Barely worth the time to write the review!
587566
SHUTTER is the sort of film on which I'll spend more time writing this review than I did actually thinking about the movie after it was over.  Its goals are so mundane and modest.  Its efforts to reach that goal are equally modest.  It diverts the viewer for its 85 minute running time, but when it's over, you spend virtually no time with your viewing companions discussing it.  One hour later, you've practically forgotten you've seen it.

SHUTTER is another one of those films set in Japan with creepy spirits in the form of young Japanese girls.  (see THE GRUDGE, original RING movies, etc.)  At least in this case, the ghost is modern and specific.  It doesn't change forms or appear to be various other spooky things.  (Remember how in THE GRUDGE, there were many different manifestations to confuse things?)

The story follows a newly married couple who move to Japan so the husband (Joshua Jackson) can continue his work as a commercial photographer.  They do take a couple of days to have a brief honeymoon, and on the drive to their cabin, the young wife (played by Rachel Taylor, whose only previous work with which I'm familiar was a small part in TRANSFORMERS) crashes into a young woman standing in the middle of the road in her nightgown.  From this point on, "unexplainable" things begin to happen...though most of them revolve around strange images of this girl appearing on every photo the couple takes (or has taken).  It's a "spirit photograph" we're told.  (Apparently these are a fascinating subject in Japan, with entire magazines dedicated to their depiction and discussion.  At least, that's what SHUTTER wants us to believe...I have no idea if it is true, but I am skeptical of anything this film offers about Japanese culture.)

The young bride is pretty much left to her own devices because hubby Jackson has to plunge into his grueling work of photographing beautiful models while his lovely young "assistants" paw inappropriately all over him.  The couple lives in a loft apartment connected to the studio, but it is a hideously ugly dump (despite the couple's "ooohing" and "aahing" all over it).  So Taylor heads out into the city, and to the film's credit, we get a good sense of how foreign a young, tall, blonde American woman with no Japanese skills would feel in this gigantic, bustling city.  Taylor is like the vapid, superficial version of Scarlett Johanssen's character in LOST IN TRANSLATION  (how's that for a shout-out you didn't expect).

As Taylor digs deeper into the source of her spirit photos and the odd accident she was in...the truth about some American men behaving very badly in Japan begins to sink in, and she finds herself almost on the side of the spirit.  This is a twist on what we usually expect in "vengeful spirit" movies, and again, I give the film a little credit for this.

What the film lacks, however, are any real chills.  We're SO accustomed to these kinds of mild, PG-13 horror flicks now that it fails to build any tension.  There are a couple of very brief "gross-out" killings, but other than that, this film is more about atmosphere rather than jump-out-of-your-seat thrills.  That would be okay, except such a film would then require more thoughtful characterizations than SHUTTER delivers.  It would also require good performances.  Jackson is totally unbelievable either as a professional photographer, or a loving husband or even as a cad.  Taylor shows moments of spunk, but mostly is asked to mope around.  And special mention goes to John Hensley, who has managed to absolutely bug the crap out of me in NIP/TUCK for 5 years (he plays the irritating, stupid and hard to look at son Matt).  He's equally reprehensible here.  Normally, I try to be kind about physical appearance...but Mr. Hensley is the least attractive young man working in films/TV today.

So I cannot recommend SHUTTER, even on a modest level.  It is forgettable in every respect.  Maybe on a slow day at the video store, you can rent it.  Otherwise, save your money.
1256247
Well, the concept was interesting, but the execution needed so much more work than was put into it.  First, I agree with other reviewers about the stilted conversations.  NOBODY today speaks without using contractions (I'm, you're, couldn't, hadn't, etc.)  Yet everything was written as if it was turn of the 19th century in terms of formal speech.  It ruined the flow of the dialog.  Also, this author needs to get his obsession with the exclamation point (!) under control!!!  It seemed like every other sentence ended with one.  He needs to understand that judicious use of the exclamation point is necessary for a purposeful emotional punch to his narrative.  otherwise, it loses its effectiveness.  Lastly, this book needed a serious read-through by an editor because there were so many instances of missing words, extra words, and flipped words that it just killed the flow.  I was so frustrated.

As for the content, I think the D/s stuff was just over the top.  And the sock fetish?  Gross!  So ridiculous, I laughed when I knew it wasn't meant to be funny.

