Drawing The Line: No Ladies in Room A3 - Clare Scopes

AUTHOR: Clare Scopes

GENRE: Historical Fiction

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: Could have been outstanding. Ended up as an okay read. The plot was interesting. The writing needs work.

Story Synopsis:

Twenty-seven-year-old Maggie Goodwin has moved from NY to California to become an animator. However, as the owner of the established Harley Studios tells her, she can’t be an animator because “there are no lady animators’. Starting off instead in the Paint & Ink division, Maggie continues working on her pet project – an animated squirrel cartoon – in her free time. However, when working conditions at the studio start worsening, Maggie is forced to make a choice between her dreams and her friends. Should she stay silent for her career, or should she stand up for what’s right?

The story comes to us in the limited third person perspective of Maggie.

As you can see from the synopsis, the concept is brilliant. I wanted to read more about the struggles of a woman animator in a man’s world. I did get this partly. But the entire potential of the plot was not utilised.

Where the book worked for me:

👌 The writing is very fast-paced. It was easy to complete this within a couple of sittings.

👌 I liked reading about the animation process of those early-day cartoons.

👌 Some part of the historical elements, such as references to local music halls and movies, were incorporated well. This needed to be more detailed though. (We don’t even get the reference to the year the story was set in. Not everyone knows [or needs to know] when Roosevelt was the US President! I need actual years.)

👌 Great cover art! Man, that doesn’t look like an indie cover! Simply gorgeous!

Where the book could have worked better for me:

⚠ Everything felt just surface-level. Emotions are not explored as much as thoughts. Characters do things but we don’t understand why. Places are mentioned but we still don’t feel their vibe.

⚠ Most of the story proceeds through conversations, which makes concentration tedious. Sometimes, there are three-four characters talking, and the conversation jumps across them without clarifying who’s talking. Sometimes, even the continuity gets affected by this. One character could say something, and the next line could be another character speaking something else altogether. Moreover, the conversations feel very artificial at times, with the entire dialogue set being nothing but repartee between characters. Who would speak only with smart retorts every single time?

⚠ On a similar note, there are a lot of continuity gaps in the whole book. Scenes change randomly before we realise what happened. Characters change moods abruptly from chapter to chapter. It was a task to recognise the who, the where and the what of each scene.

⚠ Maggie is a confusing character. I am still not sure whether I like her or not. I admired her for her desire to become an animator, but she comes across alternately as either too shrewd or too naïve. She's also a bit of a blabbermouth, not a trait I like even in real life. She is quite judgemental but doesn’t want anyone to judge her. She is clever in her work but dense in her understanding of others. I couldn’t really connect to her as the main character.

⚠ The romance arcs are pretty haphazard.

One of my writer friends had once told me that when she wrote (her short story), she had everything mapped out in her head, but when she completed penning her story, she wrote only half of it, without even realising the logical gaps. That’s exactly what has happened here. The author must have had the scenes neatly in her head, but on paper, it appears like we are watching a movie with many scenes edited out. Filling in the blanks without context isn’t easy for readers.

All in all, this could have been a great indie work for the plot idea, but the writing style didn’t really work to my liking. I will give it credit for attempting something unusual. It is a debut work, so maybe with more writing exposure, subsequent works by this Australian author would be better. She has the imagination for sure.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through ‘Voracious Readers Only’ and these are my honest thoughts about it.