George Bachman

3.5 rounded up to 4

If you enjoyed reading The Little Princess and enjoy a bit of supernatural horror, then this is the perfect book for you! I will say this very closely follows the plot of the inspiration book, and I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if the author had branched out a bit more and made the story more their own. While it is an eerie story, and moves along at a good pace, it just feels like it’s missing...something. Although I can’t quite put my finger on what. The show more characters are about what I’d expect having read The Little Princess, and true to their inspiration. It’s a fairly quick read, I flew through it in an afternoon, dying to know how things would turn out for Melissa. Overall, if you’ve ever wondered what the original story would be like with a horror twist, then you’re going to love this! show less

Just finished reading my 57th book of 2024; Paramour Book I Moneta, by George Bachman.

Thanks for George Bachman for sending me an early copy of this book, so that I can review it.

I read a lot of books and I don’t brag about it. I don’t do it to win some kind of award or get recognition, but I do think I deserve some kind of cash prize for getting the Paramour. Normally when reading a book this bad, my goal is to give it a chance (usually 100 pages or half the book, whichever comes show more first) and then quit if it’s painful. I want to keep getting free books through Library Thing though, so I forced myself to finish this book.

Back in the day, when I was trying to write things, people would constantly repeat the cliché “show, don’t tell.” I believe good writers do that, not-so-good writers (like myself) lean more towards telling and not showing, and Bachman—with this book—did neither. If I had to guess, I would say the author has never read a book before and therefore doesn’t necessarily understand how to tell a story in a coherent manner. I would also guess, unlikely as this seems, that he has never had a conversation with another human being in real life, cause the dialogue in this book is just awful. After reading the 360+ pages, I don’t have even a gram of feeling towards any of the characters. In fact, I don’t feel like I got to know any of them. They’re all one-dimensional robots who lack any kind of inner life or growth throughout the book.

Something I realized towards the end of the book, and maybe an excuse for the author, is that it was possibly originally written in another language (though nothing says that) and then translated using Google. As if this weren’t bad enough, I would be willing to bet that there was either no editor at all or it was edited by someone who didn’t even read it. There were so many misspellings, sentences that didn’t make any sense, words out of place, commas added in random places, and too much other stuff to mention.

I will say that there was one night where I read about 25 pages while pretty drunk, and that wasn’t so bad. show less

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
And to be honest, it left me pretty confused. Please be WARNED, there are SPOILERS ahead:
I think the book has promise, but it felt rather disjointed, hence my confusion. I felt there were themes left undeveloped, such as Melissa's life in Nether Stowey prior to her arrival at the girls' school. Things were hinted at but never expounded upon.
She has some sort of paranormal experiences she calls Prana. Do they serve as warnings or show more threats?
The main character Melissa is a 7 year old girl. She and her classmates are obsessed with the topic of childbirth. It's natural for kids to be curious about this subject, but they seemed a bit young to be concerned with all the gory details.
When Melissa's life of plenty changes to poverty things go downhill fast. In despair she drowns herself.
The next thing we know a woman gives birth to a baby girl. Is this baby Melissa reborn? They name the baby Beth. Curiously, everyone in the family have the same names as the March family in Little Women. So has she returned as the ill-fated Beth March who also dies young? Poor Melissa! show less

3.5 out of 5 (rounded up to 4)

This was an interesting horror story, with great characters, a dark setting, and a sense of urgency. Sometimes, I like getting thrown right into the action, but with this, I felt like I was missing key information, and that I was expected to know more before I dove in. That made it very hard to follow everything until I was more familiar with the characters. The characters appear to be decently developed, and the story moves along at a smooth clip. There’s a show more sense of urgency to everything, starting with the murders, and continuing with the realization they’re being actively hunted. The disappearance of almost all the humans and disappearance of a lot of working technology adds to the eerie atmosphere. Overall, a creepy read that will give you chills. show less