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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Aaron Travis is resurfacing in Saylor's latest..., March 7, 2003
By A Customer
Before publishing mystery novels, Steven Saylor wrote gay male erotica (often with strong S&M elements) under the psuedonym Aaron Travis, for which he attained substantial recognition in certain circles. If, by chance, this little bit of trivia about Saylor surprises you, you probably haven't read Have You Seen Dawn?.Granted, he ostensibly presents the story from a woman's point of view, but his complete lack of narrative investment in Rue's identity *as a woman* points to his real reason for incorporating a straight female lead--through "her" eyes, he can spend inordinate amounts of time eroticizing his male characters (and comparing the respective sizes of their genitals). This veneer of respectable heterosexuality is painfully transparent; I wish Saylor had just cast Rue as a gay man and left it at that. If he had, the added frisson of non-normative gender relations and what would have undoubtedly been a more enthusiastic characterization might have made the novel a better read. Yes, the story could have been much better. Though I'm not a prolific mystery novel reader, I'll presume that it is a *bad* thing that I knew who the culprit was by page 23 of the 247 pages of text. However, I couldn't decide if that was simply because, after reading Saylor's erotica, I'd become attuned to the way his mind works somehow. For the sake of those who like to be surprised by the resolution of a novel, I hope readers less familiar with Saylor might be captivated and deceived more easily by the twists of the plot. The editorial reviews above provide a very good introduction to the general plot of Have You Seen Dawn?, so I won't repeat any of that here. However, those who have a weak stomach for dangerous and perverse sexuality--be forewarned. The sexual elements of the novel are central and impossible to ignore. If this isn't your thing, stay far away. If, on the other hand, you are interested in the parallels between this novel and the Travis erotica, try reading the short story "Kudzu." The similarities go without saying (and can't be said, since I don't want to spoil the plot). In final analysis, Have You Seen Dawn? represents a solid story neither particularly bad nor particularly good. The prose is straightforward and easy to read, but very little about the novel is especially thought-provoking...except how much it reads like the gay male erotica that Saylor supposedly stopped writing.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Could I have been reading a different book?, April 1, 2003
I've read the other reviews of this book, and I must say, I'm puzzled.
I honestly didn't like this book. But that's not the reason I gave it 1 star. I gave it 1 because not only didn't I like it, it was, overall, not very good at all.
I'll start by saying I thought the premise was good. It had the potential to be a great short story. Unfortunately, Saylor chose to stretch it to book length. This book could have easily been condenced into 5o pages, and still been a little too long.
All right, that was my first problem. The second was, the story was sadly transparent. Anyone who didn't know who the killer was by the time we found Dawn wasn't actually paying attention.
The writing style seemed....how should I put this....Well, like something you would expect from a 16 year old.
The characters were lacking in everything from personality, to depth, to intrest, and more. Rue was agravating, and as for the others....Let's just say, in a few weeks, I will have forgotten that they even existed.
The plot development was sad. By then end of the book I was so thankful that the story was over that I was actually glad that this book was only 200-something pages long.
Now, this sounds like a negative review, right? Well, it is. This is probably one of the worst books I've read in a long time. But! Don't let that stop you from reading it! It seems like I'm the only one who thought this book wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
Maybe I found the simplicity of the story pointless, instead of interesting. Or... well, you'll just have to read it for yourself.
So, in closing, Have you seen Dawn was not my kind of book. And, I'm assuming that this review will generate many negative responses. But, don't just vote aginst it because you don't like what I'm saying, all right? Try and look at it objectively, and then if you feel that this was not worth the time it took to read it, I understand.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very disturbing story, a bit too disturbing for my taste., September 16, 2006
Ooooh, I really didn't like this one. It's not that Saylor wasn't writing a good book. I think most everyone who has read this book, would agree it was fairly well-written. Definitely a good plot, concise delivery of the mystery, okay development of characters. Only complain with the writing was the overuse of the main character's worries and thoughts was very repetitious.
I knew kind of where Saylor was going with this, and from the beginning of the book, he seemed to be capable of writing about this disturbing type of murder mystery that is way too close to real crime stories without giving agonizing details that I find disturbing. That was the problem. First it was a couple of uses of a swearword I find especially offensive after the middle of the book had been reached. From there on it went downhill until the middle of the second to the last chapter, where it was like the gates of filth were let wide open, that Saylor led the reader on with a decent mystery, then descended into the pit.
There is a reason I choose not to read true crime, and I find it disturbing when others do read them. I do read some forensic stuff, more medically inclined as I did do studies in the morgue when I got my neuroscience degree, but these are based on evidence and usually don't go way into the lurid stories that got these people killed. So I really don't appreciate it when a writer misleads me with what I thought was a regular mystery, and it turns into the kind of filth I don't really want to waste brain capacity on. It isn't entertaining. It's just revolting...
Karen Sadler
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