So I am intrigued! I have subbed to your story and shall be reading a long as well. I humbly offer my novel for your perusal:
Link of the story:
https://tapas.io/series/Birth-of-a-Sin/info1
Genre: Romance, Mystery, Horror
How many chapter I should read: As many as you want! Let's start with 10
Explain why you need help with your story: I want to hear honest thoughts about how attention grabbing it is. I want to know if there is anything that I falter on (setting description, characters, etc) that can be improved in order to hook in the reader. My novel is long as anything to keep readership is what I hope for ^^;
Any other details needed: You can leave a comment on the chapters. I do not mind at all
Chapter 1:
There are quite some surprises here. For one, I was not expecting to actually get somewhat scared in the middle of the chapter so good job on making me feel that, but I was also uncomfortable at those two talking about their sex and stuff such a messy chapter, but not necessarily in the story sense. I think the beginning is actually great, but in my opinion, the chapter might just be a little long for a tapas chapter. Tapas highly encourages shorter chapters because of their scrolling format, but if you prefer keeping it longer, that it's fine. The thing is, it didn't feel THAT long, but at the very least, I would cut the first part about the girl Valerie out of the chapter and make it into a prologue or something since that didn't add much to the chapter (though I assume is much more important later). Not much I can say about the actual writing other than the fact that I found you repeating the word "particularly" twice in one paragraph (careful with that!). Overall, good job!
Chapter 2
I praised the last chapter for it's contents, so let me take those points back okay, it's not that bad but I gotta admit that their dialogue was even more awkward to read than last time. Though that is not the main issue I have. My issue is repetition. You describe Jon to us in the first paragraph, about who his parents were and whatnot, which was already a red flag for me, but then you have him repeat it as they talk about their parents and how he is half Japanese. Pretty unnecessary. If I were you, I would only keep the dialogue bit. Also, the description of the main character as being a chick magnet (my phrasing) isn't necessary either. I think that her talking about his appearance, but also, him mentioning that this wasn't his first time waking up next to a girl like that is more than enough for this message. What I'm trying to say is Show don't Tell! Other than that, good chapter ^^ I actually have no issues with the writing overall but more so the information getting.
Chapter 3
I much prefer this length of chapter! ^^ It was much faster to get through. Now here's the deal that I am somewhat getting from your character for the time being, and it pains me to say this, but he seems like a Gary Stu. I mean, it's highly likely that as the story goes on he won't seem as "perfect" and dealing with every issue so flawlessly, but yeah, that just kind of gets to my head as I read this chapter (and it crossed my mind before but I didn't have enough proof for it yet). Another thing that kind of caught my attention was the dialogue. I feel like his little "hero speech" about where he comes from or not is a bit long. Not monolgue type of long, but just long enough for it to seem unnatural for the scene. Like why would the drunk guy just let him ramble for so long before telling him to fuck off? The very last thing that I noticed was the use of "reminded" in the beginning of the chapter regarding his flashback. Reminded gives the connotation that something reminded him of his past but as far as I see from the info in the story, there was nothing necessarily remininding him of it, he was just remembering it. That one I admit is a BIG nitpick but yeah, that just crossed my mind. (additionally, don't feel bad that I am nitpicking because that means the writing is overall good enough for me to even mention these/if the writing isn't as great, I don't bother going for little bits like those)
Oh and one more thing that just crossed my mind... What part of Japan is this exactly? Because first there is Jon who is only half Japanese, that other girl who had American routes, and now there is a girl with blond hair. Call me crazy, but having had lived in Japan for a while, I have to say, it ain't that easy to find foreigners if possible, try to ground the story more so that it feels more like Japan.
Chapter 4
Ookay~ well I can't deny that I still have that Gary Stu feeling from Jon but I'm glad that this wasn't just a scene for him to gat laid (I was praying to the atheistic God that it don't happen ) and I'm glad it didn't. Overall, we have some lore here in this chapter which is pretty interesting. The one itsy tiny nitpick I have is once again for the dialogue at the end. The girl was begging for her life and she would do anything if he let her live. He kills her, and then tells his demand (first of all, who is he talking to?) second, he killed her so the exchange doesn't even work
I assume that was supposed to be a cool moment, but to me it just sounded like he is dumb. Idk, I think there could be cooler ways to make that come across.
