Tayari's Blog: More Links on Monday

Two other things, and I'm pretty sure they'll be good enough reason for you to wave this review around to your friends as proof positive that your novel is as pearls before swine: How could anyone be so pedestrian as to question how often you use the word "snapped" instead of "said?" I didn't start counting until after Page 246, when I just couldn't take it anymore, but 17 times that verb pops up -- remember that's after Page 246 -- and three times on one page. It's not just Darius; they all snap like turtles, seemingly incapable of a pleasant sentence.

I am a bit confused at See being assigned to me. . .See lets the world see she is clearly a very bitter, confused old lady ("old" only being brought up because of her own fixation on my age.) I had never heard of See until I checked out her web site, which says it all: sometimes the good ol' cat ladies are the catttiest old ladies. . .and if that sounds nasty, well, See, respected as she may be as a reviewer and writer, uses her podium to express extreme dismay with someone of my age, gender, and ethnicity writing a book like mine (or any book maybe!), and that to me seems a bit of a violation of good review etiquette, at the very least.