Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Unpublished: The Other Side

Title: The Other Side
Author: Daediel
Contains: Curse words (8/30p.) 
Cover Thoughts: Love it!
My Rating:  ☆  (6/7)
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Blurb: "I live in a world where caring is a gift only to be bought by the rich."
          Some people are born with their eyes open. Some people aren’t. And there are those who become something else.
          I never knew which one of those was me. No one cared enough to tell me. But I know what matters. I know I have to keep on watching what this city doesn’t. Picking up what everyone else scatters, leaves behind in the hurry of greed.
          I need to listen. 
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Characters: This is probably one of the best character jobs I've seen in a long time. The main character, Tom, was extremely consistent, well rounded individual. I loved the way he thought, even though I did find him to a bit of a melancholy character (which is totally fine, we need fewer hotshots and more normal characters in the literary world :P) 

Imagery/Mood: Seems to me getting a good, desired mood to come across is a rather difficult thing to do -- few writers, especially unpublished ones, seem to be able to pull it off. Daediel's sure got it pinned down though! The imagery in The Other Side was fantastic, as well. Probably my favor line was “They’re a soundtrack without life.” Best of all, Daediel didn't overdue the imagery -- there was just the right balance. 

Plot: The Other Side currently (at the time of this review) has only four chapters up, a total of 30 pages. I've heard it said numerous times that the first 50 pages of a book are extremely important for catching the reader's attention; if you don't, there is a strong possibility of the reader putting the book aside and never picking it up again. While these first 30 pages in The Other Side weren't filled with fast-paced action, I found my interest kept through everything that was going on. The thoughts and feelings of a MC living in a boring, uncaring world was enough to make me want to continue reading. I'm interested in seeing where this story goes. 

Dialogue: I thought the dialogue throughout the entire story had a natural, believable flow to it. 

Other: Not much to be said here in the 'other' category. General mechanics were good, SPaG was good. Let's talk title. I really love the title The Other Side. I feel like there's a lot of meaning in it, a lot of back story playing into it. I can't wait to find out exactly how it ties into the plot. 

My Impression: I want to know when there's more. :) Fantastic piece of writing! The only thing that bothered me was the occasional foul language, which, as some of you probably know by now, is one of my biggest pet peeves, second only to sexually inappropriate content (The Other Side was totally clean in that way--hooray!). Still, in that way it fell within the bounds of what I consider eligible for a pick, which I'll most certainly be considering. 

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