Okay, that’s rather unkind, but there is a danger this post may turn into a slight rant.
My “B” book selection was BR Paulson’s Barely Alive. Now, one thing I’m loving about this challenge is that I’m finding all kinds of new and wonderful things. Barely Alive was pitched as a zombie romance – now, maybe that’s your go-to genre, but I was tickled to begin with by the idea that zombie romance is even a thing. How wonderfully diverse literature is growing, in topic if nothing else.
And actually, I thoroughly enjoyed Barely Alive. The zombie-ness was easy to suspend disbelief over (I know almost no science so I didn’t even try to pick holes in the virus that created the zombies) and the romance was low-key (appropriate when flesh-eating monsters are on the loose, I think) and convincing.
My beef came with the ending. There is a series, which is fine, but whether it’s a stand-alone book or a series in the vein of Bella Forrest with 37 books to work your way through, it is my absolute conviction that each book should tell its own story: beginning, middle and end.
I don’t even mind open endings where you have to exercise a bit of imagination about next steps for the characters as they head out of the pages and into the sunset, but Barely Alive cut off in the middle of the story with all plot arcs still underway and unresolved, which just left me grumpy, I’m sorry to say.
So am I Mrs Grumblepants, or am I right to be annoyed? Do you mind an unresolved story, or should the endings be tied up? Let me know in the comments.
Check back next week to see how I got on with my C book – Crystal Magic by Madeline Freeman.
katyhaye.com 
3 responses to “B is for … barely a story”
I’m with you. I detest series-reads that don’t wrap up the main problems arising in the book. Overarching ongoing conflict, fine. Individual stories left unfinished – that’s a serial and should be marketed and priced as such.
PS: if reading challenge O isn’t ‘Only Dancing’, there may be long looks directed at you from over here…
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Yes, the serial point is a good one. The feeling I got was that if it was TV it would have been end of an episode, tune in next week – BUT I WASN’T WATCHING TV!
And Only Dancing should fit in nicely (phew!).
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*beaming smile*
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