Dark Genesis by A. D. Koboah

Dark Genesis by A. D. Koboah(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Life for a female slave is one of hardship and unspeakable sorrow, something Luna knows only too well. But not even she could have foreseen the terror that would befall her one sultry Mississippi evening in the summer of 1807.

On her way back from a visit to see the African woman, a witch who has the herbs Luna needs to rid her of her abusive master’s child, she attracts the attention of a deadly being that lusts for blood. Forcibly removed from everything she knows by this tormented otherworldly creature, she is sure she will be dead by sunrise.

Dark Genesis is a love story set against the savage world of slavery in which a young woman who has been dehumanised by its horrors finds the courage to love, and in doing so, reclaims her humanity.

I’ve been putting off doing a review for Dark Genesis for two weeks now.  It’s not because I’ve forgotten the plot lines and character names and have had to re-read it or because it’s so horrible I don’t have the energy to write a review.  No, it’s because of how amazing it was.

Words really don’t do this book justice.  It evokes so many different emotions in the reader from happiness to despair and everything in between.  I’m not the sort of person that cries over books frequently, but believe me when I say the waterworks were on for this one, especially at the end.  Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, the author sends a huge plot twist your way that you’re desperate for the next book.

Dark Genesis is a book with a strange sort of beauty.  A. D. Koboah’s descriptions and vivid imagery are absolutely unmatched; you’re instantly transported to Luna’s world.  Yet the topic that features in her book, slavery, is anything but beautiful.  Koboah didn’t flinch away from all of the horrors slaves like Luna had to face and one of her greatest strengths was how she portrayed the effects of such treatment even years afterward.

On the topic of Luna, she is an incredible character.  She’s now one of my favourite heroines ever not only because she was such a strong woman but because she had to go on a long journey of self-reflection to become that woman.  The time she spent with Avery really did change her, even if the scars from her years of enslavement were still beneath the surface.  Avery too was a very flawed character and you don’t really realize the depth of his sorrow until the end of the novel.  He’s not your typical vampire the same way Luna isn’t your typical heroine.  I won’t go into much more detail than that because I don’t want to spoil all of the good parts for you.

The plot remained relatively fast-paced despite being a mainly character-driven novel.  That in itself would have been quite impressive if not for the fact that there were so many plot twists.  Believe me, you may be able to predict some of the twists but most will blindside you in a good way.  I read Dark Genesis two weeks ago and I’m still reeling from that final twist at the end of the novel!  It’s hard to believe that this was A. D. Koboah’s first novel.  I don’t expect this level of awesome from many established authors, yet here I am writing this review.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t like vampire novels.  If you like any sort of character-driven novel or even just plain historical fiction, go and download Dark Genesis this instant.  It’s free on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as an ebook so it’s not like you’re losing anything by taking a chance on this wonderful novel.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

Discussion: Print Books vs. Ebooks

I know, I missed my usual weekend discussion post!  I missed it on Saturday due to a little thing called Life.  I didn’t have time to post and I got home late that evening so I figured I would just not post for the day.  Sorry about that.

I think the title of this discussion is pretty self explanatory.  Which do you prefer: print books or ebooks?

Personally, even though I have a new Kindle Paperwhite I prefer print books.  I hate how world maps format on ereaders and print books generally have more character.  What kind of character?  Well, none of my books on my Kindle have that yogurt stain on page 57 or a piece of cat hair that got stuck between the pages years ago.  Yes, paperbacks and hardcovers get damaged but for me that’s part of the appeal: they aren’t perfect and that’s okay.

Besides, when you get an autographed copy of a book your hero once held, there’s no comparable experience with an ereader.  Sure, authors can now ‘sign’ ebooks, but it’s completely not the same thing as knowing that your hero once held that book and took the time to actually sign their name and not copy and paste a signature.  How do I know this?  Well, I’m lucky enough to own a signed copy of I Never Walked Alone, the memoir of my personal hero, Shirley Verrett.  The sheer amount of emotion I felt at realizing I had accidentally obtained a signed copy was unreal.

Enough about me, though.  It’s your turn now: do you prefer print books or ebooks?  Why?  Has your opinion changed over time?

As always, you can engage with either myself or other commentors.  As long as you’re being civil, there’s absolutely no reason for me to moderate this post with a heavy hand.  Have fun!

How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

I don’t claim to be a huge speed reader, but I have to admit that from my informal blog survey, I do read a lot faster than most people.  I’ve been reading lots of books since I was very young, so I’ve had a lot of practice at reading quickly.  It’s something that seemingly came naturally to me, but looking back I can now actually point to some things that helped me become the reader I am today.  So I’ll share them with you now with the caveat that while they work for me, they may not necessarily work for you.

