This blog has officially moved to Wordpress! You can find the latest posts at www.blueeyebooks.com. Redirect coming soon!

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Review Wednesday: The Departed by Chase McCown


Standalone to date

Goodreads Blurb:
"The United States is under siege!
A devastating new bacterial disease sweeps across the states on the west coast and saps its victims of their own free will. Four strangers must work together to survive a mad dash across the United States to find safety in the nation’s capital. The outbreak chases them from their homes on the west coast, and they struggle to reach the capital before the disease does. When they arrive, danger rears its ugly head again, and the four must race against time to save not only themselves, but the entire country from destruction. The Departed is a story filled with the unlikeliest of heroes, who must find hope even when things look hopeless."



Review:
Thank you to the author, Chase McCown, for gifting me with a copy of The Departed in exchange for an honest review!

When I was young, I had a Nintendo SP and I was obsessed with collecting those 'life' kinds of games.  There was one where I played a new vet in town and I played through each one of her days as a vet; seeing her patients, having conversations with the other employees, etc etc.  As anyone who has ever had a Nintendo hand-held system (whether it be an Advance, SP, DS, 3DS, or anything else), you'll know that the games are visibly computer generated with typical responses and predictable outcomes.  It gets harder to see as the programming got more advanced in recent years but back with my SP games, it was very apparent.  My young vet would say the same things and her friends would as well.  You may be wondering about the necessity of having a monologue about my childhood gaming experiences in a book review.  This book strongly reminded me of the patterns I picked up on in my Nintendo SP games in the dialogue, plot, and writing in general.  Let me explain:

1.  The characters/dialogue.  The characters themselves had so much potential.  In the beginning of the book, the reader is treated to a bit of background on each of the characters (all except Mike for some reason) and each are presented with different experiences and life achievements and goals.  They also began with very distinct personalities.  Now, as the book progressed, some of that began to fall away.  It's almost as if the author found the writing process monotonous and fell into too deep of a rhythm.  I'll get into this more in the writing section but in terms of characters, they started out developing well but the development quickly dropped off as the major events of the book took place.

2.  The plot.  The plot itself as well is quite good.  I think the author did a fine job of mapping out what was to happen and thinking about cascading events.  There were some inconsistencies where settings would seem to be jolting from chapter to chapter and an awkward amount of time had past.  One major element of the plot that kept bothering me throughout my reading of this book is the path the characters took to reach their destination.  They start out in Washington state (in the very upper north west of the US) and are journeying to Washington DC (in the upper north east).  I'm from the US so I'm very familiar with it's geography so it struck me as odd when the characters found themselves in Texas of all places.  Why on earth would you travel down and then up so you're spending the most time on the road?  You're running from what equates to zombies!  This provided an endless source of confusion.  Perhaps there was an explanations somewhere which points to my other quarrel.  Events seemed to occur with lightning speed and both harrowing and touching moments were over in a flash.  I completely understand that scenes with danger and adrenaline need to be written so they are read faster but I have an inkling that this author was on a space deadline and had to cut out some major scene and plot development.

3.  The setting.  As I said above, this book chronicles a journey basically across most of the US so the characters are confronted with many different weather patterns and scenery changes.  While some were expressed wonderfully, others were glossed over and what remained was a largely plot-driven novel.  Generally, this isn't a bad thing at all if there's at least some picture painting going on but most of the writing was telling and not showing.

4.  The writing.  This is where it all comes back to.  I'd guess either the author was on a page deadline (you can only write so many words or pages for it to be published) or they simply need more practice in the art of writing itself.  Much of the writing was telling and not showing which made many of the life-threatening events feel inconsequential.  This did the plot a giant disservice.  There also was a lack of variety in dialogue and I often found myself questioning why the character would say such a thing.  For example, the phrase 'sure thing' is used an incredible amount of times.  'Have a nice day' was also a popular one although I more was upset with that phrase because of it's timing.  Generally speaking, there was a real lack of life for lack of a better term.

The Final Verdict:
Sadly I have to conclude that this book was just not my cup of tea.  It is intensely plot-driven to the point of questionability and the writing did nothing to illustrate the qualities of life itself.  Simply put, the book felt immensely flat to me.  The plot and characters do show potential, however, if only they were given the tools to succeed.
2 stars

12 comments:

  1. Great review Laura. I didn't even know page deadlines existed, and it makes me angry that certain publishing companies would make authors need to cut down like that! Seems counterproductive to making sure that a fully fleshed out story is told. From your review, I'm not sure I would like this book either--I probably wouldn't have caught that part about landing in Texas when going to DC but now that you pointed it out that's super confusing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For sure! I understand that there are limited resources but isn't it better to make a few stellar, fully-developed books than a whole host of skimpy ones? So I definitely don't fault the author for that but nevertheless the book was made worse because of it. It is! They traveled down toward the US-Mexico border and across the bottom of the US before heading up the eastern seaboard to DC. It made absolutely no sense. Thanks for stopping by, Gabs!

      Delete
  2. Just based on the summary alone, I think my mom would like this one. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? I'd be interested to hear if she would like it better than I did :) Thanks for stopping by, Lauren!

      Delete
  3. Ugh. Well, that doesn't sound good at all. It almost sounds like someone put some ideas into a computer and let the computer write the book, doesn't it? Sad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah that's how it felt to me which is too bad because it's such a cool idea for a book! I was talking to the author and this is their debut novel so I understand they're going to have to take some time to develop their prose. Thanks for stopping by, Jenny!

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the review Laura! Sorry that the book didn't live up to your expectations, but I very much appreciate the feedback. There were some great positives you wrote that I'll be able to hopefully expand on and the negatives were all things that I can focus on improving in future titles. As far as a first book is concerned, I'm still pleased to hear that you felt the book held promise, as the execution is something that can be perfected.

    Take care!

    Chase McCown

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome, Chase! That's what I'm here for :) I think you just have to work on developing your own voice and really immersing yourself. Your ideas are spot on, though so keep working at it and hopefully I'll be able to read more in the future :)

      Delete
  5. Great review! I really liked your connection to the games you used to play. I always think it's really disappointing when the plot or characters have so much potential but somehow they don't develop to their full potential

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Erika! It was kind of strange how after around 20% of the book, I couldn't get that comparison out of my head and after a while it really stuck. Thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete
  6. You seem to be reading a mix of really good and really bad books interchangeably. I understand what you mean as well about loving those kind of 'life' games. As well as playing Sims 2 on the computer, I loved those kind of games on my nintendo DS as well. I'm sorry that this book didn't work out so well for you :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah this month has really been a mixed bag! Right? I remember loving them when I was younger! Thanks for stopping by, Olivia!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...