During the investigation of strange occurrences at an underwater cybernetics lab, Dr. Felicia Weill uncovers secrets and mysteries that threaten her life and her sanity. Forced to lie to her employers and not knowing who to trust, she finds betrayal at every turn. Can she rely on the one man who sticks by her? Their will to survive is strong, but can they find a way together through the lethal web of intrigue?
If it weren’t for the mention of the lab being an “underwater cybernetics” lab, this description would be wholly lacking in any specific detail.
Well, yeah: the author clearly is well-educated enough to use proper spelling and grammar, and she even got the general structure and tone of her blurb right, but other than the “underwater cybernetics lab” part, it’s just so… generic. After the first half of the first sentence, it reads like any of a thousand—nay, a million—other psychological thrillers. Play a “mad libs” game where you replace the protagonist and the setting in that first sentence with literally anything else (a science fiction or fantasy or real world setting and a character of either sex with a goofy name or a seriously awesome one), and you still have a generic psychological thriller plot.
What this blurb needs is a lot more specifics: what kind of life-and-sanity-threatening secrets and mysteries does the protagonist discover? (I know, I know: the author doesn’t want to spoil any plot twists; but can’t we at least get a hint?) Why does she feel compelled to lie to her employers, and about what? Who’s this one guy who’s standing by her, and in what way does he do so that (obviously) everybody else does not?
Basically, it’s not a bad thing if your story has the same plot structure as any of a gazillion others in the same genre; if anything, that’s almost unavoidable. If you’re going to use a “mad libs” plot structure like that, however, always be sure to play the game and fill in the blanks before presenting your blurb to prospective readers. These are lessons every author should have learned in Blurb Writing 101 (if there were such a course).