Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: The Moon Looked Down, by Dorothy Garlock

The Story: During the onset of WWII, the Hellers move  from Germany to Victory, Illinois.  The family lives there for several years before any discrimination begins, but once it starts, they really get crazy.  Their barn is burnt down, the family members are physically assaulted, and followed around town.  Somehow the rumor has gotten out that they are Nazis and they are spying on them.

During this same time, Cole, a local, returns to town from being away at college.  He meets the daughter in the family, Sophie.  He defends her and they are quickly in love.

As the discrimination starts to worsen, a lot of things that go wrong in town are blamed on the Hellers.  There comes a point where they just have to stand up for themselves or move on.  The big question seems to be how this will effect Cole and Sophie’s new love.

What I Thought: Talk about being fooled by a cover.  This was a cheap, grocery store romance disguised as general fiction.  I got this off of the new arrivals shelf at the library because I love a good WWII story and this is a perspective I’d never ran into before.

I was so disappointed.  The writing was seriously horrible.  I can’t even describe it.  What got me was the excess adverbs and exclamation marks.  It was literally distracting.  I could just barely finish.

The people were not even remotely real, the dialogue was awful, and the plot was totally contrived.

I cannot think of a redeeming factor except for how pretty the cover is.  The “About the Author” said that this lady is one of the “most beloved authors in the country and the world,” which I found strange since I had never heard of her.  I looked her up online to find that the rest of her books I would never have touched with a ten foot pole.  They literally are the books you buy from the spinny rack at Dollar General.  I’m no book snob, but I can’t stand just plain old smut.

There were these sweaty, horribly written sex scenes that actually made me laugh out loud.  Maybe it was worth reading just for that?  Sophie and Cole handing in their V-card on top of a giant bolder? Ahhh… hilarious.

Conclusion: That “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” thing? Sometimes it’s right.