Scan barcode
mlynes_author's review against another edition
4.0
“Erasing Ramona” by Peggy Rothschild is a well-written novel. I picked up this story as it was the ‘book of the week’ in an online book club I am a member of. I was at first quite unsure of the genre that this tale might fall into but the cover was interesting and intrigued me.
In my humble opinion this work would best fit into the Amateur/Accidental Sleuth-Thriller genre with the MC being both the focal point of all of the action as well as told completely from the first person POV. All of the other characters in this story are connected to the MC as well. They fall into the category of either relatives (parents, significant others etc.) or former friends from our MC’s troubled past. As a consequence the story has a very rigid arc with no extraneous excursions or unrelated events. This tends to keep the plot very focused but also leaves the reader with the feeling of airlessness. No other characters exist except those that relate to our heroine.
The author does a very good job setting scenes, and rich descriptions (in places so detailed that they detract from the progression of the plot) are employed throughout this tale. The amount of description and exposition, especially in the beginning stages of the novel was a bit distracting, but this tale begins rapidly, and its beginning is engaging and compelling. All that said, my review.
Our story opens as we, through the eyes of ‘Ramona’ (known presently as Suzy, birth-name Miranda), awake from a drug induced stupor. Her recollection of the past several days is sketchy and she is hungover, sick and disoriented. The last thing she can recall is a wild party and the remains of that escapade surround her. She finds herself alone in a large unfamiliar house, and she goes in search of her friends. No one responds to her increasingly frantic calls and she begins to fear that something terrible has happened. As these thoughts tumble through her head she comes upon a horrific scene of violence. No spoilers, but the action starts immediately and the reader is hooked by the end of the first chapter.
This seminal opening event is key to the rest of the plot but we find that it is actually part of a long-buried past that haunts Ramona, now going by the name of Suzy, to the present day. It might have remained no more than a recurrent nightmare but for the untimely death of her father and the invitation from her estranged mother Marion to attend his funeral in her old hometown of Mill Valley CA. Suzy’s (nee Miranda’s) relationship with her past, her parents and her buried secrets are all colliding together and the remainder of this fast paced story describes the inevitable series of conflicts that occur.
If all this seems like a lot, it is…and though the story and writing are well executed the cast of characters becomes slightly unwieldy and their individual ‘voices’ begin to assume a rather mono-chromatic tone. Many coincidental plot connections also detract from the readers immersive FP-POV, so that they begin to strain credulity and in some cases require the reader to exercise willing suspension of disbelief. Plot issues aside the story has breakneck pace and becomes a very engaging if quick and relatively easy read. The author winds the story line up somewhat abruptly and brings this tale to a neat though not too surprising conclusion.
Overall I gave this story a rating of 4 stars, though in truth it should be a 3.5 rounded up to four. There are several plot issues, critically the overuse of coincidence to connect plot events together. The arc of the story is relentless and ultra-focused on resolution. The antagonist is more than a bit stereotypical and his central motivation is not IMHO very credible.
In summary:
The downs – somewhat improbable plot, coincidental plotline linkages and artificially compressed timeline. Character voices are practically interchangeable and at times it was difficult to know who was speaking a specific set of dialog. For my personal taste there were many points in the story where I found myself forced to overlook these unartful connects so as to preserve the overall story progression.
The ups – This story had lots of action, was well written and clean with good characterizations. Good descriptive scene setting, a plot twist and a neat ending that left few unresolved threads. Light Romance is a sub-plot but it never goes beyond a G rating on the heat scale. There are somewhat graphic descriptions of violence but they are not dwelt upon or described with a great deal of gory detail.
All that said, fans of somewhat mysterious/thriller/amateur sleuth novels will not be disappointed. Overall this story was well written and I do wish the author good luck in her future endeavors.
In my humble opinion this work would best fit into the Amateur/Accidental Sleuth-Thriller genre with the MC being both the focal point of all of the action as well as told completely from the first person POV. All of the other characters in this story are connected to the MC as well. They fall into the category of either relatives (parents, significant others etc.) or former friends from our MC’s troubled past. As a consequence the story has a very rigid arc with no extraneous excursions or unrelated events. This tends to keep the plot very focused but also leaves the reader with the feeling of airlessness. No other characters exist except those that relate to our heroine.
