This Sunday sees me surrounded by new Canadian children’s books picking the best and writing about them for an upcoming Canadian Bookseller article. It’s a great way to spend a Sunday, so I’m not complaining.
And now that I’ve found this article about book-reviewing cliches, I am armed with a map that will make my job easier. Thanks to Judith at over at The Misrule Blog, for highlighting this one and making my article stronger already.
The cliches are alphabetized for your convenience. Here’s just a sample from A to B:
anything-fuelled ? narratives of a new, edgy type of fiction sometimes called Britfic tend to be fuelled by a range of uppers ? amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, Robbie Williams
as good as any novel ? why should writers of fact aspire to the standards of novelists?
**** is a deeply moral work ? a handy way for a critic to say that those who don’t like the shocking book under review simply don’t understand it
breakneck speed ? no successful thriller will go any slower
bursting to get out ? of novellas in vast, sprawling epics
And there’s 24 more letters of cliches over at the Telegraph, where the article originally appeared.
