Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Well..... talk about disappointing.

Honestly? It was a lot like reading a book manuscript. As in, not the final draft. As a reader, my thoughts when reading a book should not be about how much I want to copy and paste the first 70 pages into the third quarter of the book. Or the typos, or the grammar issues, or the "had had" or "was was" that popped up repeatedly. That's just confusing, and frankly, poor grammar. Remember when your English teacher used to write "awk" on the margins of your paper, and you had no idea what they meant? Someone should have done that for every time she did that in this book, and everyone who speaks English would know that it means that it is awkward for a reader to read a professional novel writer's confusing-yet-easily-fixed sentences.

I found myself extremely confused with some passages. There was one passage that was about 15 pages long that was completely insane: I had no clue what was going on; it was totally psychedelic. I swear, it was "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" except not the Beatles, and not appropriate to the forum. Nobody reads when they're high (at least, I don't imagine high people reading. Truth is, I wouldn't know. Perhaps they have a little library in the corner of every rave, I couldn't tell you, but I imagine not). I've noticed that before in McKinley's work, but it was worse this time than ever. What's up with that? Why didn't her editor help her? WHERE WAS THE EDITOR?!

While reading this book, I experienced an inordinate amount of frustration. I expected so much more from my dear, sweet Robin. As in, something polished.

Oh well. My suggestion? Don't bother with this one.

Up next: Kindred by Ocvtavia Butler.