Review by niki33coco -- Something by Shelby Lamb
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niki33coco
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- Latest Review: "Something" by Shelby Lamb
Review by niki33coco -- Something by Shelby Lamb
[Following is a volunteer review of "Something" by Shelby Lamb.]
1 out of 4 stars
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I gave Something by Shelby Lamb, 1 out of 4. The genre is a horror/suspense and has some creepy supernatural elements. The story has all teenage characters and reads very much like a young adult, except that it is filled with raunchy, graphic and sometime disgusting sex scenes and bad language. The author has intended this story for an audience of 18+.
Something follows around four different teenage characters. The primary of these characters is Aubrey, 18. The story opens with a depressed Aubrey in a used bookstore where she is drawn to a strange book called Something. The book is cursed and draws negativity and other world characters to her. The other three characters in the book all have the misfortune of coming in contact with the book and are also cursed. The second character that you meet in the book is Bella Broadhurst, 18, Aubrey’s high school enemy. Bella’s most loved dream is to be a teenage porn star. We spend nearly every scene watching her have sex with anyone she can lure into her bed, professionally or just for pleasure. All of her sex scenes are very graphic and many are disturbing and gross. The next character we meet Cait Martinez, 15, and a mother of twin girls. Cait is Audrey’s pen pal and they have never met in person. Nathan Silvas, Aubrey’s ex-boyfriend, is final character that we meet in the book. Nathan works at his family’s motel and is constantly being badgered by Audrey begging him to love her and take her back.
The plot of this story really grabbed me from the beginning. I was very intrigued by this haunted/cursed book. As a book lover it was very interesting to think that a book could be cursed and bring all kinds of terror into your life. I was very much looking forward to this book and the plot that was all through the beginning of it. The story took a false turn though. I felt as though the author had lost the purpose of the book and strayed far from the original plot. Both of the side female characters didn’t feel like they even belonged in the book. The scenes with them felt forced and had little to nothing to do with Aubrey. I am sure she could have gotten the small plot point that they illuminated another way. The farther into the book I got the less I understood what was going on and how it related to the original plot.
This book was riddled with grammar issues, so much so it doesn’t feel like it was edited at all. I can normally overlook bad editing and ill placed scenes, when it doesn’t take me away from the story. I spent a lot of time trying to decipher what I was reading and getting caught up on horrible wording. One example is, “Bella felt like to cry.” On top of the basic editing issues, there were a ton of odd unneeded scenes as well as misplaced sentences. For example in chapter twenty; there is a sentence about Nathan in a completely unrelated chapter about Aubrey. I actually found myself yelling EDIT, EDIT, EDIT.
I am in no way a prude, but the crass sex scenes and language started to really get in the way. I have no problem with sex scenes that are present to further the plot of the story. I understand elaborate sex scenes in books like erotic romance, where sex is the whole point of the story, but some of the scenes in this book were completely out of place. One example of a sex scene that didn’t fit the story is on the second page of the book. There is a small paragraph where Audrey drops her panties for a complete stranger, that doesn’t fit into the chapter at all. It felt like the author was trying to spice up the book with sex, when it really didn’t need it and it just didn’t feel like it belonged.
I was very disturbed by how mental illnesses were portrayed in the story. Aubrey has problems with depression, anxiety, cutting and suicide. I feel like these issues are very poorly used in the book. As someone who has depression and anxiety issues, and knowing several cutters, these feel like cheap additions to the story. It doesn’t feel as though these issues were researched or come from first hand experiences. It feels like Lamb just wanted the main character to have mental issues and vises to amp up the drama of the story. I really don’t think it is appropriate to use mental illness in a story as merely a plot point. Beyond the mental illness, the characters themselves don’t feel real. The only character that I felt anything for was Cait and she has a very small part in the story. The rest of the characters are so selfish and deranged that you walk away from the story not caring about any of them, because they don’t feel like they could be real people.
The plot of this story got more and more distorted as the book progressed. The characters are fake and completely unlikeable. The editing in the book makes parts of it almost impossible to read and the fast and loose way the author plays with mental illness is very disturbing. I have been trying to find some redeeming qualities in this book but it kept getting harder to finish. I was relieved and angry when I finally finished it. I struggled through most of this book only to get a sudden end and a “to be continued.” We get no closure at all and the whole story felt like it dragged on way too long. Lamb should have cut out the two extra female characters and half the remaining content and finished the story in one book. Leaving a book on a ridiculous cliffhanger with no resolution and nothing but unanswered questions is a horrible way to end a book just so you can write two. I would not recommend that another person read this book and I will not be reading the second one.
