Kait's Bookshelf

Book Reviews and Book News

Review: The Promise She Made by Nicholas Pearce

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the-promise-she-madeIt’s not difficult to imagine a world in which our lives are run by digital devices. I mean, don’t we already live in one? 😉 But imagine a world where it has been taken to a new level. What if you could go beyond creating an online profile and allowing the computer to match you to an ideal mate? What if you could actually have a device implanted in your wrist that would pick up on natural attractiveness to one other by measuring things such as hormones and heart rate? The guess work and online flirting would be cut out because you would know just by passing someone in the street if they were as attracted to you as you were to them. In The Promise She Made, that device exists and it’s called LoveBite. When someone nearby finds you attractive, the device picks up on it and you get “bitten”.

The synopsis of this book was very intriguing and piqued my interest right away. The author described it as contemporary/ dystopian fiction, and I think that is accurate.

While the book made for an intriguing story, I have to say I was a little disappointed by the writing style. The first few chapters move rather slowly, shifting points of view between the two main characters, Evelyn and Liam, who mostly think to themselves rather than speak to one another or to any other characters. In fact, supporting characters were pretty much absent from this book. This felt a little strange but at the same time it works with a dystopian fiction story like this one in which people are more connected to their devices than to other people. I can see how the author was trying to make the point that people had become isolated from each other and had come to rely on electronic devices to exist.

The author also uses a lot of similes, and while similes can be very useful in creating an image for the reader, it can be distracting when there are several of them used very closely together.

A lot of people aren’t as picky as me when it comes to writing styles (hey, I’m a writer and an editor after all – I can’t help myself!), and if you are not easily distracted by these things, then you will probably dive right into this book and enjoy the ride.

If you are into dystopian and/ or technology driven stories, you will likely be interested in The Promise She Made. It is available now on Amazon.

One of my favorite passages from the book:

“It’s amazing that if you take enough pictures, you can find one that depicts a life you wish was yours. If only you could leap through the screen and into that place.

‘Morocco,’ she whispered, barely moving her lips.

It was a nicely-framed picture of her in one of Tangier’s endless narrow streets. But even this shot required a filter to be added before it was acceptable to use as his background.

‘Can you place a filter on life? How long is it before you can’t stand to see the world as it is?’ she asked the surrounding emptiness. No answer came.” – The Promise She Made

Author: kaitsbookshelf

I am back in school full time working toward my Bachelor of Arts in Writing. I love everything about books and created this blog to have a creative place to share my passion for books with others. I plan to expand the site next year to offer writing and editing services.

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