Review: Abysmal 'Friends'
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2014
What I would have liked to know before I bought this book. (no spoilers)1. What type of book is it: action, drama, etc? Initially I thought the book was going to be a bit of a dark humor fantasy volume, but that illusion is quickly dispelled. This is a dark fantasy action/drama book.2. What is the story about, in general? A simple coming of age story for a young demonologist named Ean. The story embraces his adventures and the three beings traveling with him: Bram, Jaslen and Zin the Imp. The main human characters are young adults but act more like eleven or thirteen year old kids.3. What/Who is the target audience? Young teenagers and teenage males. Adults might find this story lacking.4. Is there character development? The book has a lot of character development. Bram's role changes as the book develops. He evolves an interesting personality. Though Ean's role doesn't change much, his evolution does occur within his role. Jaslen is the catalyst `hand of the author'. If the story needs her smart, she'll be smart. If story needs her clueless and annoying, she'll be clueless and annoying. If the story needs her emotional and girly, she's emotional and girly. If there is a need for understanding and wisdom, she's the one that's understanding and wise. If there is a need for a bubbly smiling cute girl, Jaslen is the bubbly smiling cute girl. If there is a need for irrational ignorance, Jaslen is the one chosen for ignorant irrationality. In essence, Jaslen has ZERO personality as a character. She's a malleable scene prop that pushes particular desired results within each scene. She has no limits to the personality changes except lack of evil. Zin is a miscreant with a few emotional hangups that might be considered feelings. He lies. He manipulates. He is an imp. Well written little bugger.5. Are the characters likable? Understand that the characters are heavily flawed. This is good technical writing but not the same as liking the characters. Thus, I don't like any of the main characters. Ean is childish, impulsive, needy, dependent and a bit of an ignorant idiot. He gets manipulated and played by almost EVERYONE. Being severely underwhelming isn't really a good combination in any main protagonist. His traveling companion, Bram, is a hidden ego jerk with confidence issues. His other traveling companion Jaslen, Bram's girlfriend, is an empty, brave, shell who's personality fluctuates depending on the needs of a scene. Zin is so blatantly manipulative, that in conjunction with the other 3 lackluster protagonists, he simply becomes very annoying. See the characters have great things about each one (except Jaslen) but the scenes, in combination with so many heavy flaws, are just not fun at all.6. Does the story keep its pacing? Well, yes and no. There is a healthy amount of action and that's good, except that many of the action scenes come about from extremely dumb decisions. Many times I had to ask myself `Why would X do/say that? That's so dumb!'. Though I admire the character development of incredibly flawed protagonists, they are so unlikable that I have very little vested interest in them. I couldn't immerse myself in the story.7. Do you have to suspend disbelief? Somewhat. Some of Bram's and Jaslen's eager and friendly attitude, when it comes to Ean's demonic abilities, strain my disbelief. It doesn't compute, especially when there doesn't seem to be a misunderstanding of the utter EVIL of Abysmal creatures. At some point a scene that would obviously end with an adult result goes perfect ... but nothing adult like happens. This reinforces the childishness of the main character. Many scene results feel disjointed and out of step with the reality of the situation and the world built around the characters. Everything is simply a little `off' all the time. It nagged the heck out of me.8. Is the book worth the asking price? This is a very personal decision. As not everyone will agree with my dislikes of this book, I think this book would be a good $4 read for young teenagers and young adults.In conclusion: An initially intriguing premise that mires under the weight of good technical writing but un-engaging characters and story events. The characters are so flawed that their growth cannot sustain or excuse their personality failures. Though the protagonist has growing moments of human empathy and caring, he is predominantly so childishly and ignorant that the reader will find it very difficult to connect with him. I find it more probable that the story might engage reader irritability over reader enjoyment. The story, in essence, lacks a lot of empathy to connect with adult readers. The book is slightly overpriced for what's being offered.With my polite regrets to the author, I cannot honestly recommend this read.2.2 stars