UnderMajordomoMinor
by Patrick de Witt
fantasy
copyright 2015
part-read in July 2023
rated 4/10: bad but could be read
Years ago I read that a book should draw in its readers in from the very first sentence. I had barely read the first page of this book when I was driven away. Nasty characters doing uninteresting things.
"read to pass the time"? I thought. I read a few more pages. skipped to a few random pages. Read the final few pages and gave up.
Really, I need a different category... perhaps 4.1/10: so tedious, nasty, and/or stupid that it refuses to be read.
Because this is not a "bad" book. There are well-written evocative passages. Evocative of pointless stupidity and despair.
Even the most ignorant character speaks with a university education. "but "could be read" is wrong, I could not bear to read it.
Yet there is one very good idea in this book: Want to get rid of a character? No need to invent an interesting yet realistic death. They simply jump, or are pushed, into "the very large hole". Which may be a metaphor for some deeply significant state of mind. Or it may be... a very large hole. A clever idea for a comic. Here, just as stupid as the rest of the book.
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