Before we
begin, this is first of my book reviews.
I will write a review every time I finish a book. If you want to see what I’m reading right now
or any book I’ve already read this year, please look to the right-hand side of
the screen where there is a book list.
There are however, no other book reviews, as this is the first. I’d also like to just mention that every time
I use an example I have found them in the novel – in this case ‘The Killables’ by Gemma Malley.
A Spoiler
Free Bit About the Book
This morning I finished
Gemma Malley’s ‘The Killables’, a
teenage fiction novel set in dystopian London which is called the City which is
run by the Brother. In the City evil has
been eradicated by the removal of the amygdala – the part of the brain the people
of the City believe evil lives – in a procedure called the New Baptism. Everyone has a label from A to D which
indicates your ‘goodness’ level, I suppose.
‘A’ being that there is no evil in you whatsoever and ‘D’ being ‘deviant’
or one to watch. The D’s are despised by
others in their community and suspected of evil. If worse comes to worse and the System
believes your amygdala is growing back and you have the capacity for evil you
are labelled a ‘K’. The K’s are sent off
to be reconditioned and have a second New Baptism. But the K’s are never seen again.
The novel
follows a teenager called Evie. I
believe she’s sixteen or seventeen. She
works for the System changing people’s labels.
Evie believes that she may have the capacity for evil as the world she
lives in has made her anxious and timid (or that’s how I read into it). Evie worries that she isn’t like everyone
else (as we all do at some point in our lives).
My Review
I must say, I
struggled throughout ‘The Killables’
to connect with Evie, the protagonist, but also most of the main
characters. I sympathised with them at
points but it wasn’t enough and I at last began to like Evie at the very end of
the novel. I was tempted many times to
put it down and not finish it because I’m a character girl. I like character driven novels vs plot driven
novels and I felt this was a plot driven novel.
What kept me
hanging on was the plot itself. I loved
the whole concept. I’ve read many
dystopian novels (I love them) but I loved that this one was different, which
isn’t that easy to find. So I stuck
around for the plot, the characters annoying me all the way, which I found very
odd. I’m not saying the character
development was bad or that they were unrealistic, not at all. I just couldn’t identify with them and in
their situation would’ve made very different decisions. Sometimes characters’ decision making drives
me crazy (if you’ve ever read the ‘Hush,
Hush’ trilogy or ‘The Immortals
Series’ you’ll know what I mean). ‘The Killables’ made me feel like this at
times.
Another issue I
had was Gemma Malley’s writing style.
Again, I’m not saying it’s bad and that she’s a bad author because she
isn’t by any standards. It just wasn’t
my cup of tea. It was more like she’d
offered me black coffee with sugar and I’d drank it to the bottom when I really
wanted white tea without sugar.
First of all,
it’s written in the third person (for those of you unaware, the third person is
saying: “Evie’s heart thudded”, almost like there is an omnipotent narrator telling
the story whereas the first person is saying: “My heart thudded”, where the
protagonist is telling the story themselves).
Third person makes me feel distant.
It’s just a personal feeling and a taste and I think it’s why I had a
hard time connecting with Evie – because I felt we really were living in
different worlds whereas when I read first person I feel like I’m there with
them. Before you get any ideas, I’m not
saying I hate the third person – may I remind you that Harry Potter is written
in the third person. I’d just always
pick the first person if given a choice.
I guess having written in nothing but the first person for four years
can’t have helped either.
What really
irritated me, like a fly buzzing around your ear but you just can’t catch it,
was Malley’s incessant use of adverbs.
If you haven’t read my previous posts you won’t know about my hatred for
adverbs (which are words describing a verb such as “she reddened awkwardly”,
awkwardly being the adverb). I can’t
stand them at all, but in my mind to use them in a novel is a writing sin. Malley either doesn’t know this or disagrees
because ‘The Killables’ is just
littered with adverbs. In more than one
instance I found that double adverbs had been used. Two
next to each other! Like using one
wasn’t bad enough. I tried to look for
an example but the book’s 370 pages long so no luck. Instead I found an example of what I mean
when I scream about my adverb loathing. “He
stared at Linus uncomprehendingly”.
There must have been a better word for Malley to use. “Uncomprehendingly” almost sounds like a made
up word. Another example I found was “Evie
said loudly”. Is it just me, or would “Evie
said, raising her voice” sound better?
Or even “Evie yelled”, “Evie shouted” or “Evie called”. The word “loudly” adds nothing you can’t get
through other and much better words.
Adverbs, throughout the novel, take away from the connection to the
characters and add to the readers’ distance felt between them and also slow
down the plot. Adverb rant over, I
promise.
Evaluation
Plot Idea – 9/10 – I loved the plot
itself and the idea of the City and the problems that came with it.
Way Plot was Pursued – 6/10 – at various
points I found the storytelling just a little too odd for my liking. Also, I thought there was too much detail at
the very beginning which made it seem slow to start.
Characters – 2/10 – I understood them
but I didn’t like them or care about them.
I wouldn’t want to follow them to the end of the novel.
Style – 1/10 – adverbs, adverbs,
adverbs, plus third person distance.
Pace – 8/10 – for the second half of
the novel I thought the pace was perfect.
However at the beginning the plot was slow, it didn’t last too long, but
I still had to endure it.
Would I recommend it? - I would if I believed you would enjoy this
type of story and if you’re not all hung up on adverbs like me. So yes.
Would I look up the author? - I know she’s written other novels that
have received lots of praise, but I would not.
This is just because she doesn’t write in my preferred style. No.
All in all, ‘The Killables’ wasn’t a bad novel; it
was even a good novel in places. It was
a novel I had my problems with and that’s that.
If you’ve read ‘The Killables’ I’d love to know what you
thought. I’m always available for book
chatter.
Molly Looby
Author/ Editor
/ Ghost Writer / Writing Coach
Got
something to say, want me to do some freelance work or perhaps to tell me
something I might not know about writing (go on, test me!)? Email me on molly.looby@hotmail.com
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