Terrible: Porn, bad writing, slashing.
929152
What an awful film. There were some moments during which I thought it would be an "ok" flick. But, as soon as the women got on a yacht with men they had never met, everything went downhill. The amateur porn was completely unnecessary. Once that passed, there were some suspenseful moments, but whatever little merit the film had deteriorated during the last 15 minutes. What a stupid ending and a waste of time.
2585573
First off, it's porn with a subplot.  Second, with phrases like "I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life," and "Don't ever tell me I can't touch you", it could double as a domestic violence hand book.  And third, I am so disappointed in this author.  I've read other Ghostwalker books, but this went beyond the normal mild misogyny and straight into hardcore S&M. Tansy was nothing more than object for Kaden's release.  I'm surprised he didn't order her to call him "Master" while he forced her to fondle him in front of his teammates.
1004790
My goodness, this was awful.  The first 40 pages get off to rollicking if not quite convincing start...and then Jude become the focus of the book(oh, no...*groan*), and then the entire thing slides into a weird, twisted exercise in masochism porn or...well, something.  There's nothing realistic or convincing or real about it.  It's more like the author is playing out her own weird Jesus or Job complex with a character she uses like a stick figure, walking him through some fantasy of a life filled with torments.  I could compile a long list of the inaccuracies in this book - an address that isn't in the neighborhood in NYC it's placed in - a law school assignment that would never happen (I went to a top law school, in fact, I went to Harvard, too, undergrad, and she's writing about Harvard Law, obviously, but gets all the details wrong) - careers that aren't even slightly based on anything in the real world people live in.  Mostly, this unpleasant, over-rated mess is simply bizarre.  I started skimming after about 100 pages - just couldn't do it.  And yes, I am absolutely mystified by the good reviews.  What were these people on?  I guess it's the same weird attraction that Christianity, with its blood and gore and suffering and fantasy of martyrdom, holds for a certain type of personality.  Yuck.
1835421
I'd like to rate this negative 5, but 1 is the lowest Amazon offers.

This movie seemed very pointless.  Boring.  It has almost no plot and goes nowhere.  The characters are unlikely and poorly developed.  I turned this movie off 3/4 through it.  I can only say that about maybe 5 movies in my life.
What finally made me turn this off was a very sick scene involving rape, torture, and murder.  I've seen movies that are rated X that were cleaner.  I'm no prude, but this was a disgusting movie.

Save yourself some time and watch a porn video.
2004893
First of all, I would like to start with a disclaimer - I have only read about 50% of this book. But this is because I could not finish it without a) choking on my own rising vomit at how bad the writing is b) wanting to throw it out the window and c) I read a couple of the reviews and decided not to waste any more of my time.

I have never, ever written a review on here, but I felt obliged to in order to save the time of the thousands of other people who may choose to start reading this book. Trust me - save your time and go read something else.

I'm not even kidding. This is pretty much the same plot, writing style, and ridiculous characters as Fifty Shades of Grey, without the kinkiness and sexual escapades lurking on every other page. It is terribly written, to the point of having glaring grammatical errors (it should be "the Maddoxes" not "the Maddox's" when referring to multiple people with the last name "Maddox") - did the writer even bother to hire an editor? The narrator is witless and boring-as-hell and uses mindless descriptors to cover the fact that the author has zero imagination ("the sharp bleating of a bull horn cut through the smoky air" - come on, really??). And the main character is so one-dimensional she rivals Fifty Shades's Anastasia. She does have the same fetish for bad boys, however.

Young girls especially should not read this. Who on earth would sensationalize an abusive relationship like this? Leading one guy on and accepting diamond bracelets, only to end up in another man's bed the night after? Being so dense you can't read body language? Thinking the entire student population cares about you or your stupid relationship? This is narcissism at it's best. I hope this author does not have any young girls to raise, otherwise I fear for their future.

This book is repulsive. Terribly written, awful plot. 4 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Oh and Amazon, I know you want people to buy books, but how about highlighting some of the negative reviews. This is meant to be subjective, and there are plenty of other great, well-written books people can buy.
4069188
Ridiculously dull story, unlikable characters, zero sense of humor, retarded attempt of horror/suspense, terrible directing/writing all together.
3371202
This was one of the most pointless, asinine, and ridiculous books I've ever read in my life.  Luckily for all of us that means that this review will likely be short.  Most of the time in erotica, you get a story about why the main characters like each other enough that they want to have sex.  Not in this one.  Here, these two despise each other, yet still have sex at least once every ten pages.  This is just porn, pure and simple written porn.  It was a Twilight porn, and it is not suddenly better once the names have been changed.  There was no plot, there was no characterization.  Just two people who insult each other, screw each other,  fight some more, insult some more, have more sex....and repeat for 300 of the most boring pages in all of fiction.