I read one short story by this author that I liked, but his other work is questionable.  His subject matter is always the alpha top and the much smaller, somewhat helpless bottom.  He needs to change up his formula and practice his writing before he publishes another.
2690655
I don't read even free books with less than 4 stars, so I can't imagine how this one got the high ratings it did.  For those who also confine their reading to highly rated books, I feel it is my duty to offset those unjustified 5 star reviews and save everyone the time to read this mess.  The story is trite - I wish characters would just talk to each other, as the secrets do not advance the plot and are silly.  The female lead has had several engagements, which do not work out.  I was most offended (spoiler alert) that the obviously disturbed fiance was not put in a hospital, he was hung, notwithstanding his clear mental problems and that she was stupid - seriously, she went to the terrible fiance and gave him personal information to use against her and was surprised when he did so?!  I want my 2 hours back!
2413905
I haven't written a book review in quite a while, but I was compelled to write one for MAP OF TIME. I wanted to warn people who think this is a time travel novel.  DO NOT BE FOOLED!  IN MY OPINION, IT IS NOT A TIME TRAVEL NOVEL!! I really enjoy historic time travel novels, so I was looking forward to reading MAP OF TIME. I was TREMENDOUSLY disappointed.  It took me a week to get through the first 200 pages.  I was tempted to dump the book several times, but I kept reading thinking that if I read a bit further, the time travel aspect of the novel would finally be revealed.  It was at least 200 pages before time travel was even mentioned!  The explanation as to where the means for travelling through time was discovered was completely ridiculous!
THIS IS NOT A SPOILER, SO READ ON.  In one section of the novel, THE TIME MACHINE by H. G. Wells is recapped for those who may not know the story.  IF I HAD WANTED TO READ THE TIME MACHINE I WOULD HAVE READ IT!!  H.G. Wells, one of the characters in the book, discusses how his publisher wanted him to write at least 40,000 words, so he used a lot of filler material to meet the required amount.  In another section of the story, H.G. Wells discusses another "author's" writing techniques and tells the man that his writing is substandard and his manuscript is not worth reading.  I can't help but wonder if Felix de Palma is quoting portions from his own life.  I felt that de Palma's writing was long-winded and drawn out.  The "trip" into the year 2000 was retold so many times that I was sick of reading about it.
Also disappointing was the fact that the novel was split into three different stories that the author attempted to weave together.  Each "novella" was mind-numbingly slow in character and story development.  As soon as I started to enjoy the characters, the story ended and the author introduced a new set of characters.  In the first and second segment of the novel, the main characters encounter Jack The Ripper and The Elephant Man, respectively.  I was excited because I love history and thought I was going to learn something about each person. After reading the stories, I did some research of my own and quickly found out that de Palma had the name of Jack The Ripper's last victim and the date of the murder wrong.  De Palma also had some facts about H. G. Wells' life wrong.  When the author described the life of The Elephant Man, he went into an elaborate story, then he glazed over the man's death by saying something like, "The man experienced a devastating death."  If the author felt it was worthwhile to delve into every aspect of The Elephant Man's life, he could have added a few more sentences that went into a bit more detail about the man's last days.  I think the author spent more time describing unnecessary and uninteresting facts than he spent telling an actual story.
By the time I got to the third story, I was pretty much disenchanted with the entire novel and was just trying to get to the end of the book.  In this segment, the reader is left wondering if the events ever really happened.
As a reader, I feel as duped as the people who visited Murray's Time Travel Emporium.  Promoting this novel as a time travel story is like dragging a chicken carcass through hot water and calling it soup!  This author tried to work every genre into his novel from adventure, history, romance and lastly time travel--All of which failed in my opinion.  If there really was a way to travel in time, I think I would go back and stop myself from buying this book!  This is probably THE WORST novel I have read in quite some time.  As I said, I really enjoy time travel stories, but the MAP OF TIME put me off reading any time travel novels for a while.  Please do not make the same mistake I did.  Save your money and your time!!  This novel is a complete waste.  If you are a true time travel enthusiast, read Connie Willis' DOOMSDAY BOOK, BLACKOUT or ALL CLEAR.
751190
Love books that were written with little substance but a ton of words?  Then this series is for you!  Seriously, I'm convinced the author somehow scored a price per word contract to write this trilogy, because 90% of the "story" is nothing but fluff.

