Official Review: Love Me Kill Me by Bruce Cooke
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Hendmosaad89
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Official Review: Love Me Kill Me by Bruce Cooke
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Love Me Kill Me" by Bruce Cooke.]
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I usually avoid "True Story" books about politics, history and wars because I believe that they can get messy, confusing and depressing. But when I read the blurb of this book and found out that A) its fiction and B) its mainly a love story, I thought why not give it a chance.
As I said this book's Genre is Fiction mixed with Crime, Mystery, Thriller and Romance. It is NOT appropriate for young adults due to sexual scenes and profanity. It is narrated in third person. It's quite short. I give it 2 out of 4 stars.
This is a story about love that happened in the wrong time, to the wrong people, in the wrong place. Two childhood friends had a dream to love and marry each other when they grow up, but little did they know, it was impossible and punishable if they attempted to do that, due to their difference in their cultures and above all their religions. This is the love story of a Jewish Israeli boy named David and an Arabic Muslim girl named kalila. Each of them has been marked for death, the day they loved each other. Fighting for love is one thing, but fighting to KEEP that love is a whole new thing.
I gave this book 2 stars because it was good, but not quite good enough. It lacked a lot of important things that needed to be included to make it a great book. But I will start with the good things that I liked in this book. There was humor in some of the situations that made me smile and that’s always a huge plus point for any books. The pace of this book was perfect; most authors struggle to put suitable paces in their books and end up causing lots of confusion for their readers. I loved that it was not too slow that it's dragging and not too fast that I'm missing vital information.
I liked the lucidity of the theme and the message. The theme was "clash of cultures" and how it is important to save love from the damage that is caused by that collision. The message is as the famous quote says "the End justifies the Means". I know both aren’t new concepts and they are quite original, but I still believe that they are important ideas that need to be discussed and keep in mind every now and then. The final thing I like about this book is that it was admirably edited even with very few grammatical errors.
Here comes the downside. This story is so stereotypical that I really detested some parts of it. I didn’t like that like all American movies; the Arab men are terrible to their wives, they are terrorists, they don’t practice their religion properly, they are not educated and they are barbarians. I really wanted the author to write something other than that, because I truly believe the saying that says "To every rule, there's an exception" and the exception here is the image of the Arab men that has been spread worldwide, and the rule is that they are normal people with just different beliefs and religion.
And since that the characters were stereotypical, I predicted the whole story line and how the plot will go from the second chapter. And unfortunately I was right; there were absolutely no twists or turns, no unexpected ending. I noticed that this book lacked inner thoughts and feeling phrases, that’s why I found it extremely hard to link with any of the characters because there weren’t any hidden emotions, none. I read what they said out loud and found nothing to read on the inside.
This may also be the reason why I didn’t feel the LOVE as they say it. They talked and no emotions were written and then suddenly I love yous were exchanged, I didn’t get WHY they loved each other, how they connected and so on. Although the situation is extremely dramatic, I felt no drama due to lack of feelings and the amplification of their given condition.
It’s the first time for me to ever notice strange dialogues and hear myself say what!!!! Dialogues with strangers had me raising my eyebrows, especially the first one Kalila had with the militant in the cafe. I mean come on who says that to strangers they just met!. In addition to the strange things I also observed is how come the MOSAD didn’t insert A) any tracking devices to keep watch of the militant kalila!, or B) asked their spy to put any bugs where she lived or even where they met!!. It was hard for me to believe that the MOSAD would just completely rely on the information given to them with no proofs even if it's from their own spy.
Furthermore the author gave me the impression that the both countries' life force is utterly dependent on making the heroes have sex!!. The amount of pressure on this subject was very extreme to the point of annoyance, it made both countries look stupid, naive and desperate enough to stoop that low and think that this solution would come with no consequences whatsoever.
Finally I would like to conclude by advising the author to perhaps consider narrating this story in first person for both of the heroes', then maybe their turmoil's depth would be reached. Because usually first person narrations show more feelings through inner thoughts and make the reader link to the characters, and feel what they are feeling and transfer a great experience. Plus to write dialogues that just don’t stand out as odd. And even though the book's message isn’t always a good concept to follow, because I believe that not every good intention forgives its wrong way it's achieved; I still think it's important to acknowledge that. As a final point I want to commend the author for his theme and message's clarity; they are original, but vital and I look forward to read from him again.
***
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As I said this book's Genre is Fiction mixed with Crime, Mystery, Thriller and Romance. It is NOT appropriate for young adults due to sexual scenes and profanity. It is narrated in third person. It's quite short. I give it 2 out of 4 stars.
