Another week, another book review! Today I’m sharing the third book I read for review over on Whispering Stories blog. This review is a little different as it’s a slightly more negative review in comparison to the book reviews I normally post on my blog. However, I still thought some book lovers out there might be interested in my thoughts. The book in question is titled ‘The Ferret, The Donkey and Snakesbelly’, written by Brian Amos*.

The Ferret, The Donkey and Snakesbelly is a crime and mystery book that follows the lives of three individuals all connected through a single act of crime.

One thing I must firstly note – I do not personally think the blurb accurately represents the story. Derek Rafferty, who one would assume to be the protagonist from the blurb, is in fact not even introduced into the story until about half way through the book. The book concentrates more on Paul, Dean and Ernest (The Ferret, The Donkey and Snakesbelly respectively) and thus I personally would have preferred a blurb noting their part within the story.

The plot was, at first, a little confusing – there were some individuals introduced who weren’t in my opinion important to the storyline. As I got further and further into the book I did begin to enjoy the plot – I think it was a great idea for a book and is very unique. However, I did find the story moved on too quickly and lacked the depth and detail that I love in crime and mystery novels. I would have loved the actual crime to have been developed further rather than happening over just a couple of chapters.

I also, personally, didn’t enjoy the attitude towards prison in the book. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve never been to prison so don’t have a clue what it is truly like, however I just found those chapters uncomfortable. I couldn’t make my mind up if prison was being portrayed in a more negative or positive light, but I did just have a sense of unease whilst reading these chapters, as it didn’t feel realistic to me.

The book itself is very unique – at the end of most chapters is a short poem, which acts almost as a little recap for the chapter and is upbeat and humorous. At first I found these funny and refreshing, however as the poems started creeping in more regularly – even in the middle of some chapters – I started to find them unnecessary. I also found that some of the language used in the poems wasn’t very pleasant, which wasn’t to my personal taste.

Whilst I can normally overlook the odd spelling or grammatical error, as even the most famous of books can have one or two slip by, I must unfortunately say that this book has the most errors I’ve ever noted within a book. Whilst it isn’t riddled with typos, it was definitely just about pushing into double figures.

Overall, whilst I think the plot of The Ferret, The Donkey and Snakesbelly is a great idea and the book has real potential, I am going to have to give this a 2/5. I struggled with many chapters, wasn’t emotionally attached to any of the characters, and did find I had to push myself to continue reading. Unfortunately I most probably wouldn’t read this book again.

I’m always looking for new books to read, so if you have any recommendations you think I’d like, please let me know in the comments below!

If you want to check out what else I’ve been reading, why not have a look at my previous book reviews?

*This post contains PR samples, gifts, or is sponsored. Please visit my disclaimer page for more information.