Official Review: The Nun's Habit by A. traub
Posted: 18 Feb 2014, 16:56
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Nun's Habit" by A. traub.]
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I began reading The Nun’s Habit by A. traub with high hopes. The initial description of failure and ambition in the life of a twenty-something interested me, especially because I am twenty-five and immensely nervous about failing. The book I read turned out to be more like a poorly written morality play with little to no chance of actually helping anyone overcome a fear of failure.
The author sets the scene by establishing that something huge is happening: something that threatens to ignite a third World War. Perhaps a bit out of the bounds of a twenty-something dealing with failure, I thought, but maybe it would tie in. The scene shifts to Genny, the main character, a young woman intensely unhappy with her current position and itching to move on to something far more interesting: something I could certainly understand, having worked in several jobs I was unhappy with. So, when she spots an opening in the CIA, she jumps at the chance to join and throws herself whole-heartedly into her preparations for her potential new job. I could understand her desire for something more exciting and even applauded her for going after it with gusto, but sadly the story goes downhill from there.
I’m sorry to say that I can’t think of much good to say about this book. It was easy to read, particularly because the prose was simple and the characters, even the main character, were painfully flat. I read through the whole book in one sitting in no small part because it was like watching a train wreck. I couldn’t look away, and I had an intense morbid curiosity to know what would happen next. If you are interested in a quick and easy read without much substance and a heavy-handed moral lesson tossed in at the end, this is the book for you.
Now, to the less positive aspects of this book. I was often confused by haphazardly bolded phrases and lines. Why were they bolded? I still can’t figure out a pattern. Additionally, homonyms were repeatedly mixed up, resulting in multiple misspellings. The story felt forced. The tension was generated mostly by adding more and more outlandish events to the already ridiculous scenario created over the course of the story. Even the tragic back story behind her mother’s dislike of the government is heavy-handed and simply a ploy to provide some temporary tension in the main character’s life.
The plot itself was absurd from the beginning. To be fair, I have never worked for the CIA or even known someone who did, but I can’t imagine the hiring process even remotely resembles what was described in this book. My sincerest apologies to the author if they did their research and this is actually how it works, but I think the only accurate part of it is the aspect of how long Genny had to wait. Not to mention that, in the end, I still can’t understand how Genny even contributed significantly to the events transpiring during the story’s climax.
The story skips around the timeline with little to no explanation, and the character makes increasingly baffling choices as the plot progresses. I feel like the author wrote this with the intention of teaching twenty-somethings that failure is not the end of the world and how you handle failure is important. However, it quickly changed from that to a ridiculous worst-case scenario with so many perfectly timed coincidences I would be shocked no one noticed if I wasn’t already well aware of how unrealistic this novel’s world is. As someone who is likely the ideal audience for this story, reading this story was less like a gentle nudge to move past failure and far more like someone screaming at me for a solid 24 hours that if I’m afraid of failure I’ll bring about the end of the world with my terrible decision-making.
I would rate this novel 1 out of 4 stars. This is not a book I would recommend, and I doubt that even heavy editing could improve it to the point that I ever would. The story and characters are so thin it ruined any realism the story began with, and simple spelling errors with strange formatting only made the book less enjoyable to read.
***
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The author sets the scene by establishing that something huge is happening: something that threatens to ignite a third World War. Perhaps a bit out of the bounds of a twenty-something dealing with failure, I thought, but maybe it would tie in. The scene shifts to Genny, the main character, a young woman intensely unhappy with her current position and itching to move on to something far more interesting: something I could certainly understand, having worked in several jobs I was unhappy with. So, when she spots an opening in the CIA, she jumps at the chance to join and throws herself whole-heartedly into her preparations for her potential new job. I could understand her desire for something more exciting and even applauded her for going after it with gusto, but sadly the story goes downhill from there.
I’m sorry to say that I can’t think of much good to say about this book. It was easy to read, particularly because the prose was simple and the characters, even the main character, were painfully flat. I read through the whole book in one sitting in no small part because it was like watching a train wreck. I couldn’t look away, and I had an intense morbid curiosity to know what would happen next. If you are interested in a quick and easy read without much substance and a heavy-handed moral lesson tossed in at the end, this is the book for you.
Now, to the less positive aspects of this book. I was often confused by haphazardly bolded phrases and lines. Why were they bolded? I still can’t figure out a pattern. Additionally, homonyms were repeatedly mixed up, resulting in multiple misspellings. The story felt forced. The tension was generated mostly by adding more and more outlandish events to the already ridiculous scenario created over the course of the story. Even the tragic back story behind her mother’s dislike of the government is heavy-handed and simply a ploy to provide some temporary tension in the main character’s life.
The plot itself was absurd from the beginning. To be fair, I have never worked for the CIA or even known someone who did, but I can’t imagine the hiring process even remotely resembles what was described in this book. My sincerest apologies to the author if they did their research and this is actually how it works, but I think the only accurate part of it is the aspect of how long Genny had to wait. Not to mention that, in the end, I still can’t understand how Genny even contributed significantly to the events transpiring during the story’s climax.
The story skips around the timeline with little to no explanation, and the character makes increasingly baffling choices as the plot progresses. I feel like the author wrote this with the intention of teaching twenty-somethings that failure is not the end of the world and how you handle failure is important. However, it quickly changed from that to a ridiculous worst-case scenario with so many perfectly timed coincidences I would be shocked no one noticed if I wasn’t already well aware of how unrealistic this novel’s world is. As someone who is likely the ideal audience for this story, reading this story was less like a gentle nudge to move past failure and far more like someone screaming at me for a solid 24 hours that if I’m afraid of failure I’ll bring about the end of the world with my terrible decision-making.
I would rate this novel 1 out of 4 stars. This is not a book I would recommend, and I doubt that even heavy editing could improve it to the point that I ever would. The story and characters are so thin it ruined any realism the story began with, and simple spelling errors with strange formatting only made the book less enjoyable to read.
***
Buy "The Nun's Habit" on Amazon