Nice by Jen Sacks

I adore John Cusack. I really really do. His physical similarities to one of the characters in Richelle Mead's Succubus series is one of the reasons why I started reading the books (although I do now based on it's own merit) and Grosse Pointe Blank is one of the the top three Cusack movies I like best. Nice by Jen Sacks (1999) reminded me of that GPB magic. I was sooo sure that it was my "THE BOOK" find of 2008. With a blurb like this, it HAD to be:

First there was Clay--it just sort of happened. Then there was Pete--he was becoming way too attached. Ben, well, he totally had it coming. And then there was Sam... Grace is nice to a fault. She never picks fights, and doesn't like to criticize or hurt people's feelings. Problem is, the men in her life never seem to take a hint. And she just can't bear to tell them outright when she isn't interested. So she kills them. A clean break--no messy emotions, no heated arguments. But someone is onto her. His name is Sam, and he and Grace, with one very dangerous thing in common, make a killer couple. It's a match made in heaven-as long as they can both survive the relationship...

Awesome, yes? The premise is quirky and uncommon and has ginormous potential to be a great read. Unfortunately, it never really took off from there. It was like being served flat tap water when you order Pellegrino with a twist of lemon. No matter how much I wanted to, I just couldn't get into the story. Maybe it was the length of the novel; the machine-gun type of prose didn't really work. It has 55 very short chapters which volleys between Grace's and Sam's point of view. The characterization of both narrators just seemed so lacking that they ended up unsympathetic to me. I really couldn't be induced to care. One might reason that it's hard to relate to murderers but it really isn't (hard), actually, at least for me. The rapid interval between narrators was also pretty jarring; before I could really get into the heroine's (or hero's for that matter) perspective I would be jolted out of it by the switcheroo. Maybe it would have worked better if it were told from a third person perspective. I don't know, the prose just didn't flow. It wasn't bad really, it was, to put it concisely, meh. *edit* Heard this book was optioned into a movie. Hopefully it translates better on film than it did on paper.