Review
“I just wanted to tell you. I've got this new man” - Alice Katherine has fled Melbourne after the murder of her sister and the unfair publicity generated by the events surrounding that death. Living in Sydney in her Aunt's upmarket flat Katherine is attempting the HSC exams while attending a prestigious secondary school. Naturally Katherine is withdrawn following her sister's death, something Katherine blames herself for, but is drawn out as she enters the chaotic world of Alice, a charismatic party girl with her own dark secret. Things are about to get a whole lot more complex for Katherine as she approaches adulthood and is forced to realise some things will not stay buried. During the 1980s there was an explosion in the output of horror novels due largely to the success of U.S writer Stephen King. Publishers were falling over themselves to get the next title into Bookshops, and were hoping to discover the next big thing in the genre. Naturally this lead to some atrocious fiction being published and the general collapse of the market in the face of ineptitude. The same thing is currently happening in three distinct hot subgenres currently. Namely Zombie, Paranormal Romance, and Young Adult dark fiction. If you think Boredwood has an ability to cook the golden goose then wait till you catch up with the Publishing world's lemming like rush to genre oblivion. There's a huge issue with Beautiful Malice and that issue is the plot is simply not original. Any regular consumer of either horror or thriller books/movies would have run across the exact same scenario presented by Beautiful Malice a hundred times before. You can see the “surprise twist” lumbering over the hill from about the second chapter, so there are exactly zero shocks coming at you. In short nothing much to see here folks, if after the shocking new twist look elsewhere, as this one has been done to death, no pun intended, at least a thousand times previously. Having said that, and being left to contemplate if there is anything new under the sun (which of course there is), I should point out Beautiful Malice is solidly written, if not stunningly so, and the book flows naturally towards it's pre-ordained conclusion. Rebecca James is clearly a good writer but lacks the imagination to transcend the genre she is labouring away in. Perhaps the Author figures, since she is writing a Young Adult novel geared towards teen chick demographics, that not much in the way of originality is required. After all the demographic laps up Stephanie Meyer's poorly written fan fiction without complaining. You definitely can't blame the Author if your target audience is so notoriously lacking in critical facilities that anything approaching a romance novel featuring a bad boy, who isn't that bad or dangerous, becomes an International runaway blockbuster. Writing anything original or even coherent isn't necessarily a requirement. At least with Beautiful Malice we do get coherent writing, that's got to be some sort of plus right? The novel is told, like seemingly every other teen chick orientated novel, from the first person perspective of it's protagonist, Katherine. While I would like to say Katherine is a complex character with shades of personality, the reality is Katherine is pretty much from the cookie cutter school of writing. I was really hoping we wouldn't be subjected to the heart to heart confrontation between Katherine and another character, where Katherine is made to realise that her sister's death is not her fault. Unfortunately I was disappointed there as yet another over used and over wrought plot development went down. The book is infinitely predictable making for a painstaking read for Reviewers and Critics. Katherine goes through the motions, Beautiful Malice drags as all the tropes are touched base with, and comes out a the end of the novel a more rounded person or something. Maybe some glittering vampires would have added some interest? And if you are wondering if stereotypes are in vogue in Rebecca James' fictional world, then rest assured they are. Bogans are all evil predators, your private school type is of course just after some fun and it's all just teen shenanigans for the right sort of person. So yes a middle class book for middle class readers, don't expect anything like a realistic portrayal of reality. A safe read for North Shore bedrooms. The novel is presented in a series of flashbacks, heck we get flashbacks within flashbacks, just to ensure the Reader is never concerned that Katherine may not make it to the final page. Once again this novel is so safe in it's approach that the whole thing descend into a hapless rehash of ideas and concepts. As Katherine's relationship with Alice develops we learn just what happened on the night of her sister's death. By the half way point of the novel I had given up being interested in either plot line to be honest, Beautiful Malice would have perhaps made an interesting short story piece, here it's padded out to novel length. It's simply all too predictable to keep your flagging interest and the reader may find themselves fighting to read to the end of the novel. Maybe buff werewolves could have added some interest? Don't get me started on the psychological aspects of this novel, if it had of been written by a fourteen year old then the atrociously poor attempts at delving into this minefield could have been excused. Poorly conceived, once again the ideas have previously been done to death, lip service being paid to one of the darker aspects of the thriller novel. Okay so I'm about out of word length here. Reasonably well written novel that unfortunately rehashes ideas that have seen their used by date previously. Nothing exciting, the twist can be seen lumbering over the horizon, a padded out novel. Fingers crossed Rebecca James finds something slightly more original to write about in her next novel. Naturally the media is all over this book, and numerous book blog sites are gushing with praise, the novel is an easy read written to their level with all the safe boxes ticked. There are some very fine female dark genre writers in this part of the world, Rebecca James is simply not one of them.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... A novel singularly lacking in original ideas, worse read thus far of the 2010 crop.
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Disclaimer: Please note this review reflects the opinion of the team at ScaryMinds and should in no way be construed as
representing the views of the AHWA Shadows Award Judges. This review is for the edification of ScaryMinds readers and does not constitute a
“literary criticism” or any other criteria the Shadows Judging panel may take this year.