At the beginning of 2026, I decided I was going to read more. I say this every year, but I chose to download the app GoodReads to keep track of my reading. This has helped me stay on task with my reading over the last four months. I’ve been doing phenomenal as I’m two books ahead of my reading goal for each month.
Fast forward to last month, when I decided to gamble on a blind date with a book. I did this through Target’s promotion and chose the “thriller” blind date. I was super excited, you can ask my boyfriend who went with me to pick up my date.
I ended up receiving The Orphanage by the Lake by Daniel G. Miller—and it’s bad.
Now I’m not the one to immediately judge a book by its cover (yes, pun intended), but it looks like every other thriller about a specific location made in the last few years. Ominous building with dark tones. But this one is on a lake!
Honestly, it’s not the cover that’s bad; it’s what’s inside the book. Inside holds a narrative of a female character in the 21st century written by a man. Usually, this isn’t too bad. I can get by with this because I often forget about the author writing these characters if the writing is good.
But this isn’t one of those cases. Every word this character says is a female cliché. It’s exhausting. I’m not too far into this book, and instead of an excited, “What’s next?” I’m greeting the content with an exhausted, “What now?”
Now I do realize I can just put this book down and let it collect dust until I finally get around to donating it. I realize I can leave this book unfinished. My issue with refusing to do this is based on the idea that creativity isn’t bad and that all creativity deserves a chance.
I understand not everyone is a creative writer, as I am not one myself. I am the last person who should be judging someone’s creative writing style. I have read a number of creative writing pieces, both that are good and that need work. Notice how I didn’t use the word bad that time.
This consideration is changing my perspective on it. I did some googling about the author of The Orphanage by the Lake, and this is his debut thriller book, the first in a series. Critics loved it, but GoodReads users did not.
Everything that the users I saw said was around the same lines as my grievances towards it. They don’t like the clichés in every sentence of the main character, Hazel. It’s a clear case of a male author thinking he knows what a woman’s mind looks like. Or maybe he’s going based on what his wife’s routines are.
Who knows?
I still have to finish the book; I’m not even breaking the first half of the book yet. The book could get better. Or it couldn’t. I’m not giving the book high expectations of making a complete 180 and improving on all ends. But I’m also not expecting it to improve.
The second book in the series does look interesting, though.