******
Something
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1 out of 4 stars
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I gave Something by Shelby Lamb, 1 out of 4. The genre is a horror/suspense and has some creepy supernatural elements. The story has all teenage characters and reads very much like a young adult, except that it is filled with raunchy, graphic and sometime disgusting sex scenes and bad language. The author has intended this story for an audience of 18+.
Something follows around four different teenage characters. The primary of these characters is Aubrey, 18. The story opens with a depressed Aubrey in a used bookstore where she is drawn to a strange book called Something. The book is cursed and draws negativity and other world characters to her. The other three characters in the book all have the misfortune of coming in contact with the book and are also cursed. The second character that you meet in the book is Bella Broadhurst, 18, Aubrey’s high school enemy. Bella’s most loved dream is to be a teenage porn star. We spend nearly every scene watching her have sex with anyone she can lure into her bed, professionally or just for pleasure. All of her sex scenes are very graphic and many are disturbing and gross. The next character we meet Cait Martinez, 15, and a mother of twin girls. Cait is Audrey’s pen pal and they have never met in person. Nathan Silvas, Aubrey’s ex-boyfriend, is final character that we meet in the book. Nathan works at his family’s motel and is constantly being badgered by Audrey begging him to love her and take her back.
The plot of this story really grabbed me from the beginning. I was very intrigued by this haunted/cursed book. As a book lover it was very interesting to think that a book could be cursed and bring all kinds of terror into your life. I was very much looking forward to this book and the plot that was all through the beginning of it. The story took a false turn though. I felt as though the author had lost the purpose of the book and strayed far from the original plot. Both of the side female characters didn’t feel like they even belonged in the book. The scenes with them felt forced and had little to nothing to do with Aubrey. I am sure she could have gotten the small plot point that they illuminated another way. The farther into the book I got the less I understood what was going on and how it related to the original plot.
This book was riddled with grammar issues, so much so it doesn’t feel like it was edited at all. I can normally overlook bad editing and ill placed scenes, when it doesn’t take me away from the story. I spent a lot of time trying to decipher what I was reading and getting caught up on horrible wording. One example is, “Bella felt like to cry.” On top of the basic editing issues, there were a ton of odd unneeded scenes as well as misplaced sentences. For example in chapter twenty; there is a sentence about Nathan in a completely unrelated chapter about Aubrey. I actually found myself yelling EDIT, EDIT, EDIT.
I am in no way a prude, but the crass sex scenes and language started to really get in the way. I have no problem with sex scenes that are present to further the plot of the story. I understand elaborate sex scenes in books like erotic romance, where sex is the whole point of the story, but some of the scenes in this book were completely out of place. One example of a sex scene that didn’t fit the story is on the second page of the book. There is a small paragraph where Audrey drops her panties for a complete stranger, that doesn’t fit into the chapter at all. It felt like the author was trying to spice up the book with sex, when it really didn’t need it and it just didn’t feel like it belonged.
I was very disturbed by how mental illnesses were portrayed in the story. Aubrey has problems with depression, anxiety, cutting and suicide. I feel like these issues are very poorly used in the book. As someone who has depression and anxiety issues, and knowing several cutters, these feel like cheap additions to the story. It doesn’t feel as though these issues were researched or come from first hand experiences. It feels like Lamb just wanted the main character to have mental issues and vises to amp up the drama of the story. I really don’t think it is appropriate to use mental illness in a story as merely a plot point. Beyond the mental illness, the characters themselves don’t feel real. The only character that I felt anything for was Cait and she has a very small part in the story. The rest of the characters are so selfish and deranged that you walk away from the story not caring about any of them, because they don’t feel like they could be real people.
The plot of this story got more and more distorted as the book progressed. The characters are fake and completely unlikeable. The editing in the book makes parts of it almost impossible to read and the fast and loose way the author plays with mental illness is very disturbing. I have been trying to find some redeeming qualities in this book but it kept getting harder to finish. I was relieved and angry when I finally finished it. I struggled through most of this book only to get a sudden end and a “to be continued.” We get no closure at all and the whole story felt like it dragged on way too long. Lamb should have cut out the two extra female characters and half the remaining content and finished the story in one book. Leaving a book on a ridiculous cliffhanger with no resolution and nothing but unanswered questions is a horrible way to end a book just so you can write two. I would not recommend that another person read this book and I will not be reading the second one.
******
Something
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
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Latest Review: "Something" by Shelby Lamb
