Review by Mlh1981 -- The Touch by Robert Flynn III
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Mlh1981
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- Latest Review: The Touch by Robert Flynn III
Review by Mlh1981 -- The Touch by Robert Flynn III
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Touch" by Robert Flynn III.]
2 out of 4 stars
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I have always loved a good supernatural story, so I was excited to dive right into The Touch by Robert E. Flynn III I and lose myself in the story. Unfortunately, I could not do so. The first thing that struck me about the book was that while it seems to be written for teens it read very much like a children's book. The use of complex word choices stood out even more because of the juvenile writing style.
While I am not opposed to complexity in books, this book felt like the author selected the word choices just to prove that the author knew these words. In addition to this sometimes the terms chosen were incorrectly used. While I tried very hard to enjoy this book, as an avid horror and supernatural genre fan, I could not get immersed enough to appreciate it. Due to these factors, I could not, in good conscious, rate this book any higher than 2 out of 4 stars.
The plot of the story was unique enough that I did not feel that I was reading the same recycled novel that I've read so many times. Unfortunately, that was one of the few things that I was able to enjoy. The novel has promise, however, in its current form I think it will be a struggle for many readers to find the willpower to read through to the end. This is due in part to the constant stream of "he said", "she said" pronouns used with most of the lines of dialogue, of which there are many.
In addition to that dialogue issue, the book felt like it was telling me how I should feel rather than letting me explore the characters to make my own judgments. If it had allowed me to discover the characters' motivations and thoughts through their actions the characters would have felt more likable and real. Instead the author tells us what each character is thinking through lengthy internal dialogue which quickly becomes unbearable. By the end of the first chapter I was tired of hearing the thoughts of every character many of which were unnecessary, and the numerous POV shifts became distracting. I can only equate it to standing in a subway and trying to piece together a single story from different conversation pieces you pick up as you walk by passengers. With all the internal dialogue one might think you would have a deep understanding of the characters but sadly it was not so. Each of the characters felt very shallow and uninspired which made it impossible for me to connect with them, or care much about what they went through.
The book also suffers from some very heavy information dumps that quickly become overwhelming and tedious. This made reading the book more of a chore than an enjoyable experience for me. While I love a well-used simile to get a point across, I felt that the book relied too heavily on them. In one paragraph in particular, I came across three similes all to describe the same feeling and none of them really brought much to the story.
With some work I believe this book could be okay but as it stands now, I would not recommend it to my fellow readers. Each part of a book should lead to a character's growth or move the plot along to its final destination, but this book felt like a good deal of it was just filler that had no real bearing on the story itself.
******
The Touch
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
2 out of 4 stars
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I have always loved a good supernatural story, so I was excited to dive right into The Touch by Robert E. Flynn III I and lose myself in the story. Unfortunately, I could not do so. The first thing that struck me about the book was that while it seems to be written for teens it read very much like a children's book. The use of complex word choices stood out even more because of the juvenile writing style.
While I am not opposed to complexity in books, this book felt like the author selected the word choices just to prove that the author knew these words. In addition to this sometimes the terms chosen were incorrectly used. While I tried very hard to enjoy this book, as an avid horror and supernatural genre fan, I could not get immersed enough to appreciate it. Due to these factors, I could not, in good conscious, rate this book any higher than 2 out of 4 stars.
The plot of the story was unique enough that I did not feel that I was reading the same recycled novel that I've read so many times. Unfortunately, that was one of the few things that I was able to enjoy. The novel has promise, however, in its current form I think it will be a struggle for many readers to find the willpower to read through to the end. This is due in part to the constant stream of "he said", "she said" pronouns used with most of the lines of dialogue, of which there are many.
In addition to that dialogue issue, the book felt like it was telling me how I should feel rather than letting me explore the characters to make my own judgments. If it had allowed me to discover the characters' motivations and thoughts through their actions the characters would have felt more likable and real. Instead the author tells us what each character is thinking through lengthy internal dialogue which quickly becomes unbearable. By the end of the first chapter I was tired of hearing the thoughts of every character many of which were unnecessary, and the numerous POV shifts became distracting. I can only equate it to standing in a subway and trying to piece together a single story from different conversation pieces you pick up as you walk by passengers. With all the internal dialogue one might think you would have a deep understanding of the characters but sadly it was not so. Each of the characters felt very shallow and uninspired which made it impossible for me to connect with them, or care much about what they went through.
The book also suffers from some very heavy information dumps that quickly become overwhelming and tedious. This made reading the book more of a chore than an enjoyable experience for me. While I love a well-used simile to get a point across, I felt that the book relied too heavily on them. In one paragraph in particular, I came across three similes all to describe the same feeling and none of them really brought much to the story.
With some work I believe this book could be okay but as it stands now, I would not recommend it to my fellow readers. Each part of a book should lead to a character's growth or move the plot along to its final destination, but this book felt like a good deal of it was just filler that had no real bearing on the story itself.
******
The Touch
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Touch by Robert Flynn III
