Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) -
Being that I've been extremely disenchanted with almost the entire urban fiction genre lately I fully expected to be bored through these stories.
I'm very, very tired of reading about characters and only getting a sense of who they are from the brand names they wear and their measurements. I know for a fact that there are authors in this genre with enough intelligence and talent to fully round out a character. Why are they stifling themselves like this? It's almost as tacky as inserting theirself or an author friend in their own book. It smacks of non-talent to be honest and I wish it would stop. I envision authors sitting in front of their computer Googling little known pricey designers and using them in their stories. Is this supposed to one-up the reader? It only makes this one laugh and pity the author honestly and after reading other reviews and talking to people I now know I'm not the only one.
And while I found that I liked Wahida Clark's the least I still found myself enjoying it. The others were all better than Clark's in my opinion and I think any and all could be, and more importantly, should be, made into full length novels.
There were a few minor points that irked me but only one I can remember and since the book isn't in the room with me I'll only mention it. In the first story, Martin writes of a characters "baby mama" using 'BM' and then for some reason deems it necessary to specify, in parathensis, that BM = baby mama. Is there anyone reading urban fiction that wouldn't know this? If so, why? The same story uses the term 'alphabet boys' with no explanation. I would think more people would be confused about the latter personally. I hardly think too many people would have read the sentence with 'BM' in it and assumed it was meant to be 'bowel movement'. I can't see the story delving off into the character going in the house to visit his pet turd floating in the toilet.
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of short stories and for exactly this reason - I get ticked off when I get into a story and all of a sudden it's cut down. Bonta's story started slow for me and as I was thinking I wouldn't like it I got more and more into it. The ending of Clark's story was no good at all I think and the "reader's guide" questions for all of the stories are jokes.
The short stories themselves, if turned into full novels, I'd read in a heartbeat and I'm looking forward to pulling out some of Jihad's books that I have here. I may even give Victor L. Martin a try with one of his.
I'd have to say my favorite was Jihad's and my least favorite was Clark's. I do have to say there isn't much between them though, they were all pretty good and would be much better as an entire book.
I'm very, very tired of reading about characters and only getting a sense of who they are from the brand names they wear and their measurements. I know for a fact that there are authors in this genre with enough intelligence and talent to fully round out a character. Why are they stifling themselves like this? It's almost as tacky as inserting theirself or an author friend in their own book. It smacks of non-talent to be honest and I wish it would stop. I envision authors sitting in front of their computer Googling little known pricey designers and using them in their stories. Is this supposed to one-up the reader? It only makes this one laugh and pity the author honestly and after reading other reviews and talking to people I now know I'm not the only one.
And while I found that I liked Wahida Clark's the least I still found myself enjoying it. The others were all better than Clark's in my opinion and I think any and all could be, and more importantly, should be, made into full length novels.
There were a few minor points that irked me but only one I can remember and since the book isn't in the room with me I'll only mention it. In the first story, Martin writes of a characters "baby mama" using 'BM' and then for some reason deems it necessary to specify, in parathensis, that BM = baby mama. Is there anyone reading urban fiction that wouldn't know this? If so, why? The same story uses the term 'alphabet boys' with no explanation. I would think more people would be confused about the latter personally. I hardly think too many people would have read the sentence with 'BM' in it and assumed it was meant to be 'bowel movement'. I can't see the story delving off into the character going in the house to visit his pet turd floating in the toilet.
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of short stories and for exactly this reason - I get ticked off when I get into a story and all of a sudden it's cut down. Bonta's story started slow for me and as I was thinking I wouldn't like it I got more and more into it. The ending of Clark's story was no good at all I think and the "reader's guide" questions for all of the stories are jokes.
The short stories themselves, if turned into full novels, I'd read in a heartbeat and I'm looking forward to pulling out some of Jihad's books that I have here. I may even give Victor L. Martin a try with one of his.
I'd have to say my favorite was Jihad's and my least favorite was Clark's. I do have to say there isn't much between them though, they were all pretty good and would be much better as an entire book.
