Review: Just Another Quiet Little Town

Title: Just Another Quiet Little Town
Series: Stand Alone

Author: J.S. Frankel
Publish Date: March 1, 2016

Publisher: eXtasy Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Started Reading: March 2, 2016
Finished Reading: March 6, 2016

 

Book Summary from Goodreads:

 

City dweller Gabe Common, seventeen and a high school dropout, has just moved with his mother to Chumsville, South Dakota, a speck in the eye of humanity. With a population of around three hundred people, Gabe is resigned to spending his summer studying online and watching the wheat grow.

It all changes when he wakes up one morning and finds most of Chumsville’s population gone, including his mother. Along with the other survivors, he finds that an impenetrable barrier has surrounded the town which allows people to enter but not leave. To make matters even stranger, he finds wings growing from his body, and the other residents exhibit changes as well, some of them interesting and many of them frightening.

Soon the Changed, as Gabe comes to call them, are met by the FBI, and they are just as bewildered as everyone else is. Tensions mount as the heat rises, harsh words are exchanged, and sides are drawn. Once Gabe discovers the reason for their transformation, he has to deal with another matter—the darkness of the human heart. It is only then that he learns what it is to confront evil and face it down, even if it might cost him his life.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 2 Stars (I didn't like it)

I want to start this review off by saying that I was really rooting for this book. I got a review copy from the author, and the synopsis that I read sounded very interesting and in line with the types of books I enjoy. I thought it would be something like Under the Dome and was excited to read it.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I've actually delayed writing up this review because I kept going over the book trying to tell myself I was wrong about my first impressions.

First, the book could have done with another go over or two by the editor or a beta reader. The writing's a bit clunky but I was able to get past that by looking at it as the main character's inner monologue. This isn't a deal breaker, and I kept reading even though it bugged me a bit.

The first half of the book dragged, and not just a little like some books slow down in the middle to set up for an action packed finish, it's just meeting after meeting after meeting and really felt like it was just spinning its wheels. By the time the plot started moving forward I really didn't care any more.

The characters were fairly one dimensional, if we even got more than their names an a short description. The more 'fleshed out' characters, if you can call them that, were very stereotypical. The one and only character with even a little bit of religion was a fanatic, the FBI agent was spouting off one liners that appear in every cop show, the character with any kind of real leadership experience has let it go to his head.

The villains appear somewhat out of nowhere with very little back story other than "oh those guys, they're jerks".

When the story was heading to a climax I really didn't feel connected at all to the characters or care whether things turned out all right for them. 

The part that really did it in for me was in the first third where a leader needs to be picked, and one of the youngest characters is chosen as the 'speaker' and leader for the remaining villagers and even the Sheriff of town steps back. There is a reason for this, and it's explained... three chapters after initial decision is made.

To sum up: This book had a good premise, the bear bones of a good book are there. All told, it feels like a first version of a book that a good editor could help to shine.