Review: "Always Watching," by Chevy Stevens"

This book opened an interesting question in my pursuit of literary criticism. After 40 pages I was of the initial position that this was one of the worst books I had ever read. Problem: Am I allowed to write a review after 40 pages or do I owe the author more? One position presented to me was that I could write about "the writing", more than a review of "the book" and that way would not have to read the entire work. Since the writing was also terrible I considered this point of view. But, I decided to carry on allowing myself the freedom of a complete review. So I did, reading the entire damn thing. Next problem, if I give this book a long review, I'm actually giving it more of my time and attention than it deserves. Brevity may win out. So, here we go. I've read a lot of books. This is the worst. There may be worse books, but they have not crossed my path. The story dances between mundane and ridiculous. Characters voices are stilted. Relationships are canned, one-dimensional. Cliches not only abound, but are the go-to technique style. I knew exactly where this was going and the payoff at the close was even worse than I anticipated. This book is the opposite of show, don't tell. The author tells and explains and tells and explains, and tells some more. The reader was also terrible beyond words. Phony voices and mock male/female imitations. Boredom would be a better state of being then reading this book. Can I recommend it? Yes, for kindling. Should I go on. I think not.