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Dave Benbow

Auteur van Male Model

6 Werken 334 Leden 1 Geef een beoordeling

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Fotografie: Author's website

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Werken van Dave Benbow

Male Model (2004) 92 exemplaren
Daytime Drama (2003) 86 exemplaren
Summer Cruising (2006) 77 exemplaren
Man of My Dreams (Anthology 4-in-1) (2004) — Medewerker — 57 exemplaren
Jack Colby: Back in Action (2011) 20 exemplaren

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Summer Cruising
Dave Benbow

I bought this book looking for some happy and fun reading. I knew it was a mystery and seemed to be a bit of a disaster “Whatever may occur, I will find you” type book. That equals fun in my mind, so I purchased it and impatiently waited for it to arrive at my door.

I had read some of the reviews on Amazon about it, but really, different strokes and all that. Besides, I wasn’t looking for a literary feat of genius.

I am up to Chapter thirteen right now, and I have to write down some of my thoughts.

There is way too much “tell” and not “show” in this book. The sheer amount of useless details is staggering and brings any plot this book may have to a crawl, if not complete standstill. There were so many pointless details shoved in, that I began to refer to the author as “she”, thinking that this must be a female gay erotica writer desperate to prove she knows her stuff by adding in so many details. But no, I looked up the author and there he was, a definite male. His bio explained so much, too. He was a husky kid who now seems to live at the gym. He also worked as a creative director for both the Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger Beverly Hills stores (www.davebenbow.com), and is an ex-actor. This explains so very much.

Allow me to elucidate a bit. This story revolves around an ensemble cast of characters and takes place during a gay cruise on the Mediterranean. Each character, no matter how small of a part, is given an entire back-story and complete physical description right down to how tall he is in inches. All of this is given to the reader immediately upon meeting this character. A bit of history that is necessary for me to know so that I may connect to the character is fine, but some of the information was useless and in no way retained in my brain. Especially since on the next page is a new person I must know everything about. The descriptions went all the way down to the name brand clothing they were wearing. Why a Calvin Klein white t-shirt is more important to know than that he was wearing a simple white t-shirt I cannot fathom. Every time a character appeared on the page, we knew what and who he was wearing. It was like the Oscars or something. Very tedious to read over and over again.

Then we get on the cruise ship and we are taken on a deck-by-deck tour and told exactly what is on each deck; from eateries to shops, everything was addressed. Each time a character entered a room or new area of the ship, we are given an entire detailed description of the décor, the way one can enter and leave, even what color the hardware is. Again, tedious, and completely throws off any sort of interest or emotion in the story. Orientating the reader is one thing. Completely burying them in everything is too much. The author even goes into the motors and navigation system of the ship. I kept thinking to myself that this may have very important clues later on in the story, but, honestly, I don’t think I could sort it all out unless I took notes. Besides, I think dumping the schematics of the ship in the reader’s lap is not a fun way to involve the reader in the mystery. Also, delivering everything up front throws off a lot of the drama. In one case, a passenger is murdered and a key bit of information that would show he was indeed murdered and not an accident victim had been revealed pages ago. It would have been so much more dramatic and a better storytelling device to allow the victim’s mother to give that key information and not just have it reiterated.

I also had issues with notable “guest” characters being obvious caricatures of real-life people. We have the winner of a reality TV series who people thought was a jerk and some thought shrewd, and was a gay man. Close cropped gray hair and all. There was even a caricature of Bruce Vilanch, who actually did a blurb for the book. It was just odd and, I thought, kind of cheap. It felt eerily like real people fan fiction. It was sort of creepy. Even fictional characters got guest shots. We have the man with the southern accent named Rhett. And Captain J. Lucard is the captain of the ship. Captain J. Lucard? That was just cheesy.

I also had an issue that every man in the book was described nearly the same way. All of them had these traits in common: muscular to the point of beefy stud muffins, tall, and so gorgeous you could hardly stand it. Oh, and they all wore name brand clothing. Most of them were over six feet tall and all of them were die-hard gym rats. It was like someone shook Muscle Magazine over the narrative and filled its pages with all the models. The only character that wasn’t this way was killed off very quickly. And that bugged me too. The author gave us a nice and sweet character, who I wanted to get to know more and who would have given a nice bit of color to the bronze-tanned story, then killed him off. It was a really bad blow and actually left a nasty taste in my mouth.

And for a ship full of muscle-bound hunks, there sure is a lot of giggling going on. Every one of them has giggled so far. All except the one man who looks to be the killer. I hope it’s a bit of a misleader, but with the way everything else has been over-explained, I’m going to guess not, and the killer has already been pegged.

I’m going to finish this book and I am very glad that I chose to read this one before I read James Lear’s “The Back Passage”, because I am sure that Lear will clear up my disappointment and cheer me up with a good tale. I really hope that “Summer Cruising” picks up and stops reading like a guidebook for cruises and summer fashion.
… (meer)
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lddurham | Feb 16, 2007 |

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Statistieken

Werken
6
Leden
334
Populariteit
#71,211
Waardering
½ 3.6
Besprekingen
1
ISBNs
13

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