13 After Midnight, by Jaime Martinez Tolentino: #BookReview.

By stuartaken, 10/03/2019

274 pages

Fantasy?

This book is promoted as a collection of stories in the fantasy mode. That collection is preceded by a wordy, lengthy, introduction dealing with the nature of fantasy in literature. That’s a tortuous read in itself and, after the first few dry pages, I skipped the rest, since I’d bought the book for the stories. In the digital version, this introduction takes up 20% of the content.

The stories? I approached these with slight trepidation based on the nature of the unimpressive introduction. Unfortunately, I didn’t get past the first two. There’s so much good writing and storytelling out there that I refuse to waste time on what can best be described as insipid, uninspiring, poorly presented fiction.

If this author has, as is claimed, been nominated for a Nobel Prize, I can only hope it isn’t for Literature if these stories are an example of his work. Deeply disappointing, dry and boring, reading them was like wading waist deep through mud.

I don’t generally post reviews that are this critical, but this book was promoted with great enthusiasm and I want to help other readers avoid disappointment.

[Any review is a personal opinion. No reviewer can represent the view of anyone else. The best we can manage is an honest reaction to any given book.]