Official Review: Victory Blvd. by Sameer Ketkar

[melrose226]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Victory Blvd." by Sameer Ketkar.]

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I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars because the writing style was unpleasant to read and the plot was not as original as I would have liked to see.

Victory Blvd by Sameer Ketkar is a novella with a simple premise: a young, attractive, and successful stuntwoman named Callie is leading a double life as a vigilante, working with the help of her kind-of-criminal grandfather Hank and bubbly best friend and assistant Aryana to put criminals behind bars and raise the ire of the Burbank Police Department. Things get complicated when Callie’s father, ADA Nathan Monroe, finds out about his daughter’s secret identity shortly before Aryana is kidnapped in the midst of a criminal plot. While it’s not the most unique-sounding plot-line, it’s certainly interesting enough to warrant using, and when it comes to the plot line, I got what I was expecting.

That said, I would be lying if I said I enjoyed this book. The writing was stiff, dry, and lacked adequate descriptions. The descriptions that were there were stereotypical and bordering on offensive, and no effort was made to lessen the cliché of the storyline and characters. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that this book is incredibly short (between 60-80 pages, depending on the size font you read it in) I would probably not have been able to force myself to finish reading it. As it was, I did finish the book, but I may as well not have: the writing style did not change or improve, the characters did not develop, and the plot was stagnant and surprisingly uninteresting, given the fact that this is a book about a crime-fighting vigilante heroine. The ending, while surprising, served only to annoy me even further, because it seemed to come out of nowhere and leave the novel lacking the resolution it desperately needed.

Another problem I had with this book, which I deem worthy of its own paragraph, is that the facts seemed to be a mixture of incorrect and unrealistic. While I am not an expert on weaponry or even on the criminal justice system, several things occurred which did not seem accurate to me, and I know for a fact that at least one or two aspects of the plot could not have happened in real life. Normally, I’m willing to suspend disbelief for a novel of this nature, but the drab writing and tedious characters, along with the author’s seemingly blatant disregard of the necessity for fact-checking in literature, combined to make me unwilling to accept the less-than-plausible aspects of this plot.

All of the above said, I consider myself to be a writer, and because I understand how difficult, thankless, and sometimes terrifying writing a novel for others to read can be, the last thing I want to do is write an entirely negative review of someone’s book. On the positive side, Victory Blvd is a fast-moving novel, and its fast pace serves to make it an interesting, if not entirely positive, reading experience. According to the biographical information I saw, the author is experienced in screenwriting, making it clear to me why this novel reads, in many ways, like a script for a crime show or action movie. I could clearly see many of the scenes playing out in my minds eye, and a lot of the story read like directives in a script, exciting when acted out but dry and stiff to read on a page. While this is far from a bad thing (I love crime shows and action movies, and so do many others!) it is not necessarily a writing style suited for novels, and so I would advocate for this author to either stick to screenplays, which I have no doubt he has great talent for writing, or work to adapt his writing to make it more conducive to the novel format.

While I would not necessarily advocate taking the time to read this novel, I would never dissuade an interested reader from seeking out any books that is of interest to them, and Victory Blvd is no exception. If you’re expecting a thrilling masterpiece filled with excitement, intrigue, and beautiful prose, this is definitely not what you should be picking up. But if you have a free afternoon and you’re looking for a cheap, fast-paced, and easy read, perhaps this novel will be exactly right for you.

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Buy "Victory Blvd." on Amazon

[ALRyder]

But if you have a free afternoon and you’re looking for a cheap, fast-paced, and easy read, perhaps this novel will be exactly right for you.

Reading your review before this line, I had pretty much interpreted the book to be exactly what you state here. So this was a good way to sum things up in the review. I will say that I know there are people who enjoy this sort of read. I'm sure this book will attract many of those people. This probably isn't a book for me though.

[ipekbunsal]

Thank you for your review

[sahmoun2778]

Thanks for the review. I definitely won't be seeking this one out.