Official Review: Not For Publication by Mary Hollamby

[Kerri]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Not For Publication" by Mary Hollamby.]

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"Not for publication" is based on the interesting premise of exposing the sort of inappropriate activity that does or could go on within our official council offices. This book follows the day to day goings-on and conduct at a fictional council office and of the town mayor, following the lives of those that work there and others who in some way become involved in the council activities. It shows the darker side of a council and all the things that should not happen but nevertheless do at this council office. This is essentially a work of fiction but is based, I believe, on the authors own experiences of this type of working environment.

As I stated this is an interesting idea for a book, but I do feel that it has been taken too far, as so many types of criminal and immoral activities occur that it starts to become unbelievable, verging on ludicrous. The author appears to have tried to fit enough ideas for a series, or every idea they had in this single book. Some of the events are not explored in enough depth, which means that it was hard for myself as the reader to understand who, why and how without needing to concentrate very hard or even review past pages already read. This is especially true at the beginning of the book when new character names and relationships are being introduced on almost every page.

Having said that events are not explored enough, I also found that the author used too much unnecessary description in some sections, such as a complete room by room description of a house, that seemed to have no bearing on the story at all, at that point or further on in the book. This just served to make the pace too slow and the story to lose all direction briefly. It was at times like this that I could have very easily stopped reading this book, as I became bored, had it not been for the fact that I hate to leave a book unfinished.

In my opinion, from about halfway though this book the author seems to have too much sexual activity described. I understand that some of this was related to the storyline and therefore very much needed, but at some point it did seem to become the case that a character could no longer appear in the book unless they were about to have sex or discover someone else doing so. To begin with I found the descriptions good and believable, but as the scenes began to come too often, I also started finding the descriptions a little repetitive.

Overall I think this book shows originality and promise for the author, but I found it a little heavy going as a story itself and repetitive in parts. I think the author has tried to fit too many ideas into one book and that they could potentially write a few books from the content they have. They would definitely have a better book if they concentrated on fewer ideas and expanded the story and background around those. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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