitting and a really bad book.
I'm not sure why I didn't get more knitting done this week. Maybe I was exhausted from wedding dress shopping. (No dress has been chosen yet, but we're going again on Saturday. Oh, goody.) Maybe it was feeling horrified, unsettled, and ungrounded after all the brutal happenings last week. It could be because John decided to change his hotel reservations for Florida next week and ran into some roadblocks that he needed my help with. I bet it was all the time I spent on the phone with the credit card company because we had heating oil delivered and were charged twice for it. Whatever the reasons, I didn't knit as much as I would have liked, but I hope to get much more done during the rest of the week. Especially now that I can watch the next season of All Creatures Great & Small and The Pitt while I knit.
The
plot is utterly ludicrous, stacking one implausible twist on top of
another until it collapses under its own weight. Characters are little
more than cardboard cutouts, defined by a single trait and never
developed beyond what the plot mechanically requires of them.
Motivations shift without explanation, and actions feel dictated by
shock value rather than logic or psychology.
The writing itself
is extremely simplistic, bordering on careless, with little nuance or
texture. Any tension is undercut by how obvious and contrived the story
becomes. And then there’s the ending, which makes absolutely no sense,
even by the book’s already generous suspension-of-disbelief standards.
Thrillers
are not usually my genre of choice, but I can appreciate a fast-paced
one that makes sense. This one left me more baffled than entertained. I
have a certain amount of respect for almost any published author. Freida
McFadden has written 30 books, so she clearly knows something. While I
still don't understand why this book is so popular, at least I now know this
type of book is not for me. This was just one tiny, tarnished star from me.
What are you making and reading this week?
I don't think of myself as a book snob, but the plethora of formulaic novels really turns me off. I am someone who reads everything in my reach, cereal boxes, advertisements, etc. But I have to say that they are at least unpredictable at first read. Those novels are not. Anyone who manages 30 books in 13 years is just throwing that stuff together with results as you describe. I'm glad for people who enjoy them, but I am not one of them. Sounds like your week has been chaotic and full of demands. Yay, for the Pitt and All Creatures! (I could not knit while watching the Pitt, Bonny.) Hope the rest of it is full of cozy knitting and downtime.
ReplyDeleteThe way you described that book is the way I feel about a Netflix series I just finished. I do like a thriller but had to roll my eyes at all the ridiculous choices the main characters made in order to move the absurd plot along. It was a good thing I had some interesting knitting to keep my brain occupied. It was Harlan Coben’s latest so I should have known better.
ReplyDeleteEven with not as much knitting time as you would have liked, your Hitchhiker is growing nicely and is so beautiful. I'll steer clear of "The Housemaid" and stick with what I'm in the midst of reading. I'm sure you'll have a better book in your sights now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your service in doing this important research so that I don't have to! I suppose there are plenty of readers who don't care about the quality of the writing or the plausibility of the plot, and I'm thankful there are so many options out there so that those of us who do can find good books to read. And thanks for the reminder about All Creatures Great and Small -- one of my favorite things to watch!
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