Review of Inbred!

[joshfee77]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Inbred!" by Andrew Toth.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Inbred! by Andrew Toth sounded, at first, like it might be a campy horror novel about a town twisted into dangerous freaks due to familial inbreeding. An exclamation point in the title is a device rarely used by authors, and it suggested to me something uncaged and bloodthirsty; I imagined a feast of chaotic mayhem at the hands of the townsfolk of Woolen in the Australian bush. Alas, my hopes were ultimately dashed.

In his teens, Tom Paxton was class captain at Waverley College and voted most likely to succeed in life. However, a destructive urge lurks inside Tom. After marrying his secretary, Sara, they buy a farm together in the Woolen Valley, thirty minutes from the inbred town of Woolen. Suffering numerous setbacks, including a bushfire, Tom loses his cool at one of the inbred "rednecks" at a local bar. He then begins a self-destructive spree, fighting groups of "inbreds" at every opportunity. His marriage ends in divorce, and Tom starts a sales job selling fitness machines. Meanwhile, he considers a major lifestyle change and joins the Buddhist temple just outside of Woolen. Unfortunately, the inbreds of Woolen don't like the monks, and trouble is brewing...

I liked Toth's conversational writing style, which was easy to read. However, it did occasionally feature a more intellectual word that seemed out of place, such as: "How else will you understand the tragedy that eventuated?" I think "came later" or similar would be better than "eventuated". The story did hold my interest throughout, even during Tom's period as a salesman. I also found Tom to be a realistic character, with real problems and a life that had not worked out to plan. Toth's character descriptions were often neat; for example: "balding, overweight, small close-set eyes peering out from within rolls of fat." Sections from the viewpoint of one of the inbreds felt accurate, with intentional errors such as "boodhist" for "Buddhist" and "that was the cake on the icing" neatly showing the naivety of the character.

The book needed a professional edit in places; for example: "...their monastery was in fact burnt down to the ground on two such occasions" would be more succinct as "...their monastery was in fact burnt to the ground on two occasions." The word "just" was noticeably used four times in the same paragraph on page 82, and three uses of "then" in the same paragraph late in the book could all have been deleted without loss of meaning. There were also other minor errors, such as missing punctuation or occasional incorrect tense.

Unfortunately, I also thought this book lacked somewhat in the action promised by the author blurb. A large part of the narrative was occupied with two salespeople on a relatively uneventful sales trip and the mastering of Buddhist meditation. The climactic scene also seemed a little simple, straightforward, and ended too quickly for my liking. I had been hoping for an apocalyptic confrontation between the monks and the inbreds, but was left a little disappointed. For these reasons, I rate Inbred! 2 out of 4 stars, with one star removed for the editing and one for the lack of real, gutsy action. I would recommend it to adult readers who are happy with relatively little action in their action novels. It contains profanity and explicit sex scenes, so is best suited to a mature audience.

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Inbred!
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[Precious_Nzeakor]

Sometimes we do not get what we expect or predict in a book, but having an unveiling less than what we hope is disappointing. I love how you dutifully explained your negatives notes, drawing our attention to errors by sighting evidence from the book and not being afraid to suggest what you think would have been a better match for the book. Very detailed review indeed!

[Amy Luman]

I don’t like explicit sex scenes, they make me uncomfortable. I, like the author, struggle with how to make a concept more understandable. I have a “word of the day” calendar and enjoy showing what I’ve learned.

[Essy Nma]

I love the author's choice of title for the book because you guess would be disappointed when you start reading. The review was comprehensive. Thanks

[TheGayOne12]

Books that are able to hold one's interest while reading, those are the really awesome books, and it sounds like this book did exactly that for you. Thank you for the review!

[Aisha Yakub]

I don’t like explicit sex scenes, they make me uncomfortable. I, like the author, struggle with how to make a concept more understandable. I have a “word of the day” calendar and enjoy showing what I’ve learned.

"Word of the day calendar"? That sounds interesting.

[Amy Luman]

I don’t like explicit sex scenes, they make me uncomfortable. I, like the author, struggle with how to make a concept more understandable. I have a “word of the day” calendar and enjoy showing what I’ve learned.

"Word of the day calendar"? That sounds interesting.

Actually they come to my inbox.

[Unbothered_gracee]

Based on the book cover, I expected that it has something to do with generic cannibalism which I really like but as I read the review, it seems that it is far from what I thought. Thank you for the review as I wouldn't have known that the content pf the book is different from my expectations if I haven't crossed with this review.

[Dami Bassam]

The book is interressant but for the readers we have to avoid much vulgarism expression in the story. Many bad notes also are explained by the author. We can say that the history has the correct and incorrect words or sentences to show to the readers the différence and the last advice ," please avoid unpleasantness words, sentences or paragraph" .

[NetMassimo]

This novel seems to have potential but the errors and some choices by the author that are far from ideal to make the story engaging. More editing might help. Thank you for your honest review!