Review: Mixed feelings
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2013
I was given a copy of the book to review for free.When you pick up a novel, you come to the table with a set of expectations. Whether you are looking to be entertained, titillated, educated, or moved, your expectations shape your experience with a particular book.  The Paradise Lie doesn't fit easily into most frameworks. It does have some elements of a deep, cynical view of heaven and hell, but doesn't really work them out to any useful premise. It contains a promise of lots of sex, but the delivery is flat and boring, perhaps echoing the author's point that if you don't have to really work for it or sacrifice, you can get tired of anything.Above all, this book really could benefit from a good copy-editor and proofreading. The flow of the narrative is tough at times to stay in, the character names are misused in a few spots. It almost feels self-published.The plot isn't terribly thin, there are enough characters and depth to keep the reader engaged, and who wouldn't want to be Gerald as he has the ultimate power of creation and destruction. The point that everyone would shape reality to suit themselves if given the chance, yet ultimately find no purpose in it at all, is real and probably could be sharpened even further.  The shadowy antagonists (organ farmers, demons, mental monsters) never really feel threatening or ominous to the reader, it's hard to take them seriously when all Gerald has to do is think of the right "magic" effect to combat them.Interesting read, not for kids.