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The seeminly loving smarmy step father is actually an adulterous murderer. The boat starts to flood and sink. I received this audio book as a gift second hand, and I was glad for the fact as I would not pay for it. I think I have hit all of the cliches. The anorexic daughter, the overweight younger son, the Stoner brother, with the too career focused mother. I have read a lot of Patterson's and his collaborators work.
Patterson's book seem to be specializing in neurotic women characters, hunky outdoor type hero men, and supremely irritating and downright stupid children. A super villain has rigged the sail boat to blow up. It seems that we are experiencing the literary equivalent of the production line that churns out the same artwork that is hung in cheap motel rooms. Then.The daughter tries to kill herself. No wait a minute, that would be Patterson.Give this one a pass. I cannot believe how weak the start of this story is.
The disfunctional family Dunne sale together and provide the first set of cliches.
At first I thought it was going to be all about the trip, but James Patterson came through again. This was a great book.
The female narrator was terrible. The story was so so. The way Katherine Dunn's role is written; first person diary style, really sucked too; its very choppy, no flow. I cringed everytime it was her turn to read (reading is split with a male narrator). I was hoping it would be a lot more of a sailing adventure; the title is misleading. I got the audiobook abridged version.
Patterson now has a number of books where he has co-authored with someone. The books still maintain his style - the large font, short chapters, often ending with an event that makes you want to turn the page to find out the what-is-it part.The Alex Cross series of books are still my favorites, but anytime I see another James Patterson book at the local Half Price Books clearance section that I haven't still read - then for a buck or two - I am usually pretty certain I'll get my entertainment value out of it. Read this book during the Christmas holidays. So I wonder who really writes the book, Patterson or the co-author - and is his name there just for marketing purposes. And with this book, I did. Generally knew what the ending was going to be, it's the how and what-will-happen-next parts that kept me turning the pages to the end.Last book of the year, and it was a quick read as always whenever I read a James Patterson book. Doesn't take a lot of reading effort 'cause the book hooks me in early, it's quite relaxing, I fly through the pages, and get the expected entertainment out of it.Sail is co-authored by Howard Roughan.
Every event seemed like it was just sort of summarized rather than described in detail, which was a bit frustrating.One thing I will say is that for those considering the audiobook, they did a great job with that production. I really never got the feeling that I "was there" if you know what I mean. But mostly the book seemed to focus on "who did what with their gun" etc, rather than what the characters were really going through.
The plot was actually really interesting. Their whole experience at sea really could have been given a much fuller treatment. I enjoyed Sail, and that's the bottom line, but it easily could have been a lot better.
In the hands of a really good novelist that would have been the heart of the book. Two excellent readers, and really good production values all around. Many "extraordinary" things happen, and it has an interesting ending.
But I got the feeling while listening to it (I got the audiobook) that I it was like the "cliffs notes" to a great novel.
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