1.  Read aloud frequently.

Reading aloud is a whole different animal than silent reading, believe me.  When you read aloud frequently you have to be confident, change your tone of voice to engage your audience, add certain vocal inflections to convey different meanings and sometimes even sneak a peak ahead so you don’t stumble upon larger words you don’t necessarily know.  I know it may sound weird, but reading aloud even once a week can actually help your reading because it forces you to put more thought into the text itself.  What message is the author trying to convey?  What does their word choice say about their writing style, the characters and the tone of the story?

So what does this have to do with reading quickly?  Well, when you’re speed reading you have to be able to pick up on things like the author’s tone more quickly than you’re used to.  You actually have to think a lot faster and reading aloud prepares you for that because you’re practicing analyzing the text as you read.  Once you can analyze the tone of any text you’re reading aloud without thinking about it, analyzing the text you’re trying to speed read will come more easily. Continue reading →

Catnip by Valerie Tate Giveaway Winners

Although my giveaway wasn’t as popular as I would have liked, I still consider it a success.  Why?  Because the prizes were so generous that everyone who entered will end up with something.  I hate too much suspense, so let’s just cut to the chase.

Paperback winners

Sheena-kay Graham

Jennifer

eBook winners

Raya

Margaret Taylor

Jacky Pett

Linda Jeffers

 

So congratulations to everyone!  Someone from Taylor Street Books should be contacting you shortly.

An Example of How Not to Write a Review Request

Comment: Dear Sir/Madam,
​​
would you please be able to write the review of the poetry anthology. you can give a look to the profile of the anthology on the links

[Several links to the poetry anthology.]
I am looking forwards to work in close cooperation with you

best wishes and regards

[Name redacted]

A few months or so ago this would have made me insanely mad.  Now it just makes me facepalm.  Why?  Because no matter how many articles I and other book bloggers write about the importance of reading review policies and personalizing review requests, people like this man who emailed me won’t listen.

Yet I’m still going to dissect the many reasons why this man went wrong because I’m a little cranky and nitpicky today:

Dear Sir or Madam

1.  He addressed me as Sir/Madam.

Honestly, it’s not that hard to find my name.  It’s in the first sentence on my About page, which is along the top of my blog.  This is pure laziness and carelessness.  He doesn’t care enough to take a few seconds to find out my name, let alone my gender, so why should I even bother clicking on the links in his email, let alone agree to review his book?

Grammar Dog

2.  His grammar is terrible for a writer.

I don’t claim to be a grammar expert; I break the rules of grammar quite frequently here on my blog because a blog is quite casual.  A review request is not, however.  Review requests are not exactly formal, but they are not so casual that you don’t even bother capitalizing the first letter of your sentences.  I get that poets play with the rules of grammar a lot more than bloggers, but to anyone who considers themselves a writer this is completely unacceptable.  Even if I had been addressed by my name (or even by my correct gender), I would reject his request for this alone.

If you think I’m being nitpicky about the capitalization, re-read the last sentence: “I am looking forwards to work in close cooperation with you”.  Enough said.

Lazy Garfield

3.  He didn’t provide me with any information other than telling me to check out links.

If you want me to review your book so badly, you had better include some information to at least get me interested in it.  Telling me you’ve written a ‘poetry anthology’ and just giving links makes you look lazy and makes me want to hit the delete button.  Again: why should I review your book if you can’t even take the time to copy and paste your own blurb into the email?

Ignorant

4.  He didn’t see/chose to ignore that I am closed to submissions until 2014.

This could have been accomplished by looking at my review policy.  It’s at the top of it in bold, capital letters.  A writer has to know how to read as well as write as far as I know.  So why couldn’t he take the time to read my review policy?  If he did in fact read my review policy, he chose to ignore the fact that I am closed to submissions for another four months!  That, my friends, is massive disrespect and won’t help you get your book reviewed.

Facepalm

5.  He didn’t read my full review policy anyway.

You know that part in my Review Policy in the third paragraph that is in bold letters stating what I won’t review?  Well, guess what!  Poetry is something I won’t review unless you’re Dante, Homer, Virgil or Milton.  I guarantee the man submitting his poetry anthology to me is none of the four I mention.  Therefore, even if he somehow didn’t see that I’m closed to review requests, he obviously didn’t read the review policy at all.  I think we can safely conclude that he was too lazy to read my policy, right?

I Give Up

I know that the types of authors who already do this sort of lazy/ignorant/thoughtless thing won’t be reading this post.  If they do, they certainly aren’t about to change right now.  However, maybe new writers looking to learn how to write review requests might read this and learn a little something.  If nothing else, they’ll learn about why so many reviewers are more than a little frustrated at authors.  (Especially self-published authors unfortunately.)