Review: "Too Many Notes"
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2012
I need to start by saying the premise & the story itself is well thought out & executed - sadly it doesn't end there. What then is the problem? In 1984 there was a movie called Amadeus & yes it was about Mozart. There is a scene where Antonio Salieri a composer of the time writes a review of one of Mozart's pieces to the effect of having Too Many Notes. Now this was jealously done by him to knowingly discredit / destroy Mozart someone he knew would one day be one of the greatest to ever live. Now i am not Salieri & i'm certain this author is no freaking Mozart (which is really not a diss - after all how many truly can claim to be a Mozart) but this book is more then a tad wordy /"too many notes". As one example of what I am talking about: "The static whisper of sand skimming sand even beat out the crush of the sea" - I mean reallllly??? This is supposed to be a book about a dam serial killer - I feel like skimming a rock at the authors freaking head right now!I know many people like these books & this author but I really don't care. I myself actually like the "story" quite a lot. But if this was a movie these scenes would shoot by in seconds but in book format they just feel like watching paint dry sometimes. I find myself having to skim to get to any real content way to often. I also can not sit & read this book through in one sitting like I can with so many others - it is just too boring reading what is beginning to feel like a tourist brochure at times. I don't mind the occasional overly descriptive narrative of the ever changing surroundings BUT enough is enough. If you don't live in the area 1000 written words won't be enough & more then 50 will be too much (the whole picture being worth....thing). Much of this style seems to be so the reader can perfectly visualize each scene & location. What happened to less is more & being able to imagine these things for yourself - a huge part of why many including myself love to read.In closing a lot of this is like the grass in the movie Avatar. Why? Because that is all 3D did for this movie put blades of grass right in front of your face. Now if you are like me you realize just how important this was to the plot. It would have been one thing if there was a big steaming pile of alien droppings in that grass but alas it was just grass.