Books We Didn't Finish October edition

The Uninvited.  Normally I will not comment on the state a review copy is in, because it's a rough draft basically.  However, this book was nearly unreadable.  I don't know was going on but there were words that were missing half their letters and this was happening 3-4 times a page.  It was very annoying and the story wasn't holding my interest enough to tough it out.  It sounds like it could be a really good book though and hopefully the kinks will be worked out before final production.

I was hoping to use The Lake as a Throwback Thursday post. Sadly, I didn't make it past the first disc. This book was just bad. Within the time span of the first disc, the mother (Leigh) and daughter (Deana) each had 3 nightmares and the word "breast" or "boob" was used in practically every other paragraph.  It was just too weird for me. Deana is 18 and instead of going to the movies, she decides to go have sex with her boyfriend in the woods.  Really?  What about a motel at least?  This was planned after all, not a spontaneous event.  The boyfriend is killed by a psycho in said woods. (Of course!)  After a few nightmare sequences, I was done.  It probably also didn't help that the narrator's voice was annoying and she couldn't act.  Yes, I do expect my narrators to be able to act.  That is partly why audiobooks appeal to me so much.

Apparently, The Lake was published after the author died in 2001.  I have only read 1 other book by Richard Laymon (The Traveling Vampire Show) and since I enjoyed it, I figured I'd try this one out. I think this book would have benefited from a ghost writer to clean up the story line and make the book flow a little better.  It's too bad because it had the potential to be a great horror story.

I probably shouldn't have tried The Next Best Thing after not liking Good in Bed by the same author.  But, I am always willing to give an author another try.  I wanted to like this book.  I even gave it 1and a half discs.  I just was so bored, I couldn't continue anymore.  I didn't care about the characters or about what was going on. The book felt very disjointed to me.  The main character starts telling us about her big break and how she was going to be running a sitcom.  Then she launches into her parents' car accident and her grueling recovery as a child.  What did that have to do with anything?  I got that she loved TV after watching The Golden Girls in the hospital, but did I really need all of that background to get the point? Not really.  It just seemed to ramble on and on. It looks like this one has gotten mixed reviews, so try it out for yourself. I, for one, think I'm done with this author.