Usually, there is some merit when a lot of hype surrounds an author, so, reflecting upon that, I decided to give "Jack and Jill" a read. Maybe I should have started with another of his works, because J & J was a disappointment. I don't intend for this to be a scathing review, just honest. I felt Patterson's prose was extremely juvenile and anything and everything about the story, the characters, the pacing was cliched to the hilt. Cliched to the point of becoming an unfunny joke. I found his constant "namedropping" to be exhaustingly irritating. For instance, his description of one of the villians was, "vaguely reminiscent of the actor Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard." I personally believe this is a lack of imagination at play, and because it happened frequently in this novel, I have a hunch it infects his other works. I actually finished this book to see just how stale it could possibly get. Upon finishing, it ranked fairly high on the "stale scale." The main reason I'm writing this review is because this was a number one bestseller, and I read it...and I just don't understand how that became so. The Hardy Boys Mysteries I read as a child were more mature and better written than this particular novel. I am considering reading another of his works to compare, but this book left such a bitter taste, it'll be a while before I get around to it..if at all.
Usually, there is some merit when a lot of hype surrounds an author, so, reflecting upon that, I decided to give "Jack and Jill" a read. Maybe I should have started with another of his works, because J & J was a disappointment. I don't intend for this to be a scathing review, just honest. I felt Patterson's prose was extremely juvenile and anything and everything about the story, the characters, the pacing was cliched to the hilt. Cliched to the point of becoming an unfunny joke. I found his constant "namedropping" to be exhaustingly irritating. For instance, his description of one of the villians was, "vaguely reminiscent of the actor Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. " I personally believe this is a lack of imagination at play, and because it happened frequently in this novel, I have a hunch it infects his other works. I actually finished this book to see just how stale it could possibly get. Upon finishing, it ranked fairly high on the "stale scale. " The main reason I'm writing this review is because this was a number one bestseller, and I read it... and I just don't understand how that became so. The Hardy Boys Mysteries I read as a child were more mature and better written than this particular novel. I am considering reading another of his works to compare, but this book left such a bitter taste, it'll be a while before I get around to it.. if at all.