#Review: BARKING MADNESS by Ryan Hill

BARKING MADNESS

Author: Ryan Hill
Source: ebook via Author
Publisher: Self-pubbed
Publication Date: October 19, 2014
Rating: DNF @ 5%

Summary:
RECOMMENDED FOR READERS 17 AND UP DUE TO STRONG LANGUAGE, SEXUAL SITUATIONS, DRUG USE, AND MILD VIOLENCE.

"My life is crumbling away before my eyes while I do nothing to prevent it. I have visited too many funerals, for too many friends who haunt my dreams. Everybody dies eventually, right? No, everybody dies young when they befriend me. Was I born to die young? I don't think so. I'm the only one here with the nerve to stay alive. I can't be left alone. Not with that hollow man, the one who hides his face. That's what he wants, me to be alone, because once I'm alone he's going to kill me!"

Seventeen-year-old Rosetta Harper is plagued by nightmares of a masked man. With her father’s new career move, her family has just relocated from Florida to the small New England town of Ashwood. A quiet town and close-knit community where you know your neighbors, and trouble is a word unspoken. But soon after her arrival, her world and the worlds of her classmates come crashing down.

Michael hates his family and feels alone and unloved. He only finds comfort when he's with his friends, but even they get on his nerves. Everything about Ashwood and his life bores him, until Rosetta Harper moves into town. With her as a new classmate, Michael finally gets the excitement he was looking for, but it may be at too high a cost.

Purchase:

Amazon

Disclaimer: I was sent an ebook of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 5%

Oh man. I  usually try to make it 25% of the way through a novel before I DNF it, but there are some exceptions to this rule. This is one of those. After two chapters I know that I am not going to enjoy this one so I am putting it down. The description makes it sound like it will be a great paranormal YA novel -- and there was a great opening scene -- but I just can't do it.

The writing is not my cup of tea. Rose's point of view starts off really strong -- the dream sequence promises there will be creepiness and I was really intrigued, but the last line in her section made me want to vomit. I'm already sick of her and she was on page for half of the part that I read. I couldn't imagine reading another 200 or so pages from her perspective and 400 pages about her. The conversation in Michael's point of view was so ... bad. It was more like reading facts about characters rather than two people having a conversation about their lives. I just couldn't handle it. The narration in general from both povs was meh and I couldn't get into it.

There were a lot of errors in the first two chapters, which is something I can typically ignore, but they were glaringly obvious. It could have used another round of proofing and definitely used a beta reader. There are a total of 469 pages in the ebook and I read maybe 20 of them and I know that this book is too long. From reading some of the other reviews, it seems as though other people agree with that sentiment.

I knew pretty early on that this wasn't the book for me. You can read other (negative) opinions on the novel by filtering to the one star reviews. Even the positive reviews didn't make me very hopeful for the rest of the novel so I'm stopping now to save myself the eye rolls which will just make me get a headache.