Once… by James Herbert
Apr
'08
This book is a prime example of how I choose my paperbacks (paperbacks here referring to the smaller mass market sized books). I generally wasn’t ever a “paperback” reader - preferring instead trades or small hardcovers. I’ve actually been reading quite a few paperbacks lately, books I wouldn’t have normally picked up but came across while working. Well, one day I was shelving horror for a coworker who hadn’t been at the job in quite some time, and I came across a shiny black book with silvery pop-up illustrations. I couldn’t get over how lovely the cover was or how drawn I was to it, and the fact that I more or less majored in fairy tales didn’t help. It was called Once… and it was written by an author I’d never heard of.
So why not try it, I thought. I’ve been wanting to expand my horizons a bit, read into genres I wouldn’t have otherwise touched. My only stickler on this desire is that they have to be books on subjects I’m interested in - folklore, in this case, or Rome, reading, writing, etc. I’m not one of those people who can pick up any book and read through it, and find it to be a perfectly acceptable waste of my time even though it had absolutely nothing in it that I enjoyed. No thanks. I need an element I can get into - a main character who reads or sells books, a fantasy in which characters come out of books and can’t get back inside, fairy folklore even if it’s completely reinvented and/or destroyed. This is what makes it so hard to read by recommendation. I usually don’t like what other people like.
In any case, I brought it home and I was hooked. It had a pleasing enough summary - a man visits his childhood home after he suffers a stroke with the hope of relaxation and recuperation, but finds himself in the midst of creatures good and evil that are seemingly straight out of a storybook. Despite all the fantastic and horrific things that happen to him, he doesn’t really believe in it until the end (when it’s almost too late - dun dun DUN). It’s an emotional book which is filled with action, horror, love, lust, and magic. It’s on an erotic level of, I’d say, about 4 (out of 10), because while there are graphic sex scenes, this doesn’t take up the whole book and they do seem to somewhat be necessary to the plot. Actually, the sex scenes are where most of the typos are, as if the author was so distracted while he was writing them and the editor was too distracted while reading to fix them. And here I am too distracted by the typos to get into the sex.
The writing style isn’t the best. It at first reminded me a lot of my own - lots of commas, hyphens, run-on sentences, and there were of course the typos. I kept thinking that in my review I should mention how many run-on sentences there were, that those people who complain about my writing style shouldn’t read this book or any other already-published and established writer who has any hint of run-on tendencies. God forbid an unpublished writer (me) do the same thing. But then I realized how annoying it eventually got and it made me realize how stubborn I was being with my grammar. Because, goodness, it was fine for the first quarter of the book, but after that I just wanted to add semicolons and periods and reword sentences myself. I can’t say that this story will provide inspiration for writing things in the future, but the style certainly will provide motivation to become a clearer, more concise writer myself.
I can also tell you that I don’t normally read mainstream fiction, and this is partly why: The author feels like he has to repeat every important point several times just in case the reader forgets and, well, I didn’t forget. This is why I prefer “thinking” fiction - you’re expected to remember everything and if you don’t you’re out of luck. I tend to remember everything. It’s like that scene in The Two Towers where Aragorn is in Helm’s Deep looking off to the East, Gandalf has a voiceover reminding the viewers of what Aragorn is thinking - he’ll be returning as the sun rises. Yes, I knew. I was already thinking that, thanks. I don’t want to say that this book was “non-thinking” fiction, because look at all the fun things I’ve thought about and had to say here, but mainstream fiction definitely doesn’t require any strenuous thought, and that’s including remembering obvious details.
From what I’ve told Richard, he says the plot seems to have been flying high with my first impression and then quickly tumbled down in a wayward fashion until it exploded on the ground. I can see where he got that idea, but I wouldn’t call it quite so dramatic as that. It was a slow start but with interesting story elements, and it didn’t get quite as involved in the faeriefolkis as I’d have liked. Actually, it really doesn’t dive into any details at all except those concerning Thom (by the way, that’s the main character) directly. It’s a twisted plot that’s very intriguing but I’d still have liked to see more storyline concerning the magical creatures, rather than just Thom’s struggles. Though, I suppose, it was written mostly from his point of view and so this makes sense.
The ending, however, was just awful. It wasn’t the story that was awful - again, it was the writing style. It’s abrupt and there’s even a chapter titled “Loose Ends” or something to that effect. Thom’s undine girlfriend asks Thom what happened after she left the dramatic scene of the night before and they go back and forth talking about the events the readers haven’t learned yet. It was an entirely unbelieveable conversation, and then they have sex and she disappears. I feel cheated by this ending. It doesn’t explain why she has to go to Purgatory for seven years except that it’s the “rules of her people.” Fine, but why seven years? And how is it that they have to have sex to send her there? None of it made sense at all, as I’m sure the ending of this review doesn’t make sense as I’ve tried my hardest not to spoil any major plot elements until now.
Overall a good book, a nice read, but nothing I’ll ever read again. I probably won’t even keep the book. I’d recommend it to anyone who was looking for a quick read (though the book is thick, it’s a very quick read) without a lot of substance, but which makes the reader believe there was substance at the conception of the story. Seriously, this book is very airy.
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Well, I am so glad you are getting out of your comfort reading zone. Just don’t let this one book make you stop experimenting, lol. For your horror I would suggest The Stand by Stephen King or The Green Mile by Stephen King. They are both horror genre but they are not hard core. But this is just my suggestion.
Apr
'08