Steve Review: Forbidden by Ted Dekker
Title: Forbidden
Series: The Books of Mortal #1
Hardcover, 432 pages
Author: Ted Dekker
Publisher: Center Street
Publication Date: September 13, 2011
Source: Book Expo America
Buy: Amazon
Add To: Goodreads
Book Summary:
A terrible truth has been revealed to one man: the entire human race has been drained of every emotion except one— fear. To bring life back to the world, Rom must embark on a journey that will end either in his own demise or a reawakening of humanity. But to bring love and passion back into existence will also threaten the powers of the world with the revolution and anarchy that had nearly destroyed them previously.
After happening upon a journal through strange circumstance, Rom’s world is shattered. He learns that humanity long ago ceased to “live,” that it exists today in a living death of emotions. In a terrible risk, Rom exposes himself to the vial of blood folded into the old leather of the journal. His change is fearful and fraught with mind-bending emotion. A once-pious observer of the Order’s passionless statues, he is filled with uncontrollable impulses. He is filled with love.
He is undone, terrified, and alone in the desolate world.
Steve Review:
So, I found the secret to writing all positive reviews. I stumbled across it as I slowly get into this whole Twitter deal (ever heard of it?). See, basically I just follow Shanyn’s friends on Twitter currently who are pretty much all book bloggers (follow me and I’ll follow you – shameless plug @SteveDayOD !!). Lol. And so I found the secret. Basically, they don’t read/finish a lot of books that they don’t like. With such a large variety available to them of books that they want to read for pleasure or requested to review because it looked good, if they hit a bad nut, they just discard it and start something new. Simple right? Well hmf.
I’m not good at putting a book down and I think I’ve probably only quit one book ever (some random book for an English class in HS, honestly I don’t even remember what it was). I don’t necessarily say this with pride or say it to put down people who stop reading something when they don’t like it. Heck, they are probably smarter than me (or at least less stubborn) as I push on through something that I don’t connect with. Seriously, I’ve read some bad/stupid books but finished them all the same. Sigh.
Have I said anything yet? Ah, ok, good. Well perfect actually! That saves me from criticizing this book. I’ve read a lot of Dekker and enjoyed most of it. I don’t want to rant about this particular book because I’m sure a lot of people will think it was “sooo deep” and “such a thought-provoking entertaining read”. Those aren’t direct quotes btw, if you wrote those for a review of Forbidden, I apologize. Sorry! See; I just apologized right there! Let’s just leave it short and simple (wait, what about all the rambling above Steve?!) and say I didn’t connect with this book. I won’t be continuing to read the rest of this series and I’m disappointed with how boring I found this novel.
Points Scale:
Cover: 5/5 – Best thing about this book imo.
Title: 4/5 – Works!
Plot: 5/10 – Mildly inventive but drab. Tries too hard at being deep.
Characters: 3/10 – CD-Rom is boooring.
Writing: 5/10 – They needed 2 people to write this?
Ending: 7/10 – Enough build up at the end to make it intriguing-ish.
Total: 29/50 – Hmf. As happy as I have been with a lot of Mr. Dekker’s other works I found myself disappointed, bored, and simply not clicking with Forbidden. Ah well, next time! (but not in the sequels/series continuing this book)
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I used to never quit books either, but it just got to a point where I didn’t want to waste time when I could be reading something better. I still very rarely quit a book. That being said, I quit reading this book. I may try again in the future if the mood hits me, but I just wasn’t feeling it at this time.
Christy recently posted..Review: Drink, Slay, Love
I looooooooove Ted Dekker, he is one of my favorite Authors! But I haven’t read and don’t think I will be reading this either.
I love his “normal” suspense type novels like – “The Bride Collector”, “The Priest’s Graveyard” or “The Boneman’s Daughters” just to name a few. “Thr3e ” was my personal favorite!
Sorry you didn’t like this one, don’t give up on him!!!
wall-to-wall books – Wendy recently posted..Garden Spells, by Sarah Addison Allen (review and giveaway)
Twitter: SteveDayOD
@Christy – yeah I totally know what you mean. I almost did but then I was like man, I bet it will get rly good right after I quit! Nope, haha.
@Wendy – Yeah I’ve really liked a lot of his other works and don’t plan on giving him up totally. Just gonna skip the rest of this series for sure. If you do end up reading make sure you poke me and tell me if I’m just crazy or it really was boring
Twitter: BookwormAsheley
Life is too short to read a bad book.
There. I said it. I think that if I give a book a turn and it doesn’t grab my attention, I’ll put it down. Maybe I’ll come back to it and try it later–maybe I won’t. The last book I MADE MYSELF push through was Portis’ True Grit and I hated that I did that to myself. I won’t do it again. It went against my rule (see above) and I shouldn’t have done it. I’m glad I read the whole thing now, but it was like pulling teeth while I was reading it. However, there have been a couple of books I stopped because the timing just wasn’t right and I came back to them later only to find that I really loved them. (I’m looking at you, Cormac McCarthy.)
Also, I’m ridiculously selective in what I choose. I have, lately, been a teensy bit disappointed but not to the point where I didn’t finish. Case in point: my thoughts on Blood Wounds (see below).
Finally, on an unrelated topic, I went to the library looking for Grossman’s Magician books and…checked out. I’m still planning on reading. I’m on a waiting list.
Asheley (Into the Hall of Books) recently posted..My Thoughts On: Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I love Steve reviews, the snark makes me laugh out loud. I don’t know that I’d be inclined to read Dekker from the jump but if I was it sounds like this one is a dud worth passing over.
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