Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs

Marla Braziel

Teen, Vampires

47 pages

Teen

Warnings: Violence, mentions of murder, mentions of sex

   Annabell is a vampire attending night school in order to seek out her next kill. She befriends Aiden in an attempt very to find the best rating victim through his friends.

Writing Style: 5/10

   Most of the characters were very two dimensional to me. Annabell was interesting with her hunt, but Aiden and his girlfriend are very standish, not letting you know anything. Students best friend, Bane mentions family problems at home. Bane himself had potential, but was only in the story briefly. The most interesting character, an athlete named Mark, was brutalized by Annabell early in the story and avoided her for the rest. Mainly, this story us internalized by Annabell and lets no one else develop.

Plot: 7/10

   Annabell's quest to find a delicious high schooler for her once yearly underaged kill is interesting, especially with the night school. How she goes about it, finding a target and devoting every minute to trying to get their trust so she can betray them is interesting. The plot is fairly loose otherwise and sort of focuses on her finding her target.

Originality: 5/10

   The market is so swamped with stories on vampires at this point that it's hard for any of them to be original. Still, the night school is a nice addition that I had yet to see and the intense focus on finding a target and not worrying about being popular or falling in love was a nice change if pace. This isn't to say that no one wants to be with Annabell, Mark got himself hurt by being too forward and Bane was also very interested in her, she just had no interest in the boys.

Enjoyability: 6/10

   The story wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. So little time was spent on Annabell truly interacting with other characters that it really took away from the story and made me yearn to have someone show up that would have a full conversation with her.

End: 6/10

   This is a novella and has for other parts and I took that into account, but the end was still awkward. I feel as though it should have ended more where Annabell determined her target, as that seemed to be the focus  of the novella.

Overall: 29/50

Musical Chairs can be gotten from Amazon or her own page.

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WILDly

WILDly

T. Swanpoel

Fantasy, sci-fi

180 pages

Teen

Warnings: Violence

When moving into her varsity dorm, university for all of us American readers, a mysterious man named Duncan awakens something in Valerie that she didn't know she possessed. She now has a great connection to the Earth and Duncan and her new friend at varsity, Alex, are fighting for it. Valerie has to decide what side is good and help fight in a battle to defeat the other one.

Writing Style: 4/10

The style wasn't terrible, but the were a few things were very problematic with it. First of all, you're just thrown into this world without learning anything about the characters. I also have no idea where this is supposed to be set. I don't have any issue with it being set in a different country (probably where the author is from), but it helps me engage in the story, particularly when I need to realize that their slang is different than ours, such as varsity meaning university. In addition, I couldn't there were words that seemed out of place, as in they were too advanced for the writing. Occasionally, a word I had never heard was thrust upon me and I have a feeling that I wasn't the only one who was confused and trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, there were a number of spelling and grammar mistakes. It wasn't anything so bad that it made it unreadable, but it was enough to warrant suggesting a proof reader.

Plot: 8/10

The plot was very good. Valerie starts not knowing of her connection. She's just a normal girl that is going to varsity and is hoping to have some fun. Everything quickly begins changing and the plot is fast paced. Between trying to determine which side is the one Valerie needs to align herself with and then how to make her powers stronger to fight the other side, there's always something to keep you enthralled.

Originality: 9/10

The connection to a celestial body isn't exactly a new idea, but the way Swanpoel went about it was original. This was a facet of this alternate version of our universe that had to be thought about very carefully and be fleshed out. Not only do Valerie and the some of the other characters have a connection to a planet, star or other celestial body in our galaxy, but they have powers associated with it also. Some of these powers are dependant on their connection, Valerie can change the weather based on her moods, and some are based on just the fact that they have a connection at all, such as healing. This combined with a hierarchy and a ruling class makes for a very original story.

Enjoyability: 6/10

As much as I loved the plot and the originality, there was a major problem with the enjoyability. It's too fast paced. There's never really any downtime to get to know the characters. It's only a few pages in before Valerie meets Duncan and her awakens her connection. She then wakes up in a hospital and feels as though there's something wrong with the nurse and escapes. At no point during any of this do we really learn anything about Valerie, other than she's adopted. This continues throughout the entire book. There's not a lot of interaction that not based strictly around the issues at hand and I didn't feel like I knew any of the characters at the end. I feel like not thrusting us into the world of danger so quickly or taking a step back at some point and allowing Valerie and her varsity friends, Lisa, Alex and Jennifer, some time to get to know each other and their interests would have helped immensely. Even just some time with some of the other, more elusive characters like Benjamin or Duncan would have made it easier to get attached to Valerie.

