Laws Of Depravity By Eriq La Salle

Recommended For: Not Recommended

When I received this book for Christmas, I was excited. Although it is fiction, I decided to give it a fair chance. Maybe it could almost be as good as the nonfiction true crime books I usually read. I was very disappointed as I forced myself to get through 30 pages. While I have never seen Eriq La Salle on his show ER, I strongly recommend that he sticks to that instead of writing.

The crazy scenes involve rapist priests, prostitution and other terrible things. However, worse things have happened in real life so that was not the part that bothered me. This book lacks any form of interesting words. The scenarios are described lackluster. There is no action or skill. I could write better than this guy. “As she jogged through the city, she took in every detail. Old buildings, new buildings, cars, trees, squirrels, birds, nothing was overlooked. Since she had left her watch on her nightstand, she had no idea what time it was…” (Page 8). How boring is that?

Describe these buildings. There are many places that have buildings, birds, and trees. I have absolutely no sense of the setting after reading these passages.

My version: She was so swept up in her daily run around the old rustic town that she almost ran right into the handsome man checking the time under the clock tower. She rolled her eyes as she passed him. What was the point of going for a jog if time was a factor? The whole point was to forget all of your worries, after all.

Doesn’t that passage that I just wrote in less than five minutes give such a better description than the one quoted above? Now you know the town is old and rustic. You know that she does not care what time it is, but in a less straight-forward boring way. I am not claiming to be a great author, but I don’t think that La Salle’s book is worth the money.