Overheard at Table 4: School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Did you finish that book you were reading?

School of Fear?  Yeah, it was pretty good.

Just pretty good.

Well, it could have had a bit more editing.   There were some pacing problems.

Like what do you mean?

Like, personality traits that were introduced in the same paragraph in which they were used.   Like a dog who liked to slop up food right before that was necessary for a certain plot twist.   Little stuff like that, a bit of foreshadowing would have helped.

Preparation of the reader, you mean.

Yes.   And a character that was introduced late in the book.   Then never shown.   Strange stuff like that.  But other than that, it was a great idea.   A school where kids go to get rid of their phobias.   At first I thought it was going to be a slight bit of a horror novel, such as "scaring" them out of their fears, but it turns out that the premise was to force them out of their fears by a simulated test that caused them to pull together for a positive cause.   That was very nicely done.

Overall, then?

Overall - it would probably make a nice little movie.

Well, that seems to be the goal of literature these days.

You're right.   Books now seem to be plot outlines for scripts, rather than actual literary accomplishments.

Sad.

But true.