THE SEED COLLECTORS by SCARLETT THOMAS.INNER FRONT COVER BLURB: Great Aunt Oleander is dead. To each of her nearest and dearest she has left a seed pod. The seed pods might be deadly, but then again they might also contain the secret to enlightenment. Not that anyone has much time for enlightenment. Fleur, left behind at the crumbling Namaste House, must step into Oleander's role as guru to lost and lonely celebrities. Byrony wants to lose weight she put on after her botanist parents disappeared, but can't stop drinking. And Charlie struggles to make sense of his life after losing the one woman he could truly love.
FIRST SENTENCE {Funeral}: Imagine a tree that can walk.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: I'm sorry but for me there wasn't one. TT
SOURCE: A GoodReads win.
MY THOUGHTS: Are you sitting down?
I only ask because what I'm about to tell you will no doubt shock those of you who regularly visit Pen and Paper.
Despite the fact that no matter what I normally see a book through no matter what I'm afraid I simply couldn't finish this one.
I get it that the author's intention was to write a 'storyless' story - I can't however help but think of what my English teacher would have made of this given the amount of time she spent drumming into us that all stories must have a beginning, a middle and an end.
I'm not particularly phased by the exploration of alternative realities - after all that was one of the reasons why both Mr T and I loved the author's The End Of Mr Y.
I'm not put off by the 'humour' that I simply didn't find funny but then I don't always get satire.
I'm only slightly disappointed that we never got to really know some of the characters given the fact that many of them were introduced only to be quickly dismissed.
It was the relentless crude sexual language, the fact that without exception the male characters are all extremely aggressive in their sexuality, the (to me) odd sexual fetishes that so many of the characters seemed to harbour and most of all it was that the women seemed almost obsessed by their 'rape fantasies' that made this book unreadable.
To say I did not like/hated this book as the one star rating I gave it on amazon.co.uk/GoodReads suggests is the understatement of the century - I only rated it so highly because a minus rating is not an option.
10 comments:
Always a shame when a book with a seemingly good plot ends up being flat. Will have to try and find this and see what it's like but that is one of my reading pet-hates - the story always sounds good and then it isn't! Gahhh! Thank you, as well, for always leaving such lovely comments! - Tasha
Oh wow...I am surprised! You never quit on a book. But I'm also glad you warned us, and from what you've said, I can understand why.
It does have a rather nice cover, though. (looking for a positive)
Oooh. Well, agree about the cover mentioned by Kelly but so sorry for your experience with the work. Didn't see that coming from the synopsis that's for sure. Happier reading next time around!
Thank you for saving my wasting my time reading this, as I might have been tempted by the blurb. Recently I have given up on a couple of books ..... there are too many good books waiting to be read to waste time finishing ones you don't like!
Yikes. I give you credit for finishing, I am afraid I would have DNF'd this one.
Oh sorry to see you couldn't finish it. I hope your next book will be better.
Though I often like unconventional writing and unconventional styles, the negatives of this book as you describe them sound overwhelming.
I find that time is too short to waste on books that we get nothing out of.
That is saying something when even you cannot finish a book. From your thoughts on the book, I don't think I would have finished this one either. Sometimes negative reviews make me more interested in a book, but the complaints you had are not ones I would be able to stomach well myself. Hopefully you were able to move onto a better book!
Hi Tracy,
Well! You haven't had a very successful week one way and another, what with the Jacqui Rose book being unreadable, as well as this one.
I'm with you, in that a story, no matter how long or short, Needs a strong beginning, a good middle story and a decisive ending.
Whilst, as I said before, I can close my ears to the bad language, if it is an important part of the storyline, or the region in which the story is set. However, gratuitous bad language, explicit sex and violence, should be clearly branded under the 'erotica' genre, so that I know to avoid it!
I hope that your run of bad luck doesn't continue and I look forward to your next review :)
Yvonne
Good thing you had us sit down. I don't remember you ever not finishing a book before- but I am glad you decide not to finish it considering you clearly hated/disliked it so much. More time to spend on a book you do like! :)
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