You've been warned

I guess to make this interesting I should write about something that I did not find absolutely wonderful. You've been warned is James Patterson's attempt to do something a little different. From what I can tell he should have stuck with what works. To be fair, I'm not big on the common mystery novel. I find most of them flat, cliche, and predictable. I generally know what's going to happen halfway through the book and that bores me. I like to be surprised and there's little to be surprised at in mystery novels (go figure. Maybe they should change the name of the genre).

So, this is the first James Patterson novel I've read. When I didn't care for it, I looked online to see what others thought just in case my bias was getting the way. I found a wide range of people either loving it or hating it for the exact same reasons I did.

The protagonist is unlikable and has no depth. She is a woman trying to make it as a photographer, though we know little of that aside from her constantly taking pictures and her one remark that she's being considered at a gallery. She never once interacts with that gallery or tells us about the pieces being considered. Guess that's not important to the storyline but those little details make things more interesting. Until her own life gets started she works as a nanny for a wealthy couple. Right at the very beginning you find out she's having an affair with the children's father. Lovely. Throughout the story she struggles to understand the meaning of a recurring dream. I was profoundly disappointed in the ending. I found it lacked imagination, like he gave up trying to write and just put the first cliche and easy idea that came to him.