It's basically as if the author is a preadolescent child not yet capable of describing things to you in a way that is clear and succinct.  You need to know that this book is buried under a gleaming, glamorous, magnificent, shimmering pile of adjectives!

The story could be good, and at its core isn't awful... actually, the protagonist's neurosis makes for an interesting concept.  Unfortunately, you'll spend far too many chapters going at that point with a hammer like a Neanderthal.  There are literally scores of chapters in the trilogy that have nothing to do with the story and are just side-thoughts the characters have with no point and no input to the story at all.

The overall concept saves this from a 1 star rating, but the author's immature writing and constant rambling take a good idea and make it almost unbearable.
4722445
The story is okay but the writing skills are severely lacking. I ended up returning it (and couldn't finish it) because of the poor writing. I want to spend my free time reading a novel that is well-written and I don't have enough time to read books that aren't up to par.

The dialogue and descriptions are bad and the punctuation isn't accurate - commas are used too often and mostly where they shouldn't be and there are several times when a semicolon is used which made the sentences awkward.

Words are repeated right after being used, such as in this sentence, "I have some ointment I'll bring over; you need to keep these clean and apply the ointment often." Ointment doesn't need to be used again, the reader knows what is being referred to.

I also find it bizarre that the main character was run off the road by another car but instead of freaking out and telling the cops that someone was trying to kill her (which they were) she pretends that it's not a big deal and it was just drunk kids. I highly doubt that most people would make the choice to not report a murder attempt on their life, especially if the cops suggest it.

Here is an example of a line of poorly written dialogue, "But why would she lie to me about that? Maybe it was just too messy for her ideal world. Having a sister who committed suicide would mar her own perfection, thus the lie." First of all, no one talks like that and second, why would this character answer her own question, especially so nonchalantly when she'd just learned some highly disturbing information? It isn't believable.

Here is another example of bad dialogue that actually made me quit reading the book without finishing it.

This is after a Marty asks Al about his Porsche. "Yes, such a fine machine. I hope you can find it. I only had about 1400 miles on it and it's the finest car I've owned. Low to the ground, it can  accelerate to 75 miles per hour in a heart beat and purrs like a cat. Handles beautifully too with power steering that can swerve past anything in its way."

NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT! This example is taken out of context but the rest of the dialogue surrounding it makes it even cheesier.

This book needs to go through an editor or be taken to a writing class that offers instruction on writing skills. I think the story would be GREATLY improved by one or both of these!
34822
What a waste of money, it should be more clearly explained how short this is, and how many characters it tells about that I can't even remember, much less care what happened to them! You could literally read this in less than an hour. The author should be ASHAMED to sell this as what it's being billed as, and WAY over priced for what I got!!!!
798372
There was writing throughout! What a disappointment!
197657
I have never before written a  review, but I absolutely had to for "The Promise." The plot is overly simplistic, the writing was horrible. I couldn't even force myself to finish the book. Please don't waste your time, and find a book worthy of your time.
3085927
Boy, am I steaming at this poor excuse for a $10 Kindle book! I've read every edition of the Sookie series so am very familiar with the author's material and style. These short, insignificant, illogical and only mildly interesting stories should have been posted FOR FREE at Charlaine Harris's website. Each one is clearly a disconnected snippet of a storyline that had been edited out (with good reason) from one of the main books in the series. The first story sets the pace. Since when is Sookie a Columbo-inspired detective, much less one that fairies would hire to solve a murder mystery? It is clear that these stories were rejected from the main books. I want my $$ back! Next time, I wait for the reviews. Shame on you, Charlaine Harris!
3884855
This book was not worth the time for me to write a review......not a mystery, just a slow romance.
2257898
What a disappointment! Took me 20 minutes to read this essay! This item should be priced accordingly. I unfortunately paid $9.99.
3234599
The typos & lack of punctuation were the worst!! It's not uncommon to run across a few, especially in these digital books, but this was ridiculous! I spent more time back tracking and trying to figure out what he meant to say than I did reading the book! I almost gave up about a third of the way in. But I stuck with it, hoping it would get better. No such luck. I kept waiting for the story line to show itself but that never happened either. It was just like reading a cop's note book, one call after another & another & another. No point was ever made! After the first couple of dozen, it was getting pretty boring. Granted, some of the stories were interesting, some were humorous and some were sad, but he goes quite a bit over board!
I would not recommend this book to anyone. When I read a book, I want to be taken away on a journey, kept on the edge of my seat, turning pages to see what happens next. This book doesn't do this in any way.
Other than the adult content, I would think a 5th grader wrote this. Very poor!
Sorry Kevin, I think you should take up fishing off the shores of Florida as a hobby instead of writing.
I only gave this book a try because my sister, who use to work with you, told me about it.
2380175
I actually would give this a zero rating, but had to rate it in order to review. This took about 2-3 minutes to read and apparently the triangle of success did not apply to mastering the English language when compiling this word soup- it was strangled and butchered! Save your time and money with this one because I lament at the wasted couple of minutes I can't get back!
284092
Perhaps I thought this book was going to be interesting because of the description on the back.  How mistaken I was!!!!! Instead of getting into the story, the author wastes a lot of time getting lost in useless details.  For example, every other page has run-ons about name brand items (I was wearing my $500 Chanel red shirt and my $1700 Chanel pants with the matching $400 Chanel sunglasses as I jumped into my silver Range Rover with the leather seats)-this is an example, not an excerpt.  That is weak writing at its best!!! By Chapter 20...WE KNOW SHE DRIVES A SILVER RANGE ROVER WITH BLACK LEATHER SEATS. No need to keep drilling it into the ground.  It's repetitive and takes too long for the drama and storyline to unfold.  And I pray that the book I have is one in a million because there are ENDLESS typos and misspellings to the point that it becomes annoying and difficult to read.  I am highly disappointed!!!
1341820
I've long seen Dean Koontz's books line the checkout stands of grocery stores, but until now, I've never read any.  No particular reason why . . . just didn't do so.  My first one was "The Good Guy" and it was a reasonable read.  However, this one, is a complete waste of time and is a very poor example of writing.

