Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Send it back for proper editing!!, 2 Jan 2006
The spelling, grammar and punctuation in this book make it hard to read for someone as pedantic as me.There are stupid mistakes all over the place, like "than you very much" and "the results were been checked". It's as though the editors have simply run spell check through the whole book. I wouldn't mind that, but in his Acknowledgements, he actually thanks someone for line-editing the entire book! Well that person wants sacking then, eh? I'm not interested in football at all. If I were, then perhaps I wouldn't be the sort of person to get annoyed about spelling mistakes and perhaps I would enjoy the book a lot more. But as it stands, the mistakes in this book made my toes curl with sheer fury (that's a sight to behold, I can tell you!). I feel like highlighting all the inaccuracies and sending the book back to the publishers. It's rotten.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A clever idea but badly executed, 14 May 2006
It seemed like a great idea for a story and begins well enough. Sadly what could have been a truly humorous tale is somewhat let down by poor narrative and sub-standard writing.
Ben Elton does this genre of novel far better.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 'footie' novel that all 'footie' fans will love, 30 Jun 2003
Reading the ‘blurb on the back of the book I couldn’t quite work out how local baker and Middleton Edwardians football club fan Bill Baxter, would set off a ‘ripple effect’ by failing to add jam to a batch of doughnuts? But there again, this happens after he has seen his side, a lowly third division outfit, go from 2-0 up to lose 4-2 at home. How many of us have gone home in such bad mood following a home performance like that? Most of us I know, exactly. However innocuous, this starts a train of events that unknowingly and unwittingly puts high profile careers in football and in the government in jeopardy and like a boomerang, returns to Bill and leads him to fight for the very survival of his perennially underachieving and beloved club. Dominic Holland’s acute observations on what it is like to follow a lowly football club must come from his life-long allegiance to Brentford. The letter that Bill writes to welcome the new chairman to the club could well have been written by any number of fans desperate to see their club survive, the book is worth buying just for that page alone! (page 19 by the way!) His gentle observational stand-up comedy gives him an eye for laughs that can be found in every situation he places the believable characters that inhabit this funny tale about what is all wrong about football 11 years on from the inception of the Premier League. I like to read books, but even more, I like to read books that are easy to read and this is so very entertaining such a real page turner, that the pages fly past with ease. The chapters are short and pacy as the story rolls along engrossing the reader. Whenever I finish a book like “The Ripple Effect” it is always a bittersweet experience. ‘Ripple’ is so well written you want to know what is the conclusion to this absurd, but actually very plausible story. But once it’s over, it’s a slightly sad experience when you have to leave behind a whole host of characters that you may have ‘lived with’ for a day or two. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I can’t think of any football fan that wouldn’t enjoy reading this book. Dominic Holland is one of us, a true football fan. For producing such an acutely well-observed piece on what is it like supporting and believing in football how it used to be and still should be, he deserves your support.
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