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Book Review of The Boogie Trapp

The Boogie Trapp
nastell avatar reviewed on + 49 more book reviews


The Boogie Trapp could have been half as long. There was SO MUCH EXPOSITION! I understand that Kerry Copeland Smith wanted to give the reader a feel for the time and the place that story took place, but Jesus! For instance, I didn't need to know on page 226, paragraph 3:

The first bend in the road is to the right towards the northeast, then after about 100 yards, the road snakes back to the general direction that it's now heading. The slope of the creek valley off to the right is extremely steep and heavily covered with trees and large boulders. The opposite side of the road is thinly covered with a growth of small pines and baby oaks along with heavy growth of bushes. At some time in the past, it has been cleared and farmed...

That paragraph didn't add to the story in the SLIGHTEST, and there were plenty more just like it all throughout the book. There was so much unnecessary description that it got in the way of the actual story. I actually put the book down several times out of the frustration because I was so bored, I couldn't focus on what I was reading anymore because my mind started to wonder. The story doesn't really get going until page 184, which is over halfway into the book!

Also, the author kept getting sidetracked with telling other stories, that didn't actually contribute to the main story he was telling. This happened several times in the book. If felt like filler - like a kid who has to write a paper and make it 10 pages long, so they tell a 4 page antidote that has a very thin connection to the real assignment, just to fluff it up. But none of the stories were needed!

But my BIGGEST pet peeve - the person who was supposed to edit/proof read the manuscript. They didn't do their fucking job!! One of biggest annoyances, when reading, is when quotation marks are missing. Like, you know the character is still speaking, but they forgot to put the quotation mark back in after "he said". This book was FULL of them! There were SO MANY missing quotation marks and correctly spaced speech patterns. For instance, as I randomly flip through and pick page 253:

"He's up on the hill behind us! I scream to Trapper, as I throw myself face down to the rock.

It drove me freaking NUTS! Whoever was supposed to proof read The Boogie Trapp didn't do it and I want to send them back the book with all the corrections in red marker and tell them that they suck.