Review: Great characters, needs a proofreader
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 21, 2012
~~From Red Adept Reviews~~I received Anomaly, by Thea Atkinson, as a review copy submitted to "Red Adept Reviews" by the author.Overall: 3 3/4 StarsPlot/Storyline: 3 1/2 StarsThough the cover art [at the time of this review] evokes paranormal romance and the title rings of science fiction, this book is all about sex and drugs and gender-switching, oh my!Anomaly was consistent on its engaging themes, but while several subplots were tied up satisfactorily, the main plot read more like a "day in the life" story. J's POV was a marvelously different take on the world, and very engaging, but I wouldn't go anywhere near "psychological thriller."The pacing was great; it only lagged once, when a new character was introduced during a tense scene, and some of the tension leaked out as they spent several pages shooting the breeze.Despite all the drugs and the addicts who crave them in this story, it's not a tale of freewheeling partying. J is a recovering addict who manages to get two other characters into rehab. It was fascinating to see how this affected the plot: J has to take over another character's problem for her, eventually leading to a twist at the conclusion.J's actions to bring on the book's conclusion had no explanation. His sudden choice feels random and suicidal. Suicidal tendencies have a place in the novel--they're an issue he's struggled with before, and one that becomes particularly topical after a surprise medical diagnosis--but his deliberate choice to attract harm felt out of character and confused the stated reason for J's scar collection.The book's ending was anti-climactic for me. Considering how the book opened, I assumed from the start that J had always believed what he only seemed to discover at the end.Character Development: 5 StarsJ was well-crafted. Through his eyes, I truly grasped the difference between sex and gender, the pain that not being able to conform to society's one-gender expectations can bring, and how easily such pain can drive those on the fringes of "normalcy" to seek chemical happiness or oblivion.Reading about Molly was a hoot. She seemed full of contradictions and uncaring that she sometimes didn't make any sense. Her compassionate nature warred companionably with her mission to prove that all women were secret lesbians.Sherona was very believable as she went from offended to compassionate to loving. Stephanie's dedication to her baby's health and happiness made a beautiful contrast to her crippling addiction. Even J's mother brought excellent tension to every one of her scenes through her hopes for her son's happiness and the censorious ways she expressed them.Writing Style: 4 StarsWritten in first person, Ms. Atkinson's novel takes its sweet time with description in all the right places, enhancing everything from the pain of J's injuries to the way his body reacts with need for the drugs he used to take as they show up in his life again. The level of detail makes it impossible not to identify with J at least on a physical level, as a human being, and that in itself goes a long way toward making his perspectives and experiences ring true, even to someone who's only ever had one gender.It was distracting to me that the author included so many product names in this novel; it's got more product placement than The Truman Show. Misspelling "Pepto Bismal" probably won't land that sponsorship deal, though.I did notice a handful of small inaccuracies, like calling the muscle on the back of the upper arm a bicep instead of the triceps, and cheekbones having flesh instead of marrow.Editing: 2 StarsOh, dear. Such a crystal sea of good storytelling, obscured by massive algae mats of typos and punctuation errors. There's a dearth of proper comma usage, especially in dialogue, which gave me the sensation that the robotic Kindle TTS voice was beaming the story straight into my head. Hyphens were also a large issue in this story--or rather, their absence was, leaving me curious about the difference between plain and fancy "ass business cards", and myriad less-amusing issues. Homophone switching and simple typos appeared regularly as well.For a book that contained a purposeful Christian-religion theme, I found too many related or derived words with incorrect capitalization (bible, beJesus, hell). The word "OK" was capitalized--or not--three different ways. One of them is the right way (OK), but you can't hedge your bets on spelling.