Trite, dull, predictable
596674
It looks like most people have felt the same way, that this book was dull adn predictable. But a bigger problem I think is just the overall style. The language is forced and dull. It sounds like a kid wrote it. I'm not talking about grammar, but just how it sounds. Singsongy and immature. Childish instead of childlike. It has no depth, no sparkle of life. The language and phrasing was just so flat and boring, like it was just lifted from a bunch of other books, dulled down and slapped on.

Also, like most people seem to think, the characters were just awful and boring.

Too bad because the art wasn't bad.
4436514
Dull and trite. Trying perhaps to be sexy in the style of Sex and the City, but it misses in a pretty big way. I did not think that the writer used a ghost writer for her first book, but now I'm wondering how both of her books could have come from the same person. The first book is intelligent and sensitive. Unfortunately this one is poorly written with a tired storyline and unimaginative characters. I wanted to like it but instead I'm astonished that the writer allowed this to be released.
2702770
I had hopes for this book but they were dashed. The outcome can be predicted from the start and after that it is a tedious slog til the author catches up with you. Poorly written, ridiculous dialogue, stereotypical characters with all the standard affectations, a tired plot line with idiotic twists. I ended up skimming through parts that got tiresome, had no connection to the characters, and filed my head with all the possibilities that could happen that would be better than the ones that the author actually chose until it finally ended.
4965604
This is one of those books that you just know was cranked out in a couple weeks. The dialogue is ridiculous, the storyline is trite and the characters are flat. The good cop is chasing down bad guys who say "I kill just for fun! Muah-ha-ha!" The good guy thinks "I won't sleep until I catch those bad guys!" and teams up with a distraught, but determined, woman who says, "I am weak in your arms, but still strong at heart! I must have revenge!"

The verdict is in - this book is not worth reading.
3239011
Did we read the same novel?  It was not good.  Trite, poorly written dialogue, plot leaps up the wazoo, unbelievable, unlikeable characters. All added up to a boring read.

I applaud the author for writing and all, but it was just not good.
3198504
I didn't think anything could possibly measure up to "50 Shades...", and not in a good way; but I was wrong. At least this author can write  a declarative sentence - though most of it is trite, repetitive, and just plain boring. The characters are beyond shallow, certainly not fully developed (well, beyond the sex scenes), and the plot is just plain stupid. Fortunately, I downloaded it from the library and didn't waste my money buying the book. Skip this one!
3013952
This book got so many great reviews I decided to plunge right into it.  Let me begin with the phoney, fake, characters. The book was so predictable and uneventful it was difficult to finish. If one of the whiney, self indulged characters broke a finger nail that would have been exciting. I get the whole cutesy sister, mother, daughter, aunt relationship bond plot. How about a little mystery and suspense? These woman could not survive in the real world. Therefore the book was like a preteen fantasy! The Island is Dullsville with women who can't do there own grocery shopping? What's up with that? Give it a pass...it's boring!
3999375
This is the worst example of cloying, syrupy glurge that I've read in a long while.  The story moves along smartly enough, but every little twist & turn is trite & predictable.  If you like your object lessons spoon-fed in nice, neat little packets, this might be a perfect book for you.  Otherwise, can't recommend.
1469054
Wow, is this book a poor introduction to Russell Banks.  I've never read anything by him before, though I tried in vain several times to borrow Cloudsplitter from my local library (it was always out on loan.)  I had heard that Banks was a master novelist, a major literary figure of our time, in the same pantheon as Hemingway and Fitzgerald.  Well, if Hemingway had written scripts for Ed Wood and Fitzgerald for Carmen Miranda, I could believe that to be so.

This book is so trite, the dialogue so stilted, and the adjectives at once incredibly numerous and entirely predictable, that the result is a feeling not unlike eating three Big Macs.  The main characters are cut from stock: a ca-raaaazy socialite whose mama and papa are filthy rich; a predictably handsome, womanizing, left-leaning, "square-handed and broad-shouldered" artist who flies biplanes for fun; and a backwoodsman who's as honest as he is stupid.  Oh, and he's handsome, too, and virile as all get out.  If this sounds like the makings of a good novel, then push aside the Harlequin Romances and buy this book.  In fact, some readers like a predictable, trite book now and then, and I don't deny I occasionally pick up old books by unknown authors just to see what amused people 100 years ago.  If you're looking for the modern equivalent, in literary merit, of Trail of the Lonesome Pine, this might be your book.  If, however, you expect more from a writer with the reputation of Banks, skip this.
4565968
To call this book predictable is to give it more credit than it deserves.  The mystery is mundane and the true horror of the killer's crimes is glanced over in favor of his lust for an underage girl.  This is like a harlequin murder mystery for the yet to be incarcerated sex offender set.  The character development is marginal and any insight into the human condition is below what you'd even expect in a novel in this genre.  This could be a bad short story in a creative writing class much better than a drawn out piece of tedium.

