Sunday, May 11, 2014

Rashmi bookmarks “The Broken Ones”


Stephen M. Irwin tells the story of one Wednesday, September 10, when the Earth’s polarity switched, causing planes to drop out of the sky, communication satellites to go bust and the world’s economy to crash and burn. ‘Grey Wednesday’ also marked the day every human being got a personal and constant companion - a ghost.

What a unique concept.

And what a way to waste a good concept.

Not that I disliked the book - there were some really good parts throughout - what was really disappointing was how a good idea slid into a mediocre story, because the writer did not take any arc to its natural conclusion and presented a story that belonged to no genre at all, with no payoff whatsoever.

Detective Oscar Mariani and Neve de Rossa represent the Personal Sightings Act or Nine-Ten Act (named so after September 10), a newly created department to manage all criminal activity borne of the claim, “the ghost made me do it”. As they get called in to investigate murders, each new crime forms a new link in an old chain of murder and mystery.

The greatest issue with the storytelling was its pace - fast and exciting at times, but lagging so dreadfully at others, that interest often waned.

The other problem I had with this story was the fact that the author seemed undecided about what kind of story he wanted to write. Irwin starts off with science fiction and creates a post apocalyptic world, full of filth and litter and the smell of sex everywhere, with junkies and panhandlers and children younger than eight years old hooking. Abruptly he shifts gears and goes into full blown horror mode, replete with gory murders including cigarette burns and images carved on bodies to intimate parts brutally carved out and victims thrown into industrial motor fans. Then he decides to go into the crime and mystery genre - and actually does create an interesting angle, especially in the slow reveal of links that existed between seemingly random people such as Penelope Roth and Megan McAuliffe. Then, quite out of the blue, the story enters fantasy mode with some giant bird chasing the detective (a section that was probably the sketchiest of the lot).

About two-thirds into the book there is a mention of Grey Wednesday and for a moment I was trying to recollect where I had heard that term before … I had actually forgotten all about it. At the end, I was left feeling like this was an average story with great potential, nothing more, nothing less.

2 comments:

  1. I was reading this review and when you mentioned the concept, I thought "wow, I'm going to go out and find this book!" Good thing I continued reading...I dislike stories that jump around genres as well, and I hate that feeling when something is mentioned in a book and you're thinking "wait...did that happen in this book, or another book I read?" Awesome review!

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    1. lol, I know, I was quite disappointed at the "missed opportunity" ... thank you for your comment :)

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