Unpretty (Sharon Carter Rogers)

Picked up for less than a dollar at one of the local Goodwill thrift shops, I mainly bought this book because of it’s cover image. My attention was grabbed and I pulled the book from it’s shelf and dusted it off.

The novel itself is the second written by Sharon Rogers. It covers a small suburb that is fraught with disappearances, and a seemingly increasing drug problem. An unassuming household in the burbs holds a cult faction who reveres the work of Michelangelo as perfection. The leader of this group is capturing individuals and torturing them to get models for a reproduction of one of Michelangelo’s lesser works. It is a non-standard book of good vs evil, with the cultists on one side pitted against secretive urban monks and police on the other.

I actually rather enjoyed this book. It is a nice standalone thriller/suspense novel with well fleshed out characters and an interesting premise. Give it a shot. It surprised me and though not best-seller quality, it did not disappoint.

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This brings me to my main complaints on the book, neither pertain to the novel itself, but instead to the marketing and presentation of it…

First – Publishers should be more careful about categorization of books. The book was published by Howard Books / Simon and Schuster, and is marketed as a Christian book. This should not deter folks from reading it. There were some very “Goddy” moments in the book, but it was not preachy.? In fact, the sections which were heavy handed were directly in character.

I know of at least three individuals who will enjoy this book, once I can get them past the tagging as a “Christian” book. You are doing a disservice to the author by pigeon holing their work like this. Let it stand for itself.

Second – Previously stated, the cover of this book caught my attention. It was gritty and well photo-shopped. In writing this review, I found that the stock imagery for this cover has been used on at least 3 other books, minus the grit. A German audio book, and multiple paperback novels use a base/stock version of the cover art. One of them even carries the tag line “a novel of suspense” as does ‘Unpretty’. You would think they would have straight up bought the image rights or otherwise paid more attention to the market. Do you even realize that this has happened?

Some of the books listed here were published before Unpretty and others afterward, so I will let you do your own research, but seriously, I think this was lazy and backwards. If you didn't want to buy the rights but liked the idea, why not just re-shoot the image? Hell, are you sure you even had the rights to use this considering other books used it on novels years before you did? Just thinking aloud here..

By the way publishers, I would love a job, even sweeping floors which is where the above critique would likely land me. Thanks.

# Pages: 320
# Publisher: Howard Books / Simon and Schuster (2008)
# ISBN-10: 141656649X
# ISBN-13: 978-1416566496