Reading & Ranting - by Debbie Bennett
So I’m reading and ranting again. This one shall remain nameless – and actually I finished it last night and already I can’t remember the title or the author. That’s how memorable the story was. A trad-published book, too, which surprised me. So why am I ranting? Because it’s the second book I’ve read in as many weeks with exactly the same two ‘faults’ – in my opinion, of course. The lack of cause-and-effect and the inappropriate dissolution of tension. Let’s take the first one. Our unlikely and unreliable narrator (this trend is so fashionable right now, it hurts – and unless it’s done really well, it’s largely ineffective …) heroine is caught doing things she shouldn’t. She’s trapped, together with a couple of young girls and the bad guys are pissed-off and about to do Unspeakable Things. But we never know or see these Unspeakable Things, because – guess what? – the chapter ends and suddenly our heroine is free and wakes up in hospital! What? Cause and effect. Rule num...