Today I'm reviewing a self-published book that was released last year. It is called Repetition and written by C.L.Sidell.
This is a ghost story, so first off, I want to talk about the scare factor. This is the only part I did not discuss in my video-review.
Scare factor: This book did not scare me. Sure, there are some truly gruesome descriptions for some of the hallucinations, which is GREAT—I loved them—but it didn’t scare me. However, that does not mean it won’t scare other readers. I do not get scared reading books. I never have, so this is just me.
Because of the rarity of the hauntings, it may not be as scary, but you might want to brace yourself at the end.
Overview of points discussed in this review:
--strengths of the book (book cover created by the author herself, jacket copy, gripping first few pages, child doesn’t get neglected in the narrative but is a prominent part of the character’s life, great and clear theme/point, strong ending, brilliant revelation/twist)
--weaknesses of the book (child’s single PoV chapter, transitions and flashbacks, forced suspense, pacing, clarity, typos and grammar)
About the grammar issue mentioned in the video review and the example I pulled from the book
Present participle used wrongly: e.g. pg. 113, Reaching for the shampoo bottle, she lathered the sweet smelling gel into a foaming heap upon her head. (she can’t lather the gel as she is reaching for the bottle). At the time she reaches for it, the gel is still in the bottle. Unless she already has gel on her hand, but then why would she be reaching for the bottle?
For a comprehensive article about this read here, scroll down about 1/3 of the way to get to the bit about the present participle, but really the whole article is great to learn all about the ing-form and its uses.
Another great article, that doesn’t go into the wrong use of the present participle though, can be found here.