Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. I’ve been doing edits on my manuscript, trying to get it ready for my beta readers (if any of you are interested in reading for me, send me an email at kdrose at g mail dot com and I’ll tell you about the book and we can see if we can swap ms if you want).I’ve been reading a lot. Sometimes I get into a habit where I read/listen to two books at a time. I just finished listening to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson and reading Kill For Me by Karen Rose. I have to say, I almost fried my brain. The two stories were different enough for me not to confuse plots or characters, but they both had TONS of characters in them.
If any of you out there have read any Karen Rose novels you know she gives you lots of people to play with and some of those people aren’t who they say they are. They have different names, nicknames, secret identities or no identities at all. You have to stay on your toes when you read one of her books, but as this novel was part of a series, I already knew most of the characters so I didn’t have so much trouble keeping track.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo…OMG! I don’t know if any of you have read it—I mean, I know I’m late to the game and somebody has to be reading it for as long as it’s been on the bestsellers list—but what a dense novel. Admittedly, I struggled in the beginning. My manager has read all three books and warned me that I might have a hard time getting into the beginning, and that was no lie. I was two discs in and I was like, I don’t know what’s really going on. My manager said, “Karen, promise me you’ll stick with it. It’ll be worth it.” I stuck with it and boy was it worth it. I really loved the book and more over, I loved the way Larsson wrote.It struck me when I was about halfway through the book that as an unpublished writer, I’d probably have a hard time getting an agent if The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was my first novel. It’s a brilliant story and once someone gave it a chance, they’d see the brilliance, but it’s a story that’s heavily told. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from agents, editors and authors that you should show and not tell. But somehow Larsson tells about 70% of this story and shows about 30%, but it WORKS!
So if any of you are out there looking for a good thriller I whole-heartedly recommend The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Yeah, all both of you who haven’t read it by now-lol. If any of you like a little more romance with your thrillers then pick up a Karen Rose book. You won’t be disappointed.
This combination worked so well for me that I just got The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio and another Karen Rose book, Silent Scream, so I can read some and listen some. God, I love books!
Everyone have a safe fourth! Don’t eat too much and keep your manikins away from fireworks because every year the news show those poor manikins getting their hands blown off…when will they learn?
5 comments:
Thanks for the feedback on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I could not get into it and faded around page 70. But maybe I'll pick it up again since I keep from everyone that it really is brilliant despite the slow beginning. But I definitely agree with you that it's hard to imagine getting published right now with a slow, dense opening.
Missed a word... meant to write "I keep HEARING from everyone..."
I haven't read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet - and I don't know if I will. I'm a wimp when it comes to thrillers. So I'll probably skip this one :)
It's interesting, isn't it, how we can look at some of the books that are bestsellers and wonder how on earth they got published. I've done that several times. I think it's a combination of luck, the right agent at the right time, and sheer randomness.
Jai
Jennifer, definitely give it another shot. Even though I was listening to the novel, I was probably around page 70 when I was like...I don't know if I can do this. LOL. I'm thankful I hung on because you will get to care about the man characters, Mikael Blomkvist and Lizbeth Salander aka the girl with the dragon tattoo. And once you care, it's got you.
Jemi, it's a thriller but not gory at all. Two parts gets a bit grapic, but for the most part its uraveling a mystery involving a family with decades of secrets.
Jai, I definitely think Larsson's novels and writing are up to snuff, but you're right. You do think sometimes reading a story as heavy on the telling as Dragon Tattoo and think, as a new author, it would be so very hard to get a foot in with that book as your first novel. But to go along with the luck, right agent and randomness, there is a lot of hard work. No one who reads that book can deny that Larsson worked hard on it.
Post a Comment