Review by MerryLove -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch

[MerryLove]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch is a short science fiction novel. A struggling writer finds out that one of his writing colleagues has been admitted to a nearby mental hospital. It seems that each day, he becomes one of the characters from his books. Not only that, but he is somehow a very successful writer. Desperate to learn his secrets and help his writing career, the writer pays a visit to the hospital.

The story starts off with such good potential. The plot of the writer looking for the secret to success through a touch of insanity is attention grabbing. It made me want to know more from the beginning. It's a great premise to explore. It felt fresh and reminded me a bit of The Twilight Zone. The ending, too, was well done. It fit the plot and theme of the book very well and had a satisfying conclusion.

Too many other elements of the story are currently lacking though.The biggest major issue I noticed were the numerous editing errors. There is punctuation where it doesn't belong throughout the book. Quotations in particular don't end where they are supposed to, or are not present when they should be. This makes it very confusing to read. The main character constantly switches between speech and his thoughts, so it is important that the appropriate punctuation is there. There were also a few instances of incorrect word usage and run on sentences.

A lot of the character's inner monologues felt choppy instead of natural. It was harder to become immersed in the book and the character because of this. While part of it may have been due to the nature of the story, I don't think the editing errors helped much either.

Some of the scenes included in the story felt unnatural and out of place. There was a paragraph about the author's lack of driving license that served no purpose in the story, and a scene with alien sex that felt out of the blue without some sort of further explanation or foreshadowing. I was also shocked by the tone change from this scene in particular. What had been a family friendly read up until that point quickly contained explicit language and content. I don't mind a story meant for more adult audiences, but it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the story up until that point.

At another point in the story, the main character talks about writing this book. It was very awkward and unprofessional. I felt like I was reading an author's rough draft notes, not a completed book.


Overall, I would rate this book a 2 out of 4 as it stands. It has great potential, but it needs some serious work before I would recommend it to others.

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The Nobel Prize
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Like MerryLove's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Joy Boudreau]

Great review! I agree, this sounds like a really awesome book idea. Too bad it needs so much more work. I hope the author cleans it up!

[MerryLove]

Me too! Thanks for the comment! =)