The author does a very good job setting scenes, and rich descriptions (in places so detailed that they detract from the progression of the plot) are employed throughout this tale. The amount of description and exposition, especially in the beginning stages of the novel was a bit distracting, but this tale begins rapidly, and its beginning is engaging and compelling. All that said, my review.
Our story opens as we, through the eyes of ‘Ramona’ (known presently as Suzy, birth-name Miranda), awake from a drug induced stupor. Her recollection of the past several days is sketchy and she is hungover, sick and disoriented. The last thing she can recall is a wild party and the remains of that escapade surround her. She finds herself alone in a large unfamiliar house, and she goes in search of her friends. No one responds to her increasingly frantic calls and she begins to fear that something terrible has happened. As these thoughts tumble through her head she comes upon a horrific scene of violence. No spoilers, but the action starts immediately and the reader is hooked by the end of the first chapter.
This seminal opening event is key to the rest of the plot but we find that it is actually part of a long-buried past that haunts Ramona, now going by the name of Suzy, to the present day. It might have remained no more than a recurrent nightmare but for the untimely death of her father and the invitation from her estranged mother Marion to attend his funeral in her old hometown of Mill Valley CA. Suzy’s (nee Miranda’s) relationship with her past, her parents and her buried secrets are all colliding together and the remainder of this fast paced story describes the inevitable series of conflicts that occur.
If all this seems like a lot, it is…and though the story and writing are well executed the cast of characters becomes slightly unwieldy and their individual ‘voices’ begin to assume a rather mono-chromatic tone. Many coincidental plot connections also detract from the readers immersive FP-POV, so that they begin to strain credulity and in some cases require the reader to exercise willing suspension of disbelief. Plot issues aside the story has breakneck pace and becomes a very engaging if quick and relatively easy read. The author winds the story line up somewhat abruptly and brings this tale to a neat though not too surprising conclusion.
Overall I gave this story a rating of 4 stars, though in truth it should be a 3.5 rounded up to four. There are several plot issues, critically the overuse of coincidence to connect plot events together. The arc of the story is relentless and ultra-focused on resolution. The antagonist is more than a bit stereotypical and his central motivation is not IMHO very credible.
In summary:
The downs – somewhat improbable plot, coincidental plotline linkages and artificially compressed timeline. Character voices are practically interchangeable and at times it was difficult to know who was speaking a specific set of dialog. For my personal taste there were many points in the story where I found myself forced to overlook these unartful connects so as to preserve the overall story progression.
The ups – This story had lots of action, was well written and clean with good characterizations. Good descriptive scene setting, a plot twist and a neat ending that left few unresolved threads. Light Romance is a sub-plot but it never goes beyond a G rating on the heat scale. There are somewhat graphic descriptions of violence but they are not dwelt upon or described with a great deal of gory detail.
All that said, fans of somewhat mysterious/thriller/amateur sleuth novels will not be disappointed. Overall this story was well written and I do wish the author good luck in her future endeavors.
sumomcgrath's review
3.0
I received this book for free through a Goodreads Giveaway.
I'm going to go against the general trend of reviews for this book. I did not love it. The premise was interesting, so I went into the book wanting to love it.
The issue for me was setting. This book is set in the mid '90s, with many flashbacks to the mid '80s. As a reader, if a book is set in the past, I need the time period to become a character in the story. It needs to be richly drawn, really put me in the past.
I did not feel that with this story. I kept forgetting that it was set in the past. Then I would remember, and be frustrated, wondering why the author chose to set this story in a different decade. (My suspected answer is all about The Ramones). I honestly feel that it would have been a more powerful story pulled into this decade.
I'm going to go against the general trend of reviews for this book. I did not love it. The premise was interesting, so I went into the book wanting to love it.
The issue for me was setting. This book is set in the mid '90s, with many flashbacks to the mid '80s. As a reader, if a book is set in the past, I need the time period to become a character in the story. It needs to be richly drawn, really put me in the past.
I did not feel that with this story. I kept forgetting that it was set in the past. Then I would remember, and be frustrated, wondering why the author chose to set this story in a different decade. (My suspected answer is all about The Ramones). I honestly feel that it would have been a more powerful story pulled into this decade.
More...