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Todd Wittenmyer – The Vulnerable Gods | Review

Title: The Vulnerable Gods

Author: Todd Wittenmyer

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 349

Rating: 3.5*/5

Todd Wittenmyer – The Vulnerable Gods

I have kind of mixed feelings about this book because while the story line itself is pretty gripping and keeps you turning the pages, there are so many spelling and grammar mistakes that it’s difficult to overlook them. We’re talking the wrong versions of to/too, your/you’re and its/it’s all throughout the book. And the layout is messed up as well, with double spacing, random blank pages and weird page numbers that seem to appear and disappear.

Of course, this is par for the course with an indie novel to a certain extent, and I was prepared to overlook them because Todd is a BookTube friend of mine. But at the same time, I do think that the book would be much, much better if it was copy edited and proofread and then properly typeset.

But now that we’ve got the negatives out of the way, let’s move on to the positives. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was the fact that you can see the author’s personality coming across in the book, and you can also see how he’s inspired by Stephen King. But it doesn’t feel derivative, and in fact it’s kind of difficult to actually classify the genre of this book because it takes inspiration from a bunch of different genres and brings them together into something new.

All in all then, I am glad that I read this, but it also felt incomplete. I feel as though Todd is selling himself short here, and it’s just a shame that it hasn’t been better proofed before he hit the publish button. I can’t really recommend it in its current state because of the mistakes, but I do think there’s a lot of potential there. I’d say it’s a good 80-90% of the way towards being a pretty good indie release, but without the corrections it’s a bit like going to see a decent band who are being held back by a bad sound guy.

Todd Wittenmyer

Click here to buy The Vulnerable Gods.

T. M. E. Walsh – For All Our Sins | Review

Title: For All Our Sins

Author: T. M. E. Walsh

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 512

Rating: 3*/5

T. M. E. Walsh – For All Our Sins

This one was a tough one for me to rate, because while it is very competently written (and the editor also did a fantastic job), I just found it hard to get emotionally invested in the story. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent enough crime novel, it’s just that there are so many on the market that there are others that I would’ve preferred to read.

That brings me on to an internal debate that I’ve been having of late. With books like this, I often feel as though the length of them is unnecessary – I get that the authors want to include plenty of back story and lots of twists and turns, and there’s a lot of that going on here and it’s one of the elements that works well, but I feel like it could have been half the length and still conveyed all of the information.

I suppose, then, that it was the pacing that I struggled with, here. In fact, the last 150 pages or so were fantastic and I found myself finally falling into the story, but it was slow to build and also confusing from time to time. Some of the characters really stood out, but others started to blur together into one in my imagination and I often found it difficult to figure out who they were talking about.

T. M. E. Walsh

But I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the negatives, because there are a lot of positives to be had here as well. If I’m a little harsh about it, it’s only because I have so many books to get through. This one slowed me down and while I’m not saying it isn’t worth reading, you’ll probably have more pressing concerns on your time and this just doesn’t stand out enough for me to put my neck on the line and recommend it.

As for the story line, we get to follow DCI Claire Winters as she investigates a ritualistic murder that’s connected to a set of crimes that occurred many years before. As the bodies pile up, she needs to look into a crime that seems to have no leads for her to investigate. But over time, we get closer and closer to Claire, and there’s a twist around the halfway point that I didn’t see coming.

It’s also worth noting that despite any other criticism, I can’t accuse the author of poor planning – it all ties in and gets explained by the end, even if, at times, it feels like the end is nowhere in sight. And even after complaining here and there throughout my review, I’m still glad overall that I read it. I’m just also glad that I’m no longer reading it.

Overall, then, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as a general read, but if you’re really into crime and like to start new series before other people have heard of them, read it.