The thing about reading books published by a small, local press is that it’s sometimes very obvious that a particular book has been published by a small, local press. This is disappointing. I’ll give two particular examples that stuck out to me in this book:
- One of the main characters has a skin condition. This information is introduced at the very beginning of the novel in such a way as to seem like a major plot point. The skin condition is never mentioned again.
- The main character flies on a plane. When the flight attendant comes around with the drinks cart, the main character orders ginger ale. (Fun fact: I always drink ginger ale on airplanes.) LITERALLY ON THE NEXT PAGE, maybe three paragraphs later, it says “she downed all her orange juice in one gulp”. Gahhhh
She ordered ginger ale.
Stuff like this drives me absolutely nuts. Independent publishers do good work, don’t get me wrong — they’re the first to support local authors and they work hard to get their authors’ books out in the world. (How else would I have seen/heard of this book?) I know indie presses aren’t exactly made of money, but you cannot skimp on editing. You just can’t.
Put the Book Down 