A Gripe

Well, I finished The Last Block in Harlem and I really didn't like the ending.  In fact from about halfway in it got a bit bizarre actually and I don't like that when I'm reading.  Keep it real from start to end, or if you want to throw in the magic realism or surrealism you have to do it from the start.  I'm not a fan of changing the rules halfway through.

I stuck with it though as the way it was written was okay, and I did want to keep going to see where it's was going to end up; but (for me) the ending was way off the mark.  In fact as I was reading it I was thinking, hang on, this is Odd Thomas, what's going on?  I gave it a three star review mainly because there was more to this book than just reading it, and it was fun being part of it.  However, I'm really pleased I didn't do it as a book club read, as I think my members would not have liked it at all. 

There were a few editing errors in it, though not as many as in Opposing Energies, and I wonder why, when you go to the trouble to get something published and it is proof read and edited and all the rest of it, how does the finished product still contain so many errors?  I paid for both OE and LBH and as such I want to be receiving the polished product; Opposing Energies has so many errors that I can only bear to read a few pages at a sitting.  I think now, after giving independent authors a go, that I will stick to my reading lists and the tried and true.  OK, even they may contain the odd error, but they're definitely worth reading too.  I'm not rubbishing the two novels above at all, Opposing Energies just isn't to my taste and personally I think that it would work better as a graphic novel and I do feel that there is some value to reading The Last Block in Harlem just in the way that it has got me thinking about myself and about how and where I live.

My next read will be Plague by Albert Camus and my next audio will be Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.  Both should satisfy my horror or blood lust. Talking of horrors, I can't believe the junk I've been renting on DVD this week in the name of horror.  What is going on?  The cover to The Last Exorcism didn't even relate to anything in the movie, and again this is an example of something losing its way halfway through.  It was dumb, but the thing is most of the viewers aren't.  Give us something decent, if you call it horror - then horrify us.  Is it that hard?  Actually the most frightening thing I've seen all week was an armpit on Embarrassing Bodies that had me screaming, gagging and covering my eyes.  So it can be done!  I also rented Monsters and whilst it wasn't terribly scary, the acting wasn't bad, and the sets were really good.  The monsters were even cute in their own way, so I guess I kind of liked it.  Devil wasn't bad, I was wanting a nasty little ending, but it had a very moralistic ending but still, it worked.  Tonight I'm going to try Let Me In.  They reckon it's the best American Horror Movie in 20 Years - you'll be hearing from me if I disagree!!  In fact the most horrifying thing about my DVD rentals this week was the little surprise I found behind one of the cases: