Name: The Killing Jar
ISBN: 9780743299688

Nicola Monaghan

A Novel

The Killing Jar

Colleen

It's tough when a book comes highly recommended to you and you don't like it. I always feel a bit guilty. But this book was so tedious and vexing that there is no way I can even pretend to like it. It wasn't the dark subject matter than turned me off. True, it isn't my usual type. But I don't mind the occasional dark and gritty novel if it is well written. But this was a debacle from start to finish. 

To start with the colloquial slang made ease-of-reading almost nonexistent. I've read other things written similar slang and not had nearly that much difficulty trying to decipher what the author was trying to say. Parts of it were almost incoherent. 

This story is being told as a drug addict recalling her early life. It is mentioned several times that she has trouble recalling things. So the story skips around and has major holes in it. I suppose that the writing is supposed to sound like a real drug addict was trying to recall their story, but this really failed in execution. The entire thing is a jumbled mess. 

Add to that I did not like the main Character at all. And since all of the other characters are seen through her drug-addled brain, they are likeable either. I was expecting an emotionally wrenching story. But my tear ducts didn't even twinge. Yes, it is tragic that so many children are doomed to stay in the socioeconomic dungeons into which they are born, but this novel did not do an effective job at invoking empathy, enlightening, or entertaining. 

So what was the point? Was this supposed to be an exposé on children in the slums? A portrait of a drug user? There were times when it felt like Monaghan was trying to make this book almost a thriller. But those moments always petered out and left me saying, "That's it??" As the story progressed the foreshadowing was so obvious that I wanted to slam the book down. I got tired of reading things like "If only I'd known then what was coming" and "I should have realized then how it would end." Even though I didn't know exactly how it would turn out, the continually gearing up for what turned out to be an extremely flat ending was so frustrating. This book tried to be too many things and didn't achieve any of them well.

Overall, this book was filled with incoherent writing, stop-and-go plot, lack of any cohesion, and dragged-out characterization that doesn't go any where. If this book had been any longer, there is no way I could have finished it.

This review fulfills the "Book Recommended by a Friend" category of the Popsugar reading challenge.
http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-... (less)

Sorry Katie!

The Killing Jar A Novel

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