/lit/ - Literature

Have you ever read a book that made you genuinely angry? A book where you can see the author's puppet strings lifelessly pull characters around to portray forced scenarios, unearned gotcha moments and unfunny, anime-tier dialogue?

A book where unironic "rule of cool" is more important than a plot that is narratively consistent or characters that act in-character.?

I live in a small town so the "readers and tabletop roleplayers" community is like 10 guys, they were raving about pic related. Never again.

A few threads ago I said I'd come back with a review of sorts of pic related. I'm very torn. I'd give this a 5.5/10 (true 0-10 scale, not school-like, "5 is failing" scale.)

The author has solid descriptive power, except with a few recurring quirks that become tiresome by the end (i.e. "Follow me, you moron." [end of paragraph, followed by] "The moron followed her to the place.")

The setting is interesting and the fights creative, but all scenes of import can't end without being invariably deflated by the main character making a quirky comment or a joke of such shit quality it burns my eyes despite the many layers of lampshade the author tries to hang on it.

What initially seems like a fantasy whodunit quickly devolves into anime (the bad kind) fights where physical limitations are superseded by the power of friendship even though there's a perfectly serviceable magic system to justify it, Unfortunately the author seems more focused on twisting the story to make her unlikable main character look cool, and her bitch of a soul-sister not like a pompous retard.

won't even get into the inconsistencies of the magic, and how it seems to strain the casters in very arbitrary ways except when the author deems it's time for an attempt at a tear-jerking moment.

Finally, I can't help but notice that this "lesbian necromancer" story starts with a diverse cast of characters, but has a climax and denoument where Everybody is dead except the strong independent wahmen.

Anyone else read through this? Should I give the second book a try?