These two characters were the most narcissistic human beings ever and all that happens is they have sex.  Then they fight and get pissy for absolutely no reason and then make up and have sex. Oh, and the panties hoarding thing is on the level of a rapist from Law & Order: SVU.  I shuddered every time he indulged that particular whim.  And then shuddered in greater horror when I realized we had to endure another sex scene.  Horrid book with no redeeming qualities.

No wait, it has one redeeming quality.  It announces right off the bat exactly what it is, a rewritten fan fiction.  At least it doesn't try to hide it.
2119944
The writing throughout most of this graphic novel is ridiculous.  I mean, ridiculous.  Very little of it is Ennis, who I really, really like.

It seems as if 90% of the dialog is exposition.  Pages and pages of people telling you exactly what they're thinking, what their plans are, and the entire history behind every decision they've made since the 8th grade.  And just when it seems like the book might be coming to a blessed close, another convoluted, soap-opera story arc unfurls.

Please understand that when I say the writing is bad, I mean it's BAD.  Not like "I'm used to reading Poe and Wilde" bad, but "accustomed to comic books and still rolling my eyes" bad.  Like it was written by a guy who liked to read comics all day and assumed that meant he was qualified to write one.  If I were on the staff of this, I would have quit rather than let my pencils and inks go into this crap.

Try this line on for size: "Curse you, Estacado.  Curse you and your cursed necto-plasmic strands!"

It's par for the course.

Plus, it's insulting to the intelligence of discerning readers.  For one, every woman in this comic is hot.  I mean HOT.  There's not a single female in the entire book that's not at some point wearing a tiny skirt with thong-shots for no apparent reason.  It's as if the guy writing it had a constant erection and was just looking for excuses to get the artists to maintain it for him.

The Darkness itself was kind of cool, early on.  But this is like somebody took the idea, stuck it in a blender with the Adam West Batman series, tossed in a daytime soap for plot and a couple of 1940s comics for flavor, force-fed it to a 12-year-old, and had him regurgitate it into the speech bubbles.

Do I seem angry and snarky?  I am.  I like graphic novels, and this is the kind of crap that causes people to turn their noses up at them.

So if you believe that the Catholic clergy talks in iambic pentameter 100% of the time, and that villains should always spend pages rambling on about their plans before actually doing anything, or if you're 13 years old, read this book.  Otherwise, move along; nothing to see here.

Oh, the art was good.
2090403
In this short work, the author attempts to resolve the situation of three couples and a father-daughter relationship.  This means characters are just sketched out, people change personalities in an instant, and a financial solution drops from the sky.  The characters we're supposed to like aren't credible and are swamped with porn and vulgarity at the expense of character development.  Save your money.
4088124
Where do I begin so you can get some idea of this whole bad-version-of-Die-Hard-meets-softcore-porn mess?  Let's start with poor pitiful Anna.  This wannabe actress is so short on talent, you'll be  howling at how bad she is.  When she isn't whining her lines with a really  bad Southern drawl, then she's pouting her collagen-bloated lips.  That's  it.  That's the extent of her acting.  Cue card reading is very evident and  rumors that she couldn't remember the lines from the grade-school script  are confirmed when an earpiece is noticeable in a couple of scenes.  But  she's not the only bad actor in this disaster.  The supporting cast is full  of over-the-top thespians who seem convinced they'll win Oscars for their  amateurish performance.  The juvenile script doesn't add to this either.  Plot gaffes abound.  The most glaring is when Anna easily kicks through a  window in a building that is supposedly designed to withstand riots and  military firepower.  Go figure!  Then we're treated to a downtown Los  Angeles with almost no cars or pedestrians.  Although, once the bad guys  start plummeting to their deaths and the police finally arrive, then  there's traffic everywhere and there are more civilians running around than  at a local shopping mall.  Continuity is non-existent.  After fighting off  one of the bad guys, Anna has blood on her right arm and on the right side  of her face.  A couple of scenes later, the blood is gone.  Then it  reappears on the left side of her face.  And despite all her fighting, her  long fingernails never break or chip.  What a woman!  The whole thing  becomes so pathetic, you wonder who edited this.  Even the three nude  scenes (which have nothing to do whatsoever with the rest of the story) end  up being more comical than erotic.  One interesting comment: in a storyline  that supposedly takes place in one day, Anna actually gains weight between  the time the movie starts and the final scene.  Looks like she was visiting  the fridge a little too often between takes.  A sad, sad piece of wasted  celluloid.
2656337
I purchased this book, because the blurb seemed promising and had received favorable reviews by several distinguished writers.

From the preface, I felt something was wrong, but kept on reading and giving it the benefit of the doubt. However, by the time I had read thirty pages, I literally threw the book. The action was unbelievable, the dialogue unrealistic, and the overall writing was just plain bad. Even the premise, which is spelled out in the prologue is laughably and unarguably awful.

Is Ken Shufeldt an eleven year old? Has he actually read a book before?

One word to describe it: bad.  Another word: terrible. This capacity -- the just demonstrated ability to avoid repeating the same word single word or turn of phrase in a paragraph -- seems beyond the author. Even if he had only consulted a thesaurus and used it liberally throughout, would have improved the writing.

