Official Review: Fences by Angela Khrsitin Brown

[kittymamamau]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Fences" by Angela Khrsitin Brown.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Fences by Angela Khrsitin Brown is a work that falls somewhere between a self-help book and a memoir. Brown jumps back and forth between describing the events of her childhood and making suggestions to help the reader succeed in life. While Fences was clearly written with the intention of sharing a personal story in order to improve the lives of readers, Brown apparently missed the mark.

One stark issue with Fences is the number of grammatical and mechanical errors throughout. Sentence fragments and run on sentences run rampant, and are only outnumbered by spelling and subject-verb agreement errors. For example, Brown writes, “If I could look deeper into what it meant to be free from connections (end sentence),” and “Today, my poetry books is distributed to libraries in schools and universities.”

Where there are no grammar errors, many sentences simply do not make sense in context. For example, Brown writes, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself. I come from a place on existence. I live freewilled.” Fences is riddled with seemingly random sentences strung together in a near nonsensical way. Brown flippantly changes direction with no noticeable method. One paragraph may discuss her struggle to complete college and graduate, only to be immediately followed by a paragraph asking what it means to be an American. These constant subject changes make Fences very difficult to follow.

While each paragraph seems to try and get across one cohesive point, each paragraph seems to begin a new story entirely. Brown constantly switches point of view from first person to second person to third person. These switches are abrupt and often do not follow any kind of storyline. While she seems to be referring to herself throughout the book, the seemingly random jumps between “I” and “she” make the book very difficult to follow. Paragraphs following the form of “Every morning she woke up disturbed about something in her life” are followed with paragraphs following the form of “I have come to understand that I will always be shy, poor with a learning disability.”

I would not recommend Fences to other readers until this book is thoroughly edited. I am rating Fences 1 out of 4 stars due to the sheer confusion I experienced in reading it. Between the grammar errors, point of view changes, confusing sentences, and ever-changing topics, I was unable to determine the author’s point. While I can appreciate Brown’s intent in writing Fences, I cannot recommend it to other readers.

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Fences
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[kandscreeley]

Well, I admire the author for wanting to share her story to help others. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite seem like this one succeeded. It's too bad. I don't think I could get through it with all the randomness just strung together. Thanks, though.

[Laila Hashem]

The idea behind this book sounds really interesting and helpful, but these types of errors diminish any interest a reader may have in the book. It's quite sad, actually. Great review.