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Original poster

Sepulchre , Kate Mosse. Anyone reading this over-hyped claptrap? A clue - I HATE it!

28 replies

Zebedeedoodah · 26/03/2008 13:11

I'm reading it for my reading group and I just can't get over how appallingly bad a writer she is - or how her editors can have let her get away with it (oh I know, did someone say 'Orange Prize'? ). What's really sad is that underneath all that purple prose, overwriting and 'look at me I've done my research' passages, there's quite a decent, if unoriginal, story begging to get out. Honestly, if I'd taken my editor's pencil to it, I'd have reduced it by 2 thirds and improved the book beyond recognition.

Right, I'm glad I got that off my chest, so does anyone care to agree or come to her defence?

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dalek · 28/03/2008 10:45

I read Labyrinth last summer after seeing rave reviews and others saying how good it was - I hated it and only persevered because I thought something at the end must bring it all together - WHAT a mistake - won't be reading anything else by her either. My other one is the Ukranian tractors one - ok but not fantastic as reviews suggest - in future I too will be avoiding R & J stickered items. (sorry to hijack)

Original poster
Zebedeedoodah · 27/03/2008 16:37

LOL 'Joan of Arc tavern'. I missed that clanger . But my, what vitriol! I guess we all just hate being taken for a ride.

I promise you, I wouldn't still be reading it if I didn't have to, but they've nearly all been killed off, apart from our 'plucky heroines' of course (although my money's on one of them being offed in the next couple of chapters), so the pain must be over soon. Then I'm back to Barbara Erskine to remind myself how these things should be written.

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dittany · 27/03/2008 15:17

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zippitippitoes · 27/03/2008 15:09

house at riverton was my lesson learnt

zippitippitoes · 27/03/2008 15:09

those richard and judy stickers are handy actually

they say you'll hate this book

zippitippitoes · 27/03/2008 15:08

i saw it in the bookshop and thought a it was written by kate moss and b it was recommended by richard and judy so thankful walked on by

Blandmum · 27/03/2008 15:05

I read labyrinth and only finished it because I was on holiday and had limited reading material. I thought it was dreadful and swore never to read anything by her ever again.

andiem · 27/03/2008 15:00

this is rubbish I have stopped reading it

Cicatrice · 27/03/2008 14:53

I read Labyrinth, it was so disappointing after the reviews I had read, the plot was predictable and the standard of writing was surprisingly poor.

I finished it because I was stuck on a long train journey with nothing else to read.

I don't trust Richard & Judy their tastes seem very different to mine.

MrsDepp · 27/03/2008 14:15

I remember reading Labyrinth and being simply astounded by the difference between the rave reviews on the covers, and the tripe that lurked between them. Though I did actually finish it, more fool me. I thought it might get better. Sigh.

Wasn't Kate Mosse something big in publishing before she turned her hand to writing? Maybe everyone was too polite to tell her that her book required large chunks surgically removed, like you say, Zebedeedoodah.

scottishmummy · 27/03/2008 13:34

i get influenced by other people rave reviews so i buy and then discover i hate them eg Atonement, lovely bones, talk about kevin, memory keeper wife

ahhh al rubbish all time lost that i will never get back

fortyplus · 27/03/2008 13:31

I'm glad it's not just me! It really annoys me when someone recommends a book and then you feel as though you've wasted part of your life reading it!

fryalot · 27/03/2008 13:29

40+ exactly! It was really obvious to me that she was doing that.

It made me hate it just a little bit more.

RosaIsRed · 27/03/2008 13:26

I hated Labyrinth so much that I would need to be paid substantial sums of money to read anything she writes ever again.

fortyplus · 27/03/2008 13:24

Did anyone else think that when she wrote the final bit of Labyrinthe inside the cave she was thinking what a great film it would make rather than writing for the reader iykwim?

fryalot · 27/03/2008 13:20

I thought about Labyrinthe exactly what the OP said about this book.

Which is why I won't read another one of hers.

Life's too short.

No19 · 27/03/2008 13:19

I quite liked Labyrinth in a read-in-the-bath kind of way, but I found Sepulchre unutterably dull. An editor should have taken a filletting knife to it. The characters had potential, the setting was good and it was well researched, it could have been a fascinating read. Instead it was overlong, heavy-handed, self-indulgent, boring, etc etc. Also I was conscious of the poverty of the writing all the way through - one of those books you want to go through with a highlighter pen.

TotalChaos · 27/03/2008 08:47

Just about managed to read it all. And yes, it's shit. I quite liked Labyrinth though

Original poster
Zebedeedoodah · 27/03/2008 08:44

I actually read Labyrinth BEFORE R&J did it. As a self-confessed intellectual snob that's what STOPS me reading a book. I'd stumbled across it on the internet somewhere and I liked the premise of the storyline. Boy, what a mistake.

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saltire · 26/03/2008 20:45

It's because she had a Richard and Judy book club sticker. like I said below, my address book would sell millions if had one of those

poodlepusher · 26/03/2008 20:42

What I cannot get my head around, apart from the fact that Labyrinth was actually PRINTED and put in bookshops, is that it sold so many copies and there are people who rave about it.

I picked up a copy in Waterstones and stumbled through the first 10 pages of doggeral utterly horrified.

saltire · 26/03/2008 13:47

Well I won't try the new one then if it's worse than Labyrinth

fizzbuzz · 26/03/2008 13:32

Now, I liked Labyrinth, but found Sepulchre incredibly annoying and predictible. Everyone gets bumped off......well I didn't finish it all, but that what was seemed to be happening.....

OrmIrian · 26/03/2008 13:28

I didn't like Labyrinth although the subject matter might have been interesting. It made me itch reading it. Honestly. I was horrible overwritten irritating stuff.

Not tried the other one. Won't bother.

Original poster
Zebedeedoodah · 26/03/2008 13:24

Oh it's way worse than Labyrinth which I read through ignorance. She does exactly the same thing with italics here, and also insists on having them all say something in French in italics natch, like eh bien followed by the effing translation! And then they continue in English. Oh, and then she doesn't translate stuff she should, just to show off.

And don't get me started on the heroines....

I didn't know about any book prizes? Which one? [shaock] However, she did establish the Orange prize...

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