Feb 24, 2013: I was excited to see the blurb for this novel – an Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.) activist encounters real elves who are bent on more than sabotage! At first the writing style of the first chapter put me off. There is very odd word usage: "his confusion-mutilated features", mixing senses "it was written all over his tone", which sometimes works: floodlights "sent shadows screeching for cover". It’s at its worst in "She wore her thick lips defeated, and all but lowered her exotic eyes in futile submission" and at its most colourful in "Like silver wind chimes carried by a swarm of angry Africanized bees all bound within an electric zipper, it rose a shriek, crackling through the space betwixt like a bolt of lightning." Upon a second read I found I was starting to enjoy these unexpected turns of phrase, although I’m still a little doubtful. I’ll be very interested to find out what other people think of this story.

White Leaves is hosted on Jukepop, so to read beyond the first chapter you have to register, which is free.

Update: I eventually did try reading further, and found it a tough slog. Despite the interesting premise, in execution it didn’t grab or convince me.

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Mar 2, 2013: As far as I can tell, E.L.F. has an interesting concept, an exciting story and engaging characters. I won’t find out more about any of them, unfortunately, because the language is close to unreadable.

I realize that this is a strong statement, so let me qualify it. Other readers might not bother as much about language as I do. Some of the things that bother me could be regional language variations that I’m not aware of, and the situation almost certainly [more . . .]

Feb 11, 2013: 4★ E.L.F – White Leaves has been reviewed by Graff Review Team @ Http://reviewerteamwinz.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/review-of-e-l-f-white-leaves-by-michael-ness/

Your reviews are helpful! They’ll let me know where i fail and how to improve! 🙂 Thank you!

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