Hollows come alive….Or not…

Been a couple of days, but with work, daughter home from college, husband on vacation and Star Wars Episode III, it’s been difficult to find time to read much less yak on about it in a journal. But ha, did you think I wasn’t reading? Silly you!

Finished EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD on Friday. Sad to say, I thought I could finish in a single setting, but this episode, for me at least, is not as good as the first two. Either, she was rushed to get it out to satisfy her fawning fans or she lost her creative sparkle for a bit. And the front cover blurbette — “Great sex. And an even better plot!” — well, please, one scene of doing the sublime and a bunch of gnawing on a demon scar is NOT great sex. If you don’t have an ongoing amount of sexual tension, it just becomes a formulaic scene — insert some sex here. As for great plot, walking on a character then forgetting him until the last summary chapter, or throwing us a bad guy without motivation rhyme or reason, or whisking away a main character (was the stage too crowded to manage?), is not a great plot. It just smacks of moving stick figures around a claustrophobic venue.

Perhaps the marketers are trying to get the LKH crowd to buy the book by employing the tease of great sex but I thought the ongoing tension sadly missing. And is having the male character dress the female now taking the place of foreplay? I’m getting too old, expecting a bit more than simply wardrobing. ::sigh:: Now, I’m not saying EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD is a complete loss, not sorry I read the book, and yup, I do recommend it to the others in my little sphere of influence who are eagerly awaiting this volume (have your favorite bookseller hold a copy for you on the first day of release, right before July 4th holiday!), but for me personally, it was a let-down. And it took two days to finish. Sheesh.

By the way, I have lots of questions which I’ll have to wait to discuss until either the book is released (June 28) or some others catch up with me (you know who you are). As to the final question, is this book a stand alone read?, probably. If you do like it, you’ll be intrigued enough to go back and get the first two, I don’t think you’ll get lost, although most of the character motivation, and the previous history will make the story a little clearer. Oh, yeah, and the plot thing, well, you can drive holes through it plus a bunch of superfluous characters and then not enough of main players — a quick visit then off to the holding room. To help those of you looking, and do look in the science fiction, fantasy or horror sections, the Hollows tales so far are:
The first two are NOT TO BE MISSED, she is a great new story teller and I’m sure the next episode in the ongoing saga of the Hollows will add a bit more.