Review: Author's objective overshadows the characters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2012
I was disappointed in this short story.  Throughout, the author has an overarching moral/objective that she pushes to the point that the characters become tools of the objective as opposed to allowing the characters to blossom and therefore having the moral of the story unfold through the drama of the characters.  I rarely see books that push a theme as "in your face" as this book, and for me, it ruined the story.  Quite likeable characters became robotic in their actions, enslaved to the over-potent push of the author's agenda.  There was also a section towards the end of the story where I got completely left behind:  it wasn't until nearly the end of the chapter when I realized that the heroine was on another continent entirely from the setting of the rest of the book.  How did that happen and why did it take me almost the entire chapter to realize she was in another country??  For me, though I finished reading the short story, that flaw is what kicked me completely out of the story and the lives of the characters.This book had a lot of potential and the storyline was excellent but for these two flaws that overshadowed it - especially the author's voice, which was louder than the characters' story - I couldn't lose myself in the beauty of the tale, which is what a good story does to me.  I downloaded this short for free, which was nice, but it was only a mediocre read and one that I would not recommend to others to try.