Monday, December 9, 2013

Red Phone Box, edited by Salome Jones

A red phone box.  It seems innocuous enough, a little outdated but nothing all that unusual.  But this red phone box in particular can take you places, physically and emotionally, that you never imagined you could go.  London is far more dangerous than anyone realizes, and the phone box plays a key, sinister role in this cycle of stories.

I wanted to love this book.  I thought it was such a cool concept.  58 installments, by 28 different authors, all weaving in and out of each other, all focusing on the mystical powers of the red phone booth.  Sounds amazing, right?  In many ways it was.  Despite having so many authors collaborating, the writing style is cohesive, the voices similar, and the tone consistent.  The actual story content, however, I found to be a bit scattered.  There were just a few too many things going on here for me.  I found it difficult to follow who was involved with whom, particularly when certain characters themselves could not keep it straight.

And speaking of characters, there were just too many. When you need to include a downloadable dramatis personae for your readers, you may want to consider scaling back on the number of characters It was hard to feel any real connection to any of the characters or even care what was happening to them because I just could not keep them straight.  This coming from a reader who often juggles up to 6 books at one time.  

I guess I went into this expecting something different (more Doctor Who-ish).  I still think the concept, and the writing, was good, just a little overly ambitious.

I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.  See the rest of the tour here.

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