Chapter 5:
I've been trying not to mention this, but I have to ask: have you read/watched Bleach? Cuz a lot of the things I am reading is highly reminding me of it. Not word for word but just the themes. The main character is a student who comes off as a Gary Stu. He's super overpowered and a chick magnet. He's part of a secret society who take care of monsters in the night. He has super annoying friends where in he looks much cooler compared to them. And he even has a feature (his heritage) that makes him stand out among the japanese people. Not much else I can say about this chapter other than me noticing these similarities. Now if this is intentional, then thats fine, also if you have never watched/read bleach and it's just a coincidence, that is fine too. But if by chance you are a fan and you would rather it not be so noticeable, then here's me just letting you know that I noticed.
Chapter 6
Can. We. Get. A. Female. Character. Who. Is. Not. Described. By. How. Beautiful. She. Is!!! Sorry, but had to get that out of my way it's just a little annoying that all the girls are these perfect looking angels. It's sort of cliche, but hey! If that's the story you want then go for it 🤣 I just ain't a fan of that stuff. The story is moving and once again, I can't say much against the writing itself but I can't deny that the dialogue in this chapter was boring. I just wasn't interested in the occult stuff but I will assume it is important so I shall keep it in mind.
Chapter 7
The feminist in me did not enjoy this chapter that is all I will say. And Jon should stop acting like a girl catcher cuz he knows nothing about girls
Chapter 8/ chapter 9
Yes! Finally this Jon bastard gets told off finally!!! 🥳 I enjoyed this exchange much more than you think. Now I can finally FEEL something for him.
Chapter 10
Sigh...i was hoping that last chapter feeling of sorry for Jon would last but alas, as soon as I read that the next chapter is from Miya's perspective I knew that a monster would follow her and he would save her...
The story overall... I can't deny that it was pretty predictable and honestly not as interesting as I had hoped. I liked the beginning, but slowly it changed into something I didn't like as much. Sorry if this comes off as mean but honesty was what I promised with this post. Once I realized how much it reminded me of bleach, I just kept connecting more and more dots. Miya is a character I particularly dislike, as her character so far only comes down to her being sexy, in love with Jon, and needing to be saved. Jon once said that she was "interesting" but never explained why neither did I see any of that interesting bit from her character. I could praise you for the vampire reveal which was by far my favorite scene, but that was also the one that almost entirely solidified my view of this being so similar to bleach. Additionally, Jon's best friends are annoying, and all of the girls are categorized by how pretty /older younger from other girls they look. The story isn't to my liking, but your writing is good! I can't really think of anything I could tell you to improve other than very small nitpicks. But the story just wasn't my taste. Those are my thoughts. I don't think I can help you improve much as your writing is already at a level where I can't be of much help, so all I can do is give my opinion on the story. That was mine wish you luck in your writing!
Just as an overall announcement to everyone else, because of the length of the review I will probably be doing this as a weekly thing from now on hope that is fine with everyone!
@Dysis
@CodeMonkeyArts
@All_and_None
@sxxaint
@Spoonyenertainment
I will be choosing the order as I have mentioned but if you would like to be done sooner, making this into an exchange would definitely make me bump you up the list. If you are fine waiting however, just be patient please
Thank you for the time and effort you put into reading my work and writing this review. Your critiques and comments are all very appreciated. Thank you for the compliments on my writing and thank you for pointing out my overuse of the same words. That's something I've been working on, actually. I'm already aware of some of Jon's harsher personality features. Which is why I'm working to make him a more relatable character in later chapters. Thank you for being up front that this story was not to your taste. I appreciate your honesty.
Repetition of words is so common it's almost natural that we sometimes slip so consider me mentioning it as just a reminder. The reason I chose to do this with ten chapters is because I want to get a decent look at the story at least somewhat before I review, but my style is still chapter by chapter so that you know what I'm thinking as I read. I really enjoyed it at the beginning, but unfortunately not all stories are for everybody. But if you would be interested in further feedback exchange in the form of a read for read in the future, don't hesitate to ask ^^ I always like to help my fellow writers. Plus, despite me making jabs at some parts of the story, i can't deny that I am kind of curious what happens next 🤣
Perhaps when I have more time, I'd enjoy doing a read for read. Thank you once again for your review. I'm happy to hear you still seem interested in knowing what happens next, there's still plenty of twists and turns that come with this story. Especially as the plot really opens up. I don't wish to spoil anything, but in Anju, the City of Shadows, nothing is ever truly as it seems. If you'd like to learn more, a new chapter is posted daily.
@milejdyvan Hey! Could you review my story at the very end? I'm so swamped at the moment, I haven't been able to read as fast as I had hoped. I'll do my best to keep up as fast as I can.