This is a bad, bad book and not in a good way.  If this is the new Silence of the Lambs, we are all doomed to lousy reads for eternity.  Avoid at all costs.
4894898
I think it's important that we discuss the role that social media plays in our lives. But this book is heavy handed, boring, predictable and trite. All the characters are caricatures and the plot is dismal and unexciting. The symbolism was perhaps the worst part - so obvious and brutal that I think the characters should have mentioned it as it was happening.

This book's important themes saved it from a one star review. But it's a crappy book, and not worth reading.
1520984
Dumb, predictable, and yet I had to finish it.
3158006
I thought the plot was silly and trite and not very engrossing.  It's ending was also predictable!!  not a "must read".
3776642
I really hoped this would be the last book in a trilogy but, sadly, no.

This has nowhere near as complex or interesting a plot as the previous two - in fact, it's so thin it's barely there and totally predictable. The alleged 'romance' smoulders in a damp kind of way, but fails to ignite. The heroine is still a tiresome,defensive,self-pitying bore with a huge inferiority complex. On a good day. Even with a sexy make-over.

There were, in fact, some hopeful signs that she might be coming to her senses at last, but they came to nothing, especially regarding her gorgeous Source, Taro, about whom she continues to be so wilfully self-deluded that you just want to slap her on every page.

Several reviewers commented on the 'character development' aspect of this book, but I have to say that I didn't find this to be entirely the case. True, it showed how they both learned a lot about themselves surviving under difficult circumstance, and the last part is more about Lee discovering her maternal instincts than anything else, but I felt the central relationship didn't really grow at all, despite events, and Lee didn't appear to understand Taro any better at the end than at the start...

The writing style is often leaden and over-descriptive, especially in the first chapter which was totally unnecessary for continuity, added nothing and should have been ruthlessly deleted. It may signpost the next plot (in the gambling scene where Lee dumps her dull suitor) but if so, still a waste of paper.  Editors should consider the plight of the rainforests and desist from these crimes against nature...

No effort was made to explore the apparently significant talent developments in the last book, or even to use the original ones in any dramatic way. In fact, drama was conspicuous by it's absence.

The bulk of the book is simply irrelevant to anything that has happened previously - just a padded out and ultimately pointless description of the discomforts of living in a tent with a travelling circus in a foreign country.

One of my (many) gripes is that NOTHING HAPPENS.

Another irritation is that several plot devices (for example a couple of fortune-telling scenes) are set up to appear significant and then never mentioned again; but there IS a lot of trudging involved. For the characters and this reader.

Despite that, I managed to finish and towards the end started to get into it and quite enjoy it, expecting some sudden, dramatic climax to make sense of the rest. Damp squib.

Then it went and left the door wide open for at least one more sequel and I gave up.

No, no, no, not going to be buying any more of this, because I was left feeling very disappointed with the hopeless heroine - but then also strangely curious about what will happen next. Annoying, either way.
2880486
Three words best describe the book: cliche, trite, and garbage. The story is a pitiful twist on that seen in The Monkey's Paw among other stories. The characters are boring and unrealistic, the story is too fast paced, the  ending is the epitome of cliche, and it fits the bill of bargain bin horror  all too well: nice unnecessary, gory descriptions and a bit of nudity. Skip  it. Maybe even burn it.
2748840
I am abandoning this book.  That is a rare event for me.  The writing is trite; I have skimmed far too many paragraphs.  The characters are dispassionate, so flat and cliche that they generate no intense interest and certainly no empathy. I was looking for a powerful psychological thriller and this does not deliver.  It have droned on and on with little to pique my interest.
4583875
I was disappointed based on the other great reviews the book received.  I found the characters and storyline to be unbelievable, predictable and trite.