I try to support my friend’s artistic endeavours and have bought their artworks, books of poetry, or novels before. One of my friends published his first novel last autumn and I have finally read it. It was a hybrid publisher, so essentially self-published, which probably explains it all.
It’s not great. It’s not entirely horrible, some parts are very interesting, others very confusing and poorly executed. It’s written from the first person perspective for multiple characters and I was often wondering who the hell these people are until it’s finally revealed how they relate to the main character. There quite a few instances where I felt he had a laundry list of things to include and each one was slightly more outlandish than the last. The ending felt rushed, like he had reservations for dinner and needed to wrap up all these loose threads and threw in 3 new twists to the story.
Should I be honest? Should I be vague? Should I only mention the parts I liked? We aren’t close friends and haven’t seen each other in years as we live thousands of kilometers apart so I won’t need to maintain a poker face. He has asked what I thought.
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by making_sammiches