This is a story about love that happened in the wrong time, to the wrong people, in the wrong place. Two childhood friends had a dream to love and marry each other when they grow up, but little did they know, it was impossible and punishable if they attempted to do that, due to their difference in their cultures and above all their religions. This is the love story of a Jewish Israeli boy named David and an Arabic Muslim girl named kalila. Each of them has been marked for death, the day they loved each other. Fighting for love is one thing, but fighting to KEEP that love is a whole new thing.
I gave this book 2 stars because it was good, but not quite good enough. It lacked a lot of important things that needed to be included to make it a great book. But I will start with the good things that I liked in this book. There was humor in some of the situations that made me smile and that’s always a huge plus point for any books. The pace of this book was perfect; most authors struggle to put suitable paces in their books and end up causing lots of confusion for their readers. I loved that it was not too slow that it's dragging and not too fast that I'm missing vital information.
I liked the lucidity of the theme and the message. The theme was "clash of cultures" and how it is important to save love from the damage that is caused by that collision. The message is as the famous quote says "the End justifies the Means". I know both aren’t new concepts and they are quite original, but I still believe that they are important ideas that need to be discussed and keep in mind every now and then. The final thing I like about this book is that it was admirably edited even with very few grammatical errors.
Here comes the downside. This story is so stereotypical that I really detested some parts of it. I didn’t like that like all American movies; the Arab men are terrible to their wives, they are terrorists, they don’t practice their religion properly, they are not educated and they are barbarians. I really wanted the author to write something other than that, because I truly believe the saying that says "To every rule, there's an exception" and the exception here is the image of the Arab men that has been spread worldwide, and the rule is that they are normal people with just different beliefs and religion.
And since that the characters were stereotypical, I predicted the whole story line and how the plot will go from the second chapter. And unfortunately I was right; there were absolutely no twists or turns, no unexpected ending. I noticed that this book lacked inner thoughts and feeling phrases, that’s why I found it extremely hard to link with any of the characters because there weren’t any hidden emotions, none. I read what they said out loud and found nothing to read on the inside.
This may also be the reason why I didn’t feel the LOVE as they say it. They talked and no emotions were written and then suddenly I love yous were exchanged, I didn’t get WHY they loved each other, how they connected and so on. Although the situation is extremely dramatic, I felt no drama due to lack of feelings and the amplification of their given condition.
It’s the first time for me to ever notice strange dialogues and hear myself say what!!!! Dialogues with strangers had me raising my eyebrows, especially the first one Kalila had with the militant in the cafe. I mean come on who says that to strangers they just met!. In addition to the strange things I also observed is how come the MOSAD didn’t insert A) any tracking devices to keep watch of the militant kalila!, or B) asked their spy to put any bugs where she lived or even where they met!!. It was hard for me to believe that the MOSAD would just completely rely on the information given to them with no proofs even if it's from their own spy.
Furthermore the author gave me the impression that the both countries' life force is utterly dependent on making the heroes have sex!!. The amount of pressure on this subject was very extreme to the point of annoyance, it made both countries look stupid, naive and desperate enough to stoop that low and think that this solution would come with no consequences whatsoever.
Finally I would like to conclude by advising the author to perhaps consider narrating this story in first person for both of the heroes', then maybe their turmoil's depth would be reached. Because usually first person narrations show more feelings through inner thoughts and make the reader link to the characters, and feel what they are feeling and transfer a great experience. Plus to write dialogues that just don’t stand out as odd. And even though the book's message isn’t always a good concept to follow, because I believe that not every good intention forgives its wrong way it's achieved; I still think it's important to acknowledge that. As a final point I want to commend the author for his theme and message's clarity; they are original, but vital and I look forward to read from him again.
***
View hassle-free sample of "Love Me Kill Me"
Latest Review: "From Nathan to Nanako" by T.F. Wright
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Bruce- Cooke
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 01 Apr 2014, 22:31
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Thank you for the review of my book Love Me Kill ME. You gave me some input of both good stuff and not so good stuff. Its good to get another view of the book and positive feedback is much appreciated. I'll take note of the good parts and also the not so good parts. It all help in the development of future books. We all have different impressions and an un bias view is to be appreciated. Many thanks for the feedback and I'll certainly take under advisement of things to avoid in a future book. Many thanks
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ryancody
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 19 May 2014, 04:48
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Great stuff about the book. I haven't read the book. But as it looks interesting, i will purchase it.