The writing is so poor, in fact, I wonder whether it was intentionally written that way. Is this a literary joke by some established writer functioning under a pseudonym? My hope is that this really is a big funny attempt at publishing a bad novel and that writing of this despicable quality would not otherwise make it into publication.

It would not be difficult for anyone to randomly open the book and give an example of the how bad this book is, but for the sake of my own sanity, I will resist the urge to do so.

Unless you are a writing teacher attempting to demonstrate bad writing, avoid this. Scratch that last sentence, don't read this book, no matter what; you'll just be encouraging him to try again.
1315964
I was contacted by the author and offered this book.  I accepted, promising a fair and honest review in return.

Synopsis: Joe is a former NFL top prospect who got injured, then got caught up in a work issue that knocked him way back down the ladder.  Then theres a car accident and more problems at work, with unfairness and insult and rationalizing self-pity piling up relentlessly.  Joe is surly and angry and then his life gets even more complicated, resulting in bad choices and very bad results.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and for a book that is usually the back cover and the books synopsis.  The third line offered a punctuation error, then a formatting error, then a missing word, then another missing word, then a punctuation error.  All of this in the space of 24 lines.  So, that was my impression of this book, before reading a single page.

The first page has six errors, and it continues on every single page of the book, beginning to end.  There are consistent problems with punctuation, spelling, syntax, grammar and usage.  There are frequent lapses in character POV, going from third to first person and back within paragraphs, within chapters.  There are frequent disagreements with verb tense.  In the space of a paragraph, a nurses eyes go from brown to emerald.  The useless phrase in order to is used over and over, and over.  Its an unedited and un-proofread mess.  The story is simple and clear, and gets up and moves right on out to its easily recognizable conclusion, so these problems really don't get in the way.

Starting about page 65 things get decidedly adult, a completely raunchy Fifty Shades diversion from the middle-class suburban Texas drama.  No innuendo or euphemism here; this is straight-up adult erotica, in full, moist detail.  Pages 86-95 deliver a second full round of raw sexual indulgence.  These extended and highly detailed sexual interludes, while important to the arc of the story, are out of step with the rest of the narrative, which come in very short snippets.

At 121 pages this novel reads very fast and easily; I was done with it in less than two hours.

Bottom line: This is an extended revenge fantasy that offers no surprises, and some very hard-core erotica smack in the middle.
166515
As another reviewer indicates, this is truly terrible stuff, an embarrassment to the cast for sure.  It's as if the writer-directors shared the same persuasive agent, and somehow the project, despite the amateurish scripts, had great early word-of-mouth, and the actors said "yes."  Poor them.  It wants to be a contemporary, British Twilight Zone, and misses by a mile because of the twin evils of dreadful writing and directing, on every single vignette.  My copy goes straight to ebay.
4848485
I can't read this. I tried, I really did, but the prose is painful, and the plot is pathetically telegraphed in every thought and action of the cardboard cutout hero, and limp dishrag heroine. The writing is barely what I was consider a 6th grade level, and the dialogue feels awkward and forced, particularly between the women. The third person omni perspective means you can never be quite sure whose thoughts or words you're following at any given moment, and it's painfully clear the author did only the sketchiest research possibly on the Native American peoples she's attempting to portray, and then only so she can sprinkle Indian-sounding words into her story to try and make it sound... More intelligent? More authentic? In any case, she failed in both attempts. Her portrayal of native peoples in particular borders on offensive at best.

I've read fanfic better than this. I've WRITTEN fanfic better than this. The only value I got from this book was an evening's amusement, reading some of the truly awful lines aloud to friends for laughs. Maybe I'm being overcritical of what amounts to soft core porn for bored housewives, but I like my erotica with at least a modicum of intelligence. This falls far short of the mark. Don't waste your time.
941528
How could this series have gotten *worse* after the first book? I was engaged enough with the first one to pick up the second one but eugh, after reading it I'd like those hours of my life back, please. This is just so grossly typical of woman "ally" writing M/M smut that I could barely finish the thing. Filled with offensive and lazy stereotypes and writing, this is absolutely a skip.
2055936
Really. Really. AWFUL.  Especially given the high price.  I don't understand the high reviews.  I actually feel cheated.  Poor character development, non-existent plot.  The mystery is laughable.  I wish I could give it zero stars.
For those of you out there rating books like this highly, please make it clear in your review that your primary criteria is the quantity of porn. (Porn...it isn't written well enough to qualify as erotica) Those of us who enjoy reading a good book would appreciate having that info before we waste good money on smut.
1987449
Ugh! If I could go less than 1 star I would! If you like military fantasy soft core porn, this is for you. The storyline is so bad, written by someone with a military-porn mindset and no real understanding of the military, which was beyond irritating, and before anyone says it's just a story, it's more over the top, trying to imagine hard core alpha military people in a soft core porn story.