THE GOOD AND THE UGLY

Are you someone that will tough out an entertainment situation, even when it goes against your grain?  If you are in a movie and you find nothing in it that you like-- do you sit there till the end, compensating with popcorn, candy and drink?

If you are reading a book which has no interest to you, no characters you like and find yourself skipping whole pages, do you lay it down and walk away or do you stick it out hoping for some reason to continue? Thinking surely it will get better.

I wish I were a quitter but unfortunately, I am usually a hanger in. Ah, the time I have wasted.

First a quickie on the GOOD book.

Grand Canyon Thunder by Gary McCarthy.

This is historical fiction of the exploration and commercializing of the Grand Canyon.  All the characters are real though the stories are fictionalized. It covers the explorers, the Native Americans and the Mormons whose lives were effected by the canyon. I found it facinating and instructional and I skipped no pages.  My only complaint was the love interests were a bit convenient but they did keep you liking the hero. This book has made me want to bump the actual Grand Canyon tour up on my bucket list.

Then we come to the UGLY.

I recently caved and ordered the book. Clarity by Loretta Lost. I have never written a review on my blog that was not positive but this time I must break tradition. The book has been on the Amazon free list for months but for some reason I kept passing it by. Then I made a mistake and read only the positive reviews. Normally I read two positives and one negative. Sure wish I had gone for at least one negative.

I knew it was a short novel at just 162 pages but I was looking for something quick and  light. The reviews I read had said it was funny which is a download trigger for me. I am a sucker for a laugh. What I didn't realize is that it is just a part of a book. There are 3 more separate books you must buy to get the rest of the story.

It starts out interesting.  A blind college student is raped by a football player who was pretending to help her find a class. She is so traumatized, she tells no one what happened to her, claiming she had been mugged to explain the bruising.  She leaves her family and friends to hide from society in a small cabin in the woods and becomes a fairly successful author. Ok--so far so good.

One day, two men appear at her door in the woods, saying they are doctors and offer to make her part of a clinical trial that may cure her blindness.  Having no way of knowing if they are even real doctors she agrees to get in a car with them to make a 6 hour trip to her family's home for her sister's wedding which is part of her deal in agreeing to the trial.

I found that an uncharacteristic move for a damaged hermit still having nightmares but into the back seat she quickly goes.  For the first three hours, the one doctor regales them with the synopsis of every porn movie he has ever watched.

Why she didn't jump out screaming at the first gas station I don't know. Oddly she started to think of him as funny. Somehow I missed the humor and I am pretty easy.

Perhaps you had to be there but I felt the whole situation was a real stretch of my imagination to feel  a woman who had been brutally raped to be amused by 3 hours of porn synopses from a total stranger.

Finally they arrive safely just in time for her sister's wedding.  The family reunion turns out better than she thought. However as she hears her sister talking with her fiance she realizes he is the very rapist she has been having nightmares about for three years. Her sister is about to marry a brutal rapists.  With that realization, the story just ends.
W H A T!!!!

The teaser is free, the rest of her books are not. The only good thing is that it was a short book so I didn't waste that much time but at my age, any time wasted is wrong.

Had I read the negative reviews, I would have been spared. They all complained of the cliff hanger ending.  All I can say, if you don't want to be angry and feel you have wasted time, stay away from this book.

When  believability had been stretched out of the range of common sense, would you have continued? Can you put a book down and walk away if it is grating on your nerves or boring you?  Even more brave, can you walk out of a theater for the same reasons

I have no trouble hanging up on robo calls. I know they won't get better if I listen to the end.  I really need to learn how to not suffer through time wasting entertainment hoping for improvement. Life is too short.