Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I respect anyone who finishes writing a manuscript. It's a big commitment of time and energy. That said, the author should have had this professionally edited for content before publishing. This is not a well-written book. Too much is unbelievable, too many phrases are repeated over and over again, and there are continuity problems. The main character cracks her ribs and then in the next chapter, which takes place later the same day, it's as though the ribs have magically healed. The worst is the car/motorcycle chase, which is so far beyond believable, but also goes on and on and on as though the author wanted to make sure to mention every single place he had ever visited in NYC. And there is no depth or likability to the characters. Brooke is one dimensional and she falls for stranger Ben in a nanosecond, even though all we've seen him do is whine about everything. If you and your sister were starving to death and you caught a salmon, would you let your dog paw at it, bite it, and bat it around the floor? If you were weak from hunger, would you throw the salmon outside in the snow to keep it cold taking the chance that some critter carries it off or would you immediately cook it and eat it? And the father's voice is used waaaay too often. It gets annoying fast, especially when Brooke saw her father snap broken bones back into place once and suddenly can do it herself with no hesitation. What makes Katniss in The Hunger Games so special is her vulnerability--she never realizes how amazing she is and she always feels like she is letting someone down. Brooke, on the other hand, seems to have no self-doubt, no inner voice besides her father's, and feels more like a machine than a person. I wanted to like this book and I think the author might improve if he takes some writing courses and works with a good editor, but I couldn't finish reading to the end. Sorry.