Review by kiki2881 -- The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)

[kiki2881]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)" by Hawa Crickmore.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Hawa Crickmore's novel, The Neighbor At Number 18 (Reload), revolves around the life of the protagonist, Maria Anderson. She's a lawyer who specializes in sexual assault and/or sexual abuse cases. She's intelligent, hardworking, independent, and she possesses executive gravitas. The fact that she does her job extraordinarily well enables her to gain prestige in her field of work. Eventually, she marries her long-time suitor, Ron. Maria is well-respected by everyone who knows her and feared by her colleagues. Their marriage, however, isn't like that of normal newlyweds. Maria has always been emotionally distant from him. Ron thinks that her notorious reputation keeps her from opening herself up in their relationship. He makes himself believe it's okay. He presumes that it has something to do with her job. Little does he know that her past plays a role in her inability to be intimate with him.

The novel addressed issues regarding rape and pedophilia. It also talked about Alzheimer's disease. I appreciated the author's effort to make her novel a platform to talk about these topics, but I thought she could have discussed them further.

The way the author started the novel gave me the impression that Maria's mother, Brenda, was the main character in the story. Brenda was far more interesting than Maria. The former was a widow with three kids. I thought the story was all about her struggles in raising her kids as a single parent, but I was wrong. I hated that she turned out to be a supporting character even though the author made her the focus of the story in the first few chapters. The author mentioned Brenda's late husband multiple times in the book, which piqued my curiosity about his relationship with her, or what could be his role in Maria's life. I wanted to learn more about her late husband for he fascinated me. It was such a shame that the author decided not to tell us more about him, but to ultimately focus on Maria's story, which made him irrelevant in the novel.

The novel had potential, but the grammatical errors and plot holes ruined it. I liked Maria's fierce character, however, the author failed to deliver her story well with all the errors made in the novel. My journey in reading this story was tormenting. Grammatical errors were numerous. There were sentences with no punctuation marks. For example, on page 4 of the novel, there was no period at the end of at least four declarative sentences. There were also words the author spelled wrong. One example, the word dilemma was spelled as "delimma." The author occasionally mixed up some characters' names. There were also parts in the book where the characters' age changed, which ruined the logic of the story. This novel was hard to read.

I don't recommend this book to anyone because of the number of grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the plot. This book isn't worthy of your time. I'm giving it a score of 1 out of 4 stars.

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The Neighbour At Number 18 (Reload)
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[Joy Phill]

It's sad that the errors were so bothersome. I would have to pass on this. Thanks for an honest review.

[Prisallen]

I hope the author takes your criticism constructively and puts a little more work into the book. It certainly sounds as if it could use a professional editor. Thanks for your informative and interesting review!

[Manali_DC]

When I started reading your review, this seemed to be an exciting book with a lot of potential. Sorry to see that it failed to deliver in the end! Thank you for a great and honest review!

[Chigo Nwagboso]

I believe I'll enjoy this because of my love for female protagonist. The topic and focus in this novel is thought provoking. Thanks for a detailed review.

[Mtibza eM]

Oh,when you were talking about the plot, I thought it was fascinating enough. But I understand why you hate to rate it 1 star. Thank you for sharing.

[Olgamiell]

The storyline definitely has potential, but it looks like the author could do more to develop it further. I appreciate that she wanted to raise important subjects, though. But the number of errors is really overwhelming, so I wouldn't be interested in this book. Thank you for your honest review!

[markodim721]

It is really a pity that the author acted tactlessly when paying attention to the main and supporting characters. Thanks for the objective review.

[Brandy_Nyongesa]

The grammatical errors will annoy me. I will skip this one. Great review