DNF: Last Dog on Earth, Sirens, Of Our Own Creation, Terenmoro Wolfcat

[thistlechaser]

DNF #27: The Last Dog on Earth by Daniel Ehrenhaft. This was a weird, unpleasant book. The main character (who supposedly was a teen but came off as much younger) hated everyone. But hey, every single adult in his life was either useless or over the top evil, so I guess it makes sense.

Why do authors do that? Don't they want adult readers as well? What adult would want to read a book where the adults were over the top, mustache-twirling evil? DNF at about 20%.

DNF #28: Sirens: The End of the World has a Sound by Braden Cawthon. This book has one of my favorite kinds of stories in it: Main character wakes up and finds all the other people on the planet gone.

Unfortunately when I say the characters had zero characterization, I mean it. No descriptions, no personalities, nothing. I had thought the female main character was an adult until I read other reviews. The only thing we know about the male main character is that he's a college student. DNF at about 20%.

DNF #29: Of Our Own Creation by Brooke Hatchett. While this book has a lot of good reviews, a number of them mention some of the same issues I had: I had a lot of confusion while reading. The whole magic/world system seems not well explained. My biggest issue though was that I liked neither the main character nor her spirit partner. DNF at about 20%.

DNF #30: Terenmoro Wolfcat: Rising Sun by Sam Ritchie. Based on the cover and summary of this book, I thought it would be a talking animal story, but instead it's a furry book. The characters walk, talk, act like humans, but they're human-animal mixes, animals on two legs. And for some reason the lynxes have Irish or Scottish accents.

Oddly this book has been out for four years now, and I can't find a single review anywhere online. That has to be depressing for an author.

The story just never hooked me, and I'm really not into furry stories, so DNFed early on. (Sorry, author!)

Comments

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Too bad. I feel like I've heard of Last Dog on Earth before- in fact I thought I had it on one of my TBRs, but couldn't locate. Maybe it's similar to another dystopian book about a boy and dog I was planning on reading. The only one of these that looks intriguing to me is the Wolfcat one, but I've never read a story with furries (unless Beastar counts!) so don't know how that would be. If I'd like it at all.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

In my very limited experience, furry books generally don't live up to their potential. If you could write about a half-human half-animal character, I'd lean on their sense of smell, lots of nonverbal communications (ears, tail, fur standing up), lots of stuff from the animal side. But generally they're just humans, though the author calls them "the lynx", "the wolf" etc.

I think I've only read two though, maybe three? So there might be some good ones out there.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

That's exactly what I would expect. Some exploration of how the blend of animal nature and human perception works. With the instincts, or body communication, or extra keen senses... really odd to me and disappointing that most of them don't include that kind of detail? Eh.