I teach English and  I'm appalled at this display of mixed tenses, confusing story lines that seem to go nowhere and a complete lack of connection throughout the book.  If the book were to be a fantasy book, that that should be established early on.  However, instead, the reader is forced to plod through limitless bad metaphors and left with a reeling headache from trying to understand what the author is indeed trying to say!

Example of a bad metaphor (and it's not the worst):  "Her mouth, the ripe centerpiece of a lipstick advertisement, is a frosted red like the petals of the last rose on a November bush."

Example of just bad writing:  "In matching Chinese-red silk pajamas with billowy bell-bottom sleeves and pants, standing tall on platform sandals that glitter with midnight-blue rhinestones, their fingernails and toenails no longer azure-blue but crimson, their glossy golden hair swept up in chignons with long spiral curls framing their faces, they glide and turn and twist around the cramped galley with an uncanny awareness of each other's position at all times, exhibiting choreography that might please Busby Berkeley as they whip up a feast of Mandarin and Szechwan specialties."

Yes, that's 84 words in one sentence!  If my students wrote such a sentence, I would immediately ask them to re-write it!

At any rate, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.  I forced myself to finish it, but did so pretty much by skipping chapters that were written in third person present tense when the rest of the book was written in third person past tense.  I didn't miss anything!  The conclusion was quick and merciless in getting us through what took way too many pages to get to.

Oh, and one more thing?  Few of the characters are even remotely believable.  There is a minor appearance of a young man with Down Syndrome and he was probably the most real "person" in the book.  The rest were just way too far-fetched to even seem like they were "part of this world."  Pun definitely intended since Koontz takes this book to the extra-terrestrial level of unbelievability.
2806091
This book was such a waste of time. When I finished the last page, I kept looking for more pages, and said out loud, "Well that was a stupid book." No conclusion, no hints at how things turned out, no explanation about what the heck Mid was into, no grand lesson or overall theme, the main character was TOTALLY annoying, and the conversations were bumpy and not written well. I think I stuck with it thinking it would get better and everything would be explained in the end, but the main characters just ended up at some fair that I guess was supposed to be symbolic in some way, but the author was either trying so hard to make a connection, that it wasn't made, or, more likely, he just got tired of his own story or was about to not make his publisher's deadline, and just smashed on an ending that leaves the reader unfulfilled, frustrated, and grumpy, much like a bad one night stand. Don't read it, it is NOT worth your time!!