Sunday, February 11, 2018

Where I Uncomfortably Pan a Book in as Few Words as Possible

Red Vengeance (Black Widow, #2)Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disappointing. I wanted to like this far more than I actually did.

In this novel, we spend way too much time in characters' heads, listening to them replay the same thoughts, or half-thoughts, over and over. The book is about 75% soap opera, and all of it is happening as memory and reflection and self-recrimination and second-guessing.

There are a few scenes with pretty good action, but not enough to balance out the long, slow chapters in between, and not enough plot to make sense. Did the author really have the antagonist drop 5 nuclear devices just to send a message to the Black Widow to go to Moscow?

And the Black Widow herself was horribly underused. I'm okay with her understudy being the center of the action, but she was just as disappointing, barely doing anything remotely heroic.

The book was a gift. I wanted to like it. I wish I had.

View all my reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment