Clear by Nicola Barker

My rating: *

This is one mammoth excuse for a book. The writing is downright atrocious– the writer makes a big pretence of being humorous by injecting side-comments in brackets in every damn line, which after a point of time makes reading absolutely impossible and really gives the impression that Ms Barker simply couldn’t be bothered. And in an attempt to be this central nutcase of a character– one gets to swallow lots of layman slang and swear words.

What really kills the whole book is the absolute lack of direction or motivation in the book. I picked it up thinking it would be a joyride peeking into the lives of thousands of spectators enjoying the David Blaine spectacle… but the observations by the author are so downright routine and so below-mediocre in sentiment, that I felt like tearing this book apart after 2 hours of reading. And don’t even get me started on the nitwitted, boring characters (esp a pseudo-philosopher called Solomon) and the pointless interactions between them–pages on pages are wasted on rudderless conversations. The book’s so outrageously and unnecessarily over-written, one simply doesn’t fathom exactly what is the author’s point?

Its really a shame that cr*p like this actually gets published and some critics actually deem this superficial piece of writing as innovative!

My take– don’t fall for the enticing blurb and cover. This is one of the most uninteresting, pretentious, senseless, shoddily-written books I’ve read EVER. An advice for Ms Barker–you desperately need a break!