Geoff: Is that book any good?
Me: I’ll bet you a million dollars she has an MFA.
Geoff: How can you tell that?
Me (looks in the About the author section): Yep! MFA!
Geoff: That doesn’t answer my question.
Me: What question?
Geoff: Is it any good?
So is it? Parts sure — the chapter set in the city with the rebels was so tautly written and great to read. But that whole thing reads exactly like my idea of a stereotypical I have an MFA and this is my first novel novel (I have no idea if my opinion is justified, since, perhaps, I read tonnes of novels with those two qualifications and don’t even realize it). What do I mean?
- Every chapter is about/from the perspective of a different character.
- Chapters change the point of view constantly (i.e. some chapters are second person singular (you), some chapters are third person singular (she), etc.
- While each chapter is interlinked, they all have a stand-alone feel to them.
- Catharsis is somewhat muted.
And so, it ends up being more like a bunch of short stories about a fictionalized account of the filming of Cannibal Holocaust. I’m not saying that this is bad, but it isn’t the most wonderful book I’ve ever read either. I think it was marketed as horror. I’m jaded, so I wasn’t that horrified. But, maybe I was supposed to be horrified. I don’t know. I need a new POV chapter/character to tell me what I’m supposed to feel.
We At Our Own by Kea Wilson went on sale September 6, 2016.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.