Stephen King and other famous authors talk about writing for their ideal reader. Instead of sitting at your desk trying to craft a story to appeal to millions of random individuals, the writer imagines themselves writing for one specific person who captures the perspective and sensibility of the target audience. It’s a counterintuitive theory suggesting that if you write for this ideal person the work will be more pure and appeal to a wider group of people.
I’ve been writing for a few years now and I haven’t found an ideal reader among my friends, family or loved ones. That’s understandable, because some aspects of my subject matter don’t appeal to them. Fortunately, I have been able to find an ideal reader, and I wanted to share her thoughts on A Touch of Honey because getting feedback like this is what writing is all about.
Pam’s Review of A Touch of Honey
A Touch of Honey is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic, brutal, painful, frightening, but it is a well-told story that takes the reader into seedy back alleys and high profile clubs and shows them the underbelly of a terrible world that abuses and exploits women. Through the eyes of Nikki, we see the brutality of the men and women who sell sexual slaves and reap the monetary benefits.
It is a stomach churning, heart wrenching read that both forced me to continue and made me want to close the book and walk away as it yanked me from my comfort zone with the speed of a bullet train and forced this world down my throat with the same cruelty as the men in this story forced themselves into the throats of these women.
How do I feel? Quite honestly, I have to say thank you to the author for offering me this experience.
The book is not preachy, so don’t worry about that. I think the author did his homework and skillfully fictionalized fact. His characters are compelling and interesting with depth that makes them believable and downright frightening at times. They do unspeakable things for the greater good, grow and mature throughout the story, make good choices and bad choices and while things turn out fine for some, they don’t fare quite so well for others.
The author wraps up the story with a fabulous twist that makes you eagerly crawl on all fours towards the conclusion. The Epilogue “Cost”, is a superb, gut churning after-moment for one of the characters that truly made my heart hurt.
Remove the blinders people! If you want to see a darker side of the world we live in, this is a must for your library.
I want to thank Pam and everyone who helped make A Touch of Honey a success. If you’d like to read the book, you can find it on Amazon or other online bookstores.
Have fun.
Gamal