YOUR HEART BELONGS TO ME by Dean Koontz (R199,95, HarperCollins)
Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: André Brink
At 34 Ryan Perry has it made. He’s a fabulously rich IT whizz kid and accomplished surfer and has a stunning girlfriend. One day it all goes horribly wrong when he discovers he has a fatal heart condition. He’s told he has a year to live unless he has a transplant. Miraculously a donor is found and the transplant is a success. But the plot takes a freaky twist when a stalker demands everything he owns - even his new heart.
Koontz is known for his riveting thrillers that probe the deepest terrors of the human psyche but in his latest offering he spends too much time on long-winded, introspective passages that dwell on everything his characters see, think, remember, theorise about and dream of. It gets tedious. Some readers might also feel the ending is not up to his usual standard. Despite the book’s flaws long-time Koontz fans will probably want to read it.
HOW NOT TO WRITE A NOVEL by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman (R164, Penguin)
Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: Elmari Rautenbach
They say inside every person there’s a novel waiting to get out. So suppose you want to put pen to paper. How would you cook up a storyline that’s so compelling it will have readers hooked? Simple: by doing exactly the opposite of what these two published writers tell you in How Not to Write a Novel - 200 Mistakes To Avoid at All Costs if You Ever Want To Get Published! Do you want to make sure your characters are two-dimensional versions of yourself and your style is riddled with clichés and your plot tedious? Of course not.
If you pay close attention to the advice dispensed in this witty manual you will discover what kind of manuscripts are doomed to end up in publishers’ recycling bins so you can avoid making the same mistakes. This is an invaluable guide for anyone who has ever tried to write a book - and failed - and those who are still plucking up the nerve to give it a go.
