The first thing I noticed when I started reading the book was that it obviously hadn't been edited. The typos, the missing words, the words that should have been removed and hadn't been... I checked to see who the publisher was, and it turns out it was self-published. Figured. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying all self-published books are bad, far from it. In fact, most of the books I read nowadays are either self-published or published through small presses, and many of them are quite good. But the ones plagued with as many errors as there are in Sour are usually self-published.
The second problem I had is that it seemed to take forever to get passed the first half of the book. The characters just seemed to constantly be dancing around each other. "You shouldn't have gone there." "I know I shouldn't have, but I did, so there's no point fighting about it." "But why did you go there is you know you shouldn't have?" Lather, rinse, repeat. That's between husband and wife, and you find yourself hoping the witch shows up and kills them both so the reader no longer has to suffer from their verbal waltz. Then, when the book jumps to present day, the conversation is between two friends. "You know you don't have to do this." "I know I don't but I said I would." "Yeah, but you really don't have to." "I promised you I would, so I'm here." "But you can leave it you want to." "I'm not going anywhere. I said I would help you, so I'm staying." "But you don't have to." And round and round we go until the subject switches to the witch, and then it's a constant reminder that you shouldn't listen to anything the witch says, that she can get into your head and play with you thoughts, your memories, makes you see things you either are afraid of in an attempt to break you, or she'll show you what you most want to see in an attempt to trick you into doing what she wants, so don't listen to her. You got that? Don't listen to a thing she says because she can get into your head, make you see and hear things. So try to keep your head clear of any thoughts she could use against you because she can see into your head, and whatever she says, don't believe because she's lying. You got that? Don't listen to her. You finally get to the point where you want to scream, "We got it already, not shut the hell up and move the story along!"
The second half of the book, if you can manage to get that far, moves at a faster pace than the first half, but it seems like the author gets caught up in his own excitement, and he's racing to catch up with his thoughts; as a result, this is where the errors are most evident. And they create stumbling blocks that end up throwing the reader out of the story. Given the effort it's taken to get that far, it's a shame because it makes you hesitant to pick up the book again.
Another reason why it's a struggle to pick up the book every time you put it aside for the day is because you don't care about the characters. By the time you get to the midway point, where you should be rooting for the father to get his son back, you find yourself rooting for the witch so you can end this nightmare. The only reason you keep reading is to see Daddy fail because during the first half of the book, with all their dancing around each other, you've become so annoyed with them that you want them to die. And should you actually make it to the end, the author torments you even more by not ending things. Instead, he leaves it wide open for a sequel.
I went in to Sour with high expectations, especially after reading the reviews, and sadly, my expectations were dashed upon the rocks, where they shattered all to pieces. I was expecting some typos, as a number of reviewers had mentioned it in their reviews, but they made it seem like there was an occasional error here and there. Guess what? They lied. The pacing in the first half is uneven and drags worse than a dog with no back legs, which at times makes for tedious reading. And this after so many readers said it was non-stop action from beginning to end. Yawn! Many of the problems I had with Sour could have been easily corrected had the manuscript been handed over to a good editor. So unfortunately, as much as I would love to recommend this, I can't, as the author failed to cast a spell upon me.
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