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(8) REVIEWS: Reagan Economics (Paranormal)

Reagan Economics by Merick Bishop (brhr14)

Chapters Read: SEVEN

Whether or not I finish, a good book is a good book and I want to review good books.

I made it through seven chapters of this book. And if you knew just how lazy and busy I am, you'd see that as a good thing. Ultimately, I had to stop.

The main reason is...this isn't a book for me.

I don't know what it is about writing but I assume everyone's a woman, even when they write under a male name. For a long time now, I've always been under the impression that men and women focus on different things as they write. The stereotype is that women focus on emotion, character appearances, while men focus on raw emotion, grit, and sometimes bodily fluids.

I don't know if this is true here but I do know that this isn't a book I can read through, no matter the author.

That is not to say that this is a bad thing. On the contrary, the book is eliciting emotion and I'm responding. I'd argue that an author's only focus is getting the reader to feel something and to believe in his/her world. I felt, I believed; it's a win.

So why did I read to chapter 7 if it wasn't for me? Because a good story is a good story. The world was VERY fascinating. I did not care about the MC, or the adult victims. Maybe that says more about me than the characters. But the MC came off as self-righteous and even though everything he did (on paper) should have had me giving him a standing ovation, his zeal and almost sick enthusiasm of it robbed the action of its sincerity. It came off as if he wanted someone to beat up and just happened to find a few throwaways. Other than the uncle who was a POS and deserving of his fate, the others he attacked were hard to hate right away. Especially as it became pretty apparent that the MC was getting a kick out of enacting his will upon others. Yikes.

My one gripe would be the lack of foreshadowing. Things get addressed in the moment, brought up in the moment, explained...in the moment, and at times it came off as 'convenient.' In chapter seven especially. When he needs humanity, we get told he's had doubts all along but we'd never seen it in action. Some brief foreshadowing can fix this.

I stopped at chapter 7 when the steadily progressing lore took a backseat to the MC. Jeremey was a nice addition but then it felt as if the positives of the story coming into its own would stop JUST here, and it's been negative for a while. Negative is fine, but would it ruin the story if there were some positives (beyond a waitress who's no love interest)?

That one intro at chapter 7 perked me up, then part way the positive (the story and plot getting more and more answers and details) stopped. It got dark in a raw human way again to remind me that this book was probably going to go farther into the most negative aspects of human beings and the instances of good or niceties were few and far between.

Therefore, when the unfolding plot of the story and fruitful world building, making my wait worth it, stopped, I did as well. I did not want to wait for chapters and chapters of this build up to happen yet again.

I'll repeat, this is not to knock the story or the writing. I do believe that as is, this book would fit a different reader. But A. I don't like vivid abuse stories. B. I don't like gore or violence, especially repeated. C. I don't care for grown women as victim stories. Even in the old days, petite women would buy some arsenic for a few cups of tea, something! D. It just wasn't a good fit for me.

I didn't like the MC, as I've said, but that wasn't a deal-breaker. Even liking him, I wouldn't have gotten past where I got. The fact that I can read it without liking him is a testament to how good the lore was. I really enjoyed that aspect. But I grew up poor and miserable, I won't visit a dark world in my time of relaxation without a fight.

I still commend the good writing and this VERY original take on the paranormal. Hats off to you.

BTW, I don't know if the current cover does this story justice. Also, the name of the book made me hesitate reading it for obvious reasons—it sounded political. In fact, I only read it because of YOU and the other story I read from you. Without that, I would have probably skipped it yet again and come back after reading a few others.