There are some books, the 900 page monsters that some people find just too pretentious, or too satirical, or too anything and simply do not enjoy the reading experience. We are writers, if every single person enjoyed a piece of art, well, I guess art would cease to be art. It would be boring.
So, I don't mind when a professional editor and reviewer combs through the work and fins errors. Especially when I have not yet had the first edit completed before I turn it over.
However, if you are going to call yourself a professional reviewer, it might help to actually read the entirety of that which you are reviewing.
Let me give an example. In the book, there is a group of elite scientists who get stuck at a compound in New Mexico looking to discover the secrets of the universe and one particular prodigy named Nesby. There are about five or six chapters devoted to his life as a scientist. In one of those chapters there is a scene were he is stepping around some drunk scientists. That's it, one scene. Yet the reviewer wrote that the "Defenders of the Universe" (Reviewers term, not anything I ever wrote in any chapter relating to these scientists)
spend their days getting drunk and fantasizing about having sex with one another
Now, one, that was never true. I did, however, give the scientists normal human function. Important to note here, is that these were not all necessarily truly Einsteinian type scientists; they were more of an elitist camp. Conceptually, this is a satiric look at how we view privilege and wealth, attempting to segregate ourselves in such a manner as to "prove" our superiority over others based on such tangible, yet worthless concepts as wealth. Had the reviewer read the actual chapters, they would have known that the entire time was not spent "getting drunk and fantasizing."
Now, there were some valid things to consider as I read through the review. Some of those considerations, like spelling errors those are correctable. In a long book such as this one, when giving a first draft for review so that I can prepare my book cover, well, guess what, that is going to mean that there are plenty of mechanical errors that got through. I only mention that because I was very upfront about the fact that they were getting an unedited version.
There are, of course, other areas to which I can focus because there are some important constructive thoughts in the information provided back. The book absolutely consists of a unique approach to narrative and a grim, dark world sinking into oblivion. That was always the intention.
The multi-verse approach to telling different stories? It is very complex. There is some work to do to better tie in the characters and the multiple universes. One thing I rediscovered as I began edit number three, I have two completely unique characters whose name is too similar... a male nurse named J-A-I-M-E... as in the Hispanic name "Highmay" and then there is the close friend of a love interests of the protagonist named J-A-M-I-E... that is just too close and could cause extra confusion that is unintended... so I will change the girls name from Jamie to Brittany.
The point, I suppose, is that you get what you pay for. After reading a negative rant regarding Kirkus, I decided to go with a smaller review company. There is some good feedback, but I would hardly call the work 'professional.' It was not done on time, and clearly the book was not read in its entirety.
Had it been, there is a very grand concept with the title itself. Grand Illusion has a meaning. There is a reason that the book is titled Grand Illusion. Alas, I shall wait until these edits are complete before I speak more to the entirety of the plot.
But, back to work I go on this book!
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