Dark Maiden by Ian ConnerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Dark Tale of Good & Evil
As someone who loves Native American lore and culture, I was drawn to this book. In regards to the respect shown to the indigenous peoples, I was pleased. I felt the story did a great job respecting their history, representing them in a positive way.
The overall plot was decent. The back and forth was a bit redundant at times; sometimes, distracting from the story instead of enhancing it. I understood what the author was doing and why, but it didn’t always work.
I struggled with the poor editing and formatting. There were multiple people talking in the same paragraph or multiple paragraphs of the same individual speaking that should have been one paragraph. Periods were used instead of commas with dialogue tags and lots of extra or missing words. A good editor would have caught this along with the organization issues of events.
The rampant twins disturbed me. In modern times, the prevalence of multiple births is commonplace due to IVF. However, in the timeframe of this story, twins were an anomaly. That every pregnancy in the book yielded twins just seemed farfetched.
I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. It is good and has potential. I think some readers will love it. However, for me, it left me wanting. I say, read it and make up your own mind. It’s an interesting dark tale, but I’m too technical and logical to be absorbed by it.
J.M. NORTHUP 