Official Review: Something About Ann by J. Everett Prewitt

[djknott1]

I don't mind stories with lessons attached. When I read the sample, the first letter in the first word in the chapters were offset. I liked your review of each story. Easy to read and informative. Good work.

[holsam_87]

Thanks for sharing your review. I have been looking for more short stories to build up my repertoire of choices. Knowing that each story is character driven has my attention.

[SaffraWhishart]

J. Everett Prewitt has a great deal of talent. I was captivated from the 1st few sentences: the eloquent phrasing even in the middle of a bloodbath, the descriptive power, the characters who within moments of meeting them felt like they could step off the page.

Out of all of that, though, I agree with you that the characters are the driving force. It troubled me that the story began with an affair, but Ann & Clarence weren't blindly and hedonistically running into each other's arms; they were wrestling with themselves in the process. I remember thinking when Ann's husband came after Clarence that I didn't much blame him; but then Clarence regained some of my respect when he thought the same thing to himself. Personally, I think Clarence would've shown his love to Ann much better by giving her the space she needed to figure things out with her husband first.

Despite the wonderful writing, I stopped reading because I thought it was going to be a story about an affair, and that saddened me. However, from your review it sounded like that was only a tiny part of it. Now I am interested in maybe reading the book after all. Like you, I noticed the errors. Next time I hope the author will use a professional editor, because this surely would be a 4 out of 4 book.

Finally, I just wanted to give YOU props--it seems like it would be quite a challenge reviewing an anthology, but you did it very well.

[Shadyangel21]

It's always a shame to find errors when reading an amazing book. I think every author mostly expects these things to be caught during the multiple proofreads done, or at least caught by the editor. PTSD is such an awful thing to have to live with coming back from war. Disrupting all areas of your life both sleep stages and awake, all of your daily activities. You did an amazing job on your review Vickie. Thank you for sharing and painting such a clear view of what should be expected from this read.

[CaitlynLynch]

I like the idea of the stories all being interconnected. The writing felt a bit stilted to me, as though it needed a good editor.

[Sindhu Srinath]

Thank you for the very elaborate review. Congrats! I am not a fan of short stories. I hope it inspires those who read it.

[kate_nguyen]

Reading 33 chapters of Something About Ann might flash many both unpleasant and sensational images for me as a Vietnamese. The third person POV is a plus and perhaps make the book more interesting.

[Sakilunamermaid]

I'm not a reader of historical fiction especially war related ones. I love character driven books, nothing better than getting to know a character inside and out.

[kemp1kor]

While it certainly sounds like there are a lot of lessons to be learned in this book, it doesn’t strike my fancy. That being said, character driven stories are some of the best, and I hope those readers who are interested in the genre will enjoy it.

[vinodsai]

This book hooks you from the start. The topics of PTSD and how the soldiers deal with PTSD when they return home from the war have always been interesting to me. Very easy to understand and unique plot. Added to want to read shelf. Thanks for the Amazing review. 

[ladycraic]

Thank for the quick summaries! I enjoyed reading through them. I don't see how this collection of short stories could fail me but at this current moment, I don't have an interest in reading. I have a feeling that could change in the future.

[todwyer01]

From the sample, I found that this historical post-Vietnam novel puts in perspective the hardships of soldiers that came back from that war and how many interconnecting stories further add to the idea that tough decisions are difficult because otherwise they would not be important.

[Jude Austin]

The cover drew me in and from what you say I think this would be a good addition to my shelves. I'm a fan of short stories as opposed to long novels, purely due to time! Thanks for the review

[Tbunde5]

Thanks for breaking down each of the short stories. With an anthology, it is hard to summarize the whole book. It’s too bad we have to knock down a rating for typos, since it seems many will miss out on a really good read because of punctuation errors. When a story is well-written, the reader can look past the errors and enjoy the story. As a reviewer, we have to mention them. Good review.

[Mary WhiteFace]

I didn't realize that 'Something About Ann" was actually a collection of stories. I think it's kinda cool that it was written this way. The topic of the Vietnam War has so many different issues that need to be brought to people's awareness. It's really nice when it can be done in an entertaining way. Maybe more people will be willing to listen to 'real life' Vietnam survivors after reading this book.

I appreciate that you were so thorough in your review. I enjoyed reading it.