Jack and Jill

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Well, let's just sum up what I thought of this novel like this: I started reading it at 7 pm on a Saturday night, and didn't stop reading until I had gotten through all 432 pages at 1:30 am. He done did good here -- a plot that kept you interested, good pacing, great characters... top-notch!

Rating:
Summary: Clever, Exciting, and Fun
Review: What a fun book! I have found, from reading many Patterson books, that his novels have increasingly gotten more and more unpredictable and exciting. I love the way that the people that you think "dunnit" are the wrong people and how he makes the villains in his books people that you would never guess could do it. All of these different mediums that Patterson uses culminates in "Jack & Jill." I would recommend it along with all of his other books, even the early ones.

Rating:
Summary: Clever, Exciting, and Fun
Review: What a fun book! I have found, from reading many Patterson books, that his novels have increasingly gotten more and more unpredictable and exciting. I love the way that the people that you think "dunnit" are the wrong people and how he makes the villains in his books people that you would never guess could do it. All of these different mediums that Patterson uses culminates in "Jack & Jill." I would recommend it along with all of his other books, even the early ones.

Rating:
Summary: Patterson Fan
Review: While my favorite is Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls, Jack and Jill is a great book. It keeps you interested (as Patterson has a knack for doing). If you like his other books, you will certainly enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh
Review: While reading this one I couldn't help thinking, was Kiss the Girls really that good? Patterson does have a terse writing style, but it didn't seem this bad before. It's bad here. All through reading it I was feeling like Patterson just hacked this one out of the word processer in one draft without a second glance. For a guy who writes so sparsely, he sure is repetative throughout the story....'Was Jack up ahead? Was Hawkins Jack? Was this Jack up ahead? Could this be Jack up ahead? Had we just been that close to catching Jack?'....This within 3 pages. Who is this guy's editor, anyway? Another thing that bothered me was so much pop culture was thrown in in an obviously contrived effort to authenticate things (Simpsons, ER, Pulp Fiction, MTV). Now you're wondering, if I hated it so much, why did I finish it? Well, I have to admit, the story itself was quite good, and I pretty much had to see it through to see how things turned out. Given the right director and screenplay, this would make a terrific movie. As for future Patterson efforts, I'll wait for the movies, thanks.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: Wonderful mystery to read. Hard to put down. One of his best

Rating:
Summary: How to ruin a good thing
Review: You know, Patterson did such a GREAT job with "Along Came a Spider," that I thought that this was a writer that is really going somewhere. Now with his third novel since then, I have become disolutioned with him. All the things that I felt worked wonderfully with A.C.S., just seem to fail miserably with "Jack and Jill." First of all, I enjoy good dialogue. J.J does not have good dialogue. Everyone seems to be speeking in cliches. Second, James made a big mistake, like he did in Kiss the Girls, in having too many serial killers at one time. The story was interesting, looking for a presidential assassin, but I never felt like I was able to truly go into the minds of the killers, like I could with Soneji in ACS. The Truth School Killer was totally unbelievable. Patterson kept on refering to alternative music lyrics to help explain his mentallity. I like alternative music, but I did not feel that the particular lyrics were relevent to the killer's mindfraim. Maybe use lyrics from Nine Inch Nails, Beastie Boys, or Rage Against the Machine. One positive thing I can say about the book is the ending dialogue between Soneji and Cross. That was classic killer mentality. I wish Patterson would learn from that