A Novel That Starts with F

By a male author
Published between 2012 and 2016
Rating: 1

One problem with reviewing books is that on very rare occasions I might interact with a writer whose novel I reviewed, and if I trash their book, it’s just very awkward.

So, in some cases, I’m going to post a few thoughts on a novel without revealing the title or author.

I realize this is unorthodox, maybe even irritating. I apologize. The problem is that life is stressful enough without having to worry about showing up at a bar and getting punched in the face by an aggrieved novelist.

So, the novel with the title that starts with F, I made it four pages into it, it was a widely acclaimed novel, but I put it down because the writer’s appallingly flat verbs and their sentence construction more generally. I don’t care if the novel turns into a beautiful swan after page 30, my sense was that the writer did not write terrible verbs knowingly, my impression was that he did not realize he was using terrible verbs, and therefore, I’ll take a hard pass on the book.

Come to think of it, flat verbs were just one of the problems that popped up in the first 3 pages of the book. There was also biographical information about the characters that was extraneous; poorly placed, it just seemed like the character construction was going to be a hot mess.