No Longer Reading: Nylon Angel

[littlerdog.livejournal.com]

Nylon Angel by Marianne de Pierres was a book I got for my birthday last year, brand new and shiny off the shelves in Waterstones. It's now on its way to the library at husband's work. I don't want it any more.

So what went wrong?

Sometimes I've seen complaints that a book's POV was uneven and never really understood what it meant, but I think I get it now. The POV (first person) in this book is uneven. The narrator isn't consistent. Not unreliable as such but all over the place, self-contradictory, not acting on professed beliefs, changeable. She jerks from one fixed position to a completely different one in the space of a few lines.

That aside, she's not very engaging, somehow. She starts out being presented as independent, resourceful, kickass but then there's the inevitable rape backstory, the man dominating her, and her actual inability to look after herself. Presented with fish that looks a dubious colour, she's still going to eat it, until a man (of course!) advises her against it. Not so independent after all. Perhaps some of the character's unevenness derives from the author wanting to write an independent woman but being constantly undermined by her own subconscious stereotypes.

I gave up on the book at the point where the protagonist failed to make a blindingly obvious connection. It's no good telling me she's smart if she acts stupid.

An uneven book that was trying hard, even if it was a bit sub-Gibson fanficcy at times. But I can't believe in a smart survivor who can't even start to put two and two together, never mind make four.