I love Jan Burke, I really do. She is a wonderful writer and a fantastic storyteller. But I had to stop reading this book about 1/3 the way into it. II love Jan Burke, I really do. She is a wonderful writer and a fantastic storyteller. But I had to stop reading this book about 1/3 the way into it. It was a little too gritty for my taste, though not nearly as bad as "Bones" and "Nine". My favorite book by her? "Eighteen"--one of the best collections of short mystery stories that I have read. Go pick up that one instead!...more
Ugh. Where do I start? I am giving this book one star, even though it appears that I am in the minority in thinking this. I got through the first coupUgh. Where do I start? I am giving this book one star, even though it appears that I am in the minority in thinking this. I got through the first couple of sections and I just couldn't stand it anymore. It was painful. I'm sure the Broadway musical is great; I really do want to see it some day. People who have seen the musical and have read the book too say that they are very different. I hope this is true. As I turned each page, I found myself skipping entire paragraphs out of sheer boredom. The only part that I liked was the prologue. In a great story, especially a fantasy, a reader should feel swept away, captivated by every sentence. Instead the author created a story where the characters are flat, uninteresting and usually perverted. Was it really necessary to add that to the Merry Old Land of Oz? The book is also full of politics and the author seems to go out of his way to show us how fancy his vocabulary is. I'm not impressed with his vocabulary. In fact, it's one of the most annoying things about this exceptionally annoying book. If you are expecting this book to be, as I was, a fantasy along the lines of L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz" series, you are going to be very disappointed....more
Here is another one of those books that I skipped to the end at about 2/3 the way through the book. The main character is irritating. She is like a grHere is another one of those books that I skipped to the end at about 2/3 the way through the book. The main character is irritating. She is like a grown up, whiny Nancy Drew. I thought all of the characters seemed too contrived to feel real or even likable. I didn't care about them at all. The only reason I kept reading was to find out who-dunnit. I didn't like the author's style of writing either. She kept throwing in these totally obvious red herrings and then hammering them to death through the whole book. The fact that she tried so hard to make me believe the book was going to end a certain way, made me even more sure that it wouldn't. Then she pulled out this "surprise" ending that I guess was supposed to be believable and, well, surprising. But it wasn't. It was like a really bad magic trick....more