Official Review: Speed Needles by Ashly Lorenzana

[CatGitane]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Speed Needles" by Ashly Lorenzana.]

Speed Needles by Ashly Lorenzana was my pick. I went through different stages during the reading (and sometimes all of them at once): shocked and bothered, pleasantly surprised and highly entertained.

The author is true to her word by telling us her backstory, her intimate thoughts and personal opinions, her reasons and values mixed with her personality and her jobs as an escort and a writer. We also get to see her unusual family story, how she thinks, and her encounter and present with drugs. It’s quite insightful!
I found only a few downsides to her book (compared to the good ones, it’s very little!). First, the language employed is utterly crude, rude, and the way she describes some people or writes about her POV of some realities is so hateful it makes you uncomfortable and even disgusted sometimes. I had to convince myself not to put it down and keep on with my promise until I somewhat ‘adjusted’ to this. I had expected it, nevertheless, knowing escorts and drug addicts have to be harsh to survive so it becomes their way of life. The introduction, mostly, is off-putting, but once you get past it, you’ll see it pays off too! Second, little mistakes appear here and there, such as typos, ‘’the things is’’, ‘’I needed to run home to my grandparent’s house’’ – she has two – and some wrong prepositions, but nothing that impedes the reading (good job! It’s sadly rare in eBooks). I would suggest only one editing task more so as to get rid of those and have a perfectly written book and perhaps also to read an English grammar (particularly on possessives, plural and prepositions). Lastly, the way too abrupt ending! In my opinion, this is the book’s main issue; the reading just flows, entertaining you and then ------- it stops. It just leaves you there, feeling as though in the middle of a chapter, waiting for someone else to come and complete it. But nothing happens. It annoyed me. I think it could gain a lot from a proper conclusion or at least a summary of one. Perhaps even her announcing upcoming works of hers. I know it’s a journal, hence the ‘’no-ending’’ act, but some kind of ‘closure’ would greatly improve ‘Speed Needles’.

Now, onto the good sides (now, watch out for this is going to take long!). Despite her crude tone, I’ve really enjoyed her bare honesty, which helps in understanding better the whole ‘tale’; one can feel from the pages that she is being genuine, she doesn’t seem to be hiding anything, a trait I am personally fond of as a honest woman myself. It is also faithful to its summary by giving us a sneak peek into such a life. The cover is well-chosen, describing the book very well and dramatically mesmerizing and intriguing. It is well-done; there is the title, the author’s name, and a good image as well as the copyrights. Only thing is the picture should take more space and the black-on-white title in the PDF be erased since it’s useless repetition. Another point that pleased me is the presence of a table of contents! An improvement would consist of the page numbers and done in a Microsoft Word-like way, but it was still interesting and cheering. Also, the font Lorenzana used is beautiful and big, making it easy to read. At first, it is confusing, but it quickly gets pleasantly comforting, gently swaying you on the water… (unless you’re seasick, but then that’s another story!). The best fond I’ve seen in an eBook yet. Plus, her choice of vocabulary equals her punctuation: a delight for the eyes! She’s also got a good use of verb tenses. I must admit that as a reader, I dived into this book due to how thrilling it was, reminding me of an amazing novel! I barely could put it down; I always ran back to pick it up and sometimes skipped some halves of hours of sleep… Haha! Humor and amazing tales are found throughout the book too. Her descriptions are mostly gripping, true and quite emotional, including the best descriptions of realities and feelings of despair and helplessness I’ve ever encountered. It also made me connect with her at some points. Congratulations, darling! The titles are intriguing and enlightening about what’s to come. On a final note, the rhythm of the book makes it so that it feels as a straight line: you can’t stop and you don’t want to stop either. It is not every day that you experience this sensation. A gem.

It receives a 3 out of 4 stars (good) rating from my part, seeing as it is a great piece of work. I would absolutely recommend it for the direct information about drug addiction and escorting and also for pure exhilarating entertainment. I would have gladly (and meant to) given it a 4 (excellent), however, the abyssal ending (non-existent conclusion) made it lose half of its chances, along with informing us only of small bits about the escorting job – a deeper explanation of how things work and what it’s for would have been happily welcome for how hard it is to come by. Also, a mention of her other works on the last page or maybe ‘back cover’ would have been appreciated. Oh, and just pointing out: the last page, numbered 43, should be deleted because it’s actually empty. But wonderful work overall, I congratulate you, Miss Lorenzana!

N.B. (directed at the author personally): Hello! I just wanted to tell you a few things. I've noticed an inconsistency of the use of the concept 'friend' in your book. In the first pages of it, you say how you never really had any nor needed one, but then towards the end, you mention at least three friends of yours and how much you love them, along with this best friend of yours and how desperate you were to have one as a child/early teenager... Perhaps just explain better your introductory thoughts about it? Also, something really hurt me... You say you drive fast for the thrill and don't care much about your own life with car accidents, but one of my two closest friends died last year because of someone like you. If you don't care about your speed or your life related to it, at least do so for others... You also mentioned you thought about racing cars: exactly! Why don't you go to go-kart places or racing fields? You'd have your thrill and none (besides maybe you) would get hurt or risk getting so. It is deeply important and I just could not shut my mouth about it seeing how it affected me and my friend (I'm still not over it and it's nearing 2 years now... it destroys lives, dear. Think about it). Besides all this, I sincerely wish you the acceptance you so desire from your dad (grandfather) - you deserve it. Perhaps explain to him how much it hurts you? Sometimes when hearing about it, one will ponder over the matter ... As a final note, I am glad to see how frank you are (keep it up!), and keep on standing tall for who you are and what you believe in. All of my best wishes and I hope your life goes well! Take care and I've loved reading your book. Don't stop writing: you've got talent! Also, Happy New Year!

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