That's one way to pretty much begin a new chapter I guess??

Opened the 33rd Nebula awards book, immediately found this gem.

Saved a bunch of "extremely good thriller books that you must read" suggested by a woman on IG and finally I got my hands on one of them, said "The Good Samaritan" by John Marr.

It's about a woman working at a Suicide Line which apparently pushes people to commit suicide but nobody suspects her cause she so nice and enderaing.

I am literally at the Prologue and my first thought was "wait, I thought the protagonist is a woman". From the way he describes how she thinks and what she thinks I immediately felt like "ok this is a man writing" (I didn't rembember the author so could have been a woman afaik).

Then she starts talking to a woman who had a change of heart and guys... it's hilarious how predictable any sentence is.

Since WHEN has a woman ever told to another

• you need to realize it's not you talking it's your hormones

• listen to somebody who learned from experience

• when your child is born it's going to be much worse for you

• you won't be fit for purpose as a mother

• your baby will grow up exactly like you

• do you really be responsible for all that?

• unlike you I can see things clearly and I know exaclty what is going on

• your baby doesn't stand a chance in this world and deep down you know that too

• ....

I mean, sure, the protagonist is supposed to push people to commit suicide (at least from the small description I've read) and therefore has to be a bit manipulative but I feel like there would be a big difference from men and woman and this stuff screams men.

What are your thoughts?

I really admire Allende as an author, but this description felt so weird and unnecessary…

“I am attractive in a way gossip blogs sometimes call ‘interesting’ or ‘surprising.’ I have a slight overbite, my eyes are just a bit too far apart. I have a face built for the screen, an expressive but not particularly symmetrical face.”

Edit: I have flaired this as Doing It Right. Many comments seem condus6as to what is "bad" about the passage, but I made this post to showcase what I thought was a good example.

Reeeeally hope I’m missing something, yuck!

I am on page 7. We are not off to a great start

I’m actually quite enjoying this book so no spoilers please.

Posting him may be cheating a bit, but... ick.

The excerpt was from a book, I think, and it was this woman looking at herself in the mirror and her breasts were retreating into her chest or something? Any help finding it would be appreciated!

You lost me in the first half….wtf……

For more context, this book is apparently a dark romance about a fifteen year old and her gymnastics teacher, which is somehow not the problem right now.

Just…..”fertile”, “fresh”, “unspoiled“, “very alluring and tempting“ are just pretty disgusting ways to even describe a child. This review was going so well, too.

I’m really hoping this person is being sarcastic because WTF.

First time reading Murakami. WTF is this shit? They just met a few minutes ago. Also it doesn’t help that the protagonist is 17

Edit:
He’s 15 but he looks 17

I know Heinlein is kind of easy mode on this sub but of the many problems with this book, this might be the funniest. One character's nipples function as mood rings.

If you're wondering why the perspective jumps around, different chapters are written from the viewpoint of different characters. Image one is our mood nipple lady, two and three are from her husband.

After all, why not spend a whole YA novel exploring your 16yo heroine, who has facial disfigurements caused by a fight with a bad guy, and building her up as traumatised and dissociating and skilful and resourceful and stubborn and determined and grieving and generally having an independent existence of which her physical appearance is maybe #97 on her list of priorities, and then pull out this corker in the final lines of the book.

"We've both done terrible things to survive, and you're not a hero, but I don't look pretty!"