Review: 2.5/3 stars for Invincible. Needs A LOT of work.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2014
2.5/3 starsWarning: there may be spoilers ahead.First- Everyone KNOWS how judgmental I am when it comes to books that have ANYTHING relating to the American Armed Services. Most of you know that I am a USMC wife and have been for quite sometime. So I don't take lightly when an author takes liberties with any of the armed forces.Unfortunately this author took a few too many liberties for my liking. Its almost like she's trying to convince us that she really knows how the military and specifically the SEALs work, but as you read you realize more and more that just doesn't appear to be true. Sure- lets just take two weeks of leave in the MIDDLE OF A DEPLOYMENT. It just doesn't happen. YES it is true that SOME military members get a 2 week break when they are serving YEAR LONG deployments. HOWEVER they do not just up and say "Hey, I'm taking 2 weeks- see ya later" and jaunt off with their buddies (ALSO on the deployment) to go galavanting around. There are other things as well- some may be mentioned going forward, but that was a big WTF moment for me.I also- again as a military wife- am a bit offended about how its portrayed that it's always the wive's faults that all those marriages end in divorce. Yes, I realize we are "hearing" from Pat but still- while YES the military divorce rate is a bit higher than the national average- it's not always due to cheating wives. Guess what? The men cheat too... just a thought.Moving on to the book in general. Can we say inconsistent? Because that's what this book was. Full of contradictions and inconsistencies.Not going to point out a ton of examples but a few that irked me: At the very beginning we get told how SEALs typically prefer to not be tattooed, as tattoos can easily identify someone and it could compromise the ability of a SEAL to remain anonymous. HOWEVER later in that SAME CHAPTER we meet Kyle. Kyle is described as an ex-NFL Super Star. OK. Now call me crazy. But if we are going to make the point of telling us how tattoos can be used to easily identify a SEAL then WHY ON EARTH would you introduce a character who is not only a SEAL but also a celebrity? REALLY? Because being an "NFL Super Star" isn't identifying?Furthermore- it goes on in another chapter I believe to state how Kyle always gets mistaken for an actor and people ask for his autograph. The way it's put into the story, the way it's written, makes it sound like it's funny and people are mistaking him for someone famous. BUT THEY AREN'T! He IS a celebrity in a way. So I don't really understand any of that.The other big one that made me cringe: When on the ship AND when Pat came home and met back up with Annie- he tells us he'll come home for 3 weeks and then training for 3 weeks. But then all of the sudden he's saying he's deploying for 8 months. Training for 3 weeks or deployment? It's inconsistent.The book as a whole is rushed. I would have liked to see more details SOMEWHERE but we really don't get them ANYWHERE. It's like we get bits and pieces and move on. We still get the big picture. And we get to see "the big stuff" that happens but there's something decidedly lacking. Particularly in the end. We KNOW there's something going on with Annie's father, we get a big scene where we learn what that is- but then what? We're really just going to sweep it under the proverbial rug with just a conversation? Why did we spend SO MUCH TIME on it if was just going to more or less fizzle out into nothingness?We are also in desperate need of proofreading/beta reading. Spellcheck and grammar check won't pick up all the times you've accidentally typed "see" instead of "sea" and so one and so forth.Overall I think the IDEA was a good one, not very original as the military hero/kidnapped sex slave thing has been done a lot, but still this had a slightly different twist. However it was poorly executed. Definitely NOT the quality of work that I expected from someone who's splashing her wonderful Stanford/Harvard education all over her profiles.