I hate it when a book promises something and then never delivers. This happened to me twice this year. The first time is when I read The Fetch which was supposed to be a supernatural romance without the romance. The second book is Distant Waves: A novel of the Titanic.
The title of this book is Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic. This implies that the Titanic is the setting for this book. Well, not in this case.
Jane and her sisters go off with their mother to a place in Buffalo called Spirit Vale after their father dies. Their mother talks to the dead, which was a popular thing to do during that time. Some people maybe asking where the Titanic is...and I was asking the same question.
After spending some time in Buffalo Jane's mother is invited to England for a Spiritualist conference. Things happen, I don't remember what because I was trying to figure out where the Titanic fit into this entire book.
The one problem I had was it felt like this book focuses on Jane's mother more than the sisters. Half of the book takes place in Buffalo, which I found dull and uninteresting. Nothing happens! And that's the problem with this novel. It drags. Jane's sister has a secret hidden past which comes out from left field and is dropped in the reader's lap. It's not a bad little twist but I'm not sure why it needed to be mentioned. Then we have random historical figures (Nikola Tesla, and a few others that I have forgotten) thrown into the book. Why? Meanwhile the reader is going along, waiting and wondering where the Titanic fits into this whole story.
Finally we get to the Titanic at about page 200, however by that time I had lost interest in this book and I daresay most of teens would too.
The book was well written, the characters were decent, but the plot was very slow. I thought this books title was very misleading. Maybe if the book started on the Titanic then I might have been interested in what happened to the sisters.
I wish I could have liked this novel, but I could not.
Has anyone else felt mislead by a book? If so which book and why?
4 comments:
Dammit. This is the second review I've read of this book that said nearly the same thing. I was looking forward to this one because I love Titanic history. Blah.
I was let down by The Sentinels: Fortunes of War. The blurb was all about espionage and intrigue and spies. Wheee! It was the dullest espionage book on the face of the earth. I didn't know that was possible.
Maybe you read my review on Amazon? I was looking forward to this one too. I almost bought it but decided to get it at the library. I am glad I did.
LOL. I hate it when books sound so interesting and then turn out dull. I never read The Sentinels and I doubt I will now :)
I agree about The Fetch, that one was disappointing--and more than a little tedious. I've had books that surprised me in a good way too. I picked up Dooley Takes the Fall expecting it to be an "issue" book but it was also a very good mystery.
I was actually a little letdown by Wicked Lovely. I bought the book because I loved the sample through my kindle and the concept sounded amazing. And I felt like the book didn't really deliver. It was very superficial and just barely scratched the surface of its potential.
But I know a lot of other people loved the book and the series, so that may have just been me.
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