End- 4/10

I really felt as though I had to come down hard on the end. I have no idea what happened. Three characters could have died and I have no idea if any of them did or not, although I have my suspicions. There was a twist that I did like and that brought the score up a little bit, but it was just too muddled and there was no real wrapping up. I feel like some closure in a story is necessary and there wasn't any in this.

Overall- 31/50

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The Ivory Prison

The Ivory Prison

Ashlyn Daube

Sci-fi

Length

Teens

Warnings: Violence, mentions of death

GAB-27 has lived his whole life in one room. He's been educated and experimented on, but never given an identity or allowed to visit with other children. For a short time he is allowed a mirror, then a window into the hall, but is always trapped inside of his room. All of this changes when the facility is taken over by Dr. Mercier. His door is open, his room is painted, he is named Gabriel and he has a friend, Dr. Mercier's son Lukas. Still, he knows he is not human and he knows that he isn't making the progress that they want and his life comes with deadline.

Writing Style: 9/10

Excellent style. The description's are easy to picture in your mind, but aren't overly detailed and there isn't an excess of dialogue. The writing is natural and there's a real attachment to the characters. There was at least one spelling error, leading to a deduction, but overall it was excellent.

Plot: 8/10

The plot was good. It was clear and had a great flow to it. Gabriel's background was throughly fleshed out before jumping into the part that he wants to tell, the part where he is treated humanely by Lukas, another boy like him and his first and only friend, and Dr. Mercier and to the worry towards the end of him meeting the mysterious goal that has been laid out for him to acheive or to die.

Originality: 6/10

The idea of a locked up experiment isn't anything new. It's something that is used commonly in science fiction and isn't anything to write home about. There are many different ways you can go with such a story. Is Dr. Mercier going through this to later betray Gabriel? Why does Lukas care for his new friend so much? Is Gabriel going to meet his goal? If he is, how? If he's not, what's going to happen to him? The answer to these types of questions are where the originality really shines through, but also give away spoilers.

Enjoyability: 10/10

Gabriel was an interesting character and his interactions with Lukas were perfect. They contrasted so well, Gabriel having had no freedom, while Lukas had an abundance. Dr. Mercier was also well written. The characters were so good that I truly wanted to find what happened to them next and I didn't get distracted like I do with some of the stories I don't like as much.

End: 8/10

Although it became more and more predictable how the story was going to end as time went on, it was still a good ending that tied up all the pressing questions of the book while still leaving it open for her to continue into a series.

Overall: 41/50

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What did you guys think? Was it worthy of my praise or just another book?

Steampunx Episode 1: Funk and Puck

Steampunx Episode 1: Funk and Puck

Benjamin Jacobson

Steampunk, alternate reality 

43 pages

Teen

Warnings: Violence

Funk is a boy living in 1875 that is trying to become a man by hunting the Birch Stag, a wooden stag created by the wizard Thunder. Instead of killing the beast himself, he witnesses it's demise at the hand of outsiders with guns, which have been banned in the land of Ten Hundred Nations and gets himself shot through the hand. To save it, he and his sister, Puck, must go find Thunder while at the same time warn him of the intruders.

Writing Style: 10/10

The author did really well in writing this. The style seemed to accurately represent the people that he was writing about and I personally didn't see any mistakes on his part. He just did an all around excellent job.

Plot: 9/10 

The plot progressed well with natural twists and turns. It starts out as an innocent quest for manhood before morphing into something more dangerous and bigger than Funk's quest. The Buffalo man ends up playing a major role, attacking the two while at Thunder's and guns in The Ten Hundred Nations are banned, making it so that their presence is an act of hostility against the whole nation and involving more than just the two children and Thunder.

Originality: 10/10

I feel like this was a very original story. While it told one young man's coming of age, it told of a major threat that was going to come down on the nation. The steampunk side of it is a nice addition to many stories and one that I personally don't see explored often enough. Thunder uses a lot of wood in his endeavors and also tries to make them for the purpose of peace. These all combine into a very original work.

Enjoyability: 9/10 

The originality in this and the idea of a place that mixed the ways of earlier early humans and the present era of the time had me enthralled until the end. In the beginning the contrast of the twins characters, Puck being very much still a child and carefree while Funk is serious and wants to be taken as a man had me smiling and wanting to see what happened to them. When it was decided that they needed to see Thunder, the wizard that was said to be crazy, I wanted to know how crazy he was and see these magical machines he possessed. The story kept me going with something new continuously and took me as far as to read the two sequels that he has out.

End: 9/10 

The end did everything that I want in an end. It wrapped up the story, letting me know what happened with Funk's hand, the Buffalo Man that killed the Birch Stag and Thunder's machines and their uses while paving the path for episode two.

Overall: 47/50

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