The latest addition to my ‘Charity Box’ is Sail by James Patterson
Yeah, I am still going through my bought-but-forgotten collection of James Patterson’s novels. I used to ‘eat them up’ like crazy, years ago. I loved all of them. Then, I stopped. Now, reading his books in order to give them away, I realised why I stopped.
This, latest one, Sail, as the GOODREADS say:
Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong. The teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. The teenage son, Mark, is high on drugs and ten-year-old Ernie is nearly catatonic. This is the worst vacation ever.
Anne manages to pull things together bit by bit, but just as they begin feeling like a family again, something catastrophic happens. Survival may be the least of their concerns.
Written with the blistering pace and shocking twists that only James Patterson can master, Sail takes “Lost” and “Survivor” to a new level of terror.
However, if you ask me, and you are, if you are reading this post, SAIL is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME, INK and PAPER. Honestly, truly, absolutely.
I read it in one night. I did it not because it was so interesting I could not put it down, but because I did not want to waste another day on this book.
Well, it has everything: boat, millionaires, doctors, Wall Street Wolfs, lawyers, lovers… It has snakes, ghosts, explosions, deserted island, guns, CIA, rescue missions, lawsuits, murders… and executions. EVERYTHING. Don’t let me swear here, because I will.
The story is sooo far-fetched, it does not have a foot in reality, in any reality that is. It feels like (if you are Russian) ‘kazakh on a donkey: I sing what I see’. Everything and anything will do.
The narrative is roughly and rushly put together to tie all ends. What is the point? What is the point of such a thick book? It’s so bad, it’s not even funny. Then again, yes, it is funny. Especially the ghost and the snake bit… You need to waste some of your time reading the novel to find out.
What happened to Patterson of Alex Cross early years standards? Or of the standards of Women Murder Club? I am so disappointing. I fell out of love completely at this novel.
Remember ‘you had me at Hello’? Well, JP had me at “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came A Spider”… but now I’ve left and will never come back… as soon as I am through the Charity Box…
Svetlana Tishchenko 