PICK ME! {Book Reviews}

Everything is Burning

Title: Everything is Burning

Author: cactusxgirl

Age: 17-19

Chapters: 14

Status: Complete

Mature Content: Swearing, sexual themes (not explicit), suicide, abuse (all types), violence.

Areas to focus: Writing style, plot, character development.

One of the best ways to gain a reader's attention is through a catchy introduction; something to grab your reader's interests that make them want to continue reading. Your prologue definitely made me want to keep reading. I think what I like most about your story is the ambiguity of Celeste and Maia. They have both gone through such traumatic experiences and you feel genuine sympathy for them, but also they aren't entirely innocent either. Maia leads them both down quite a dark path of revenge that, while justified, results in some irreversible decisions. And I love that. Life isn't black and white, people aren't fully good or bad, there are gray areas. This adds such a real depth to your characters. Great job.

Additionally, I think you have a great style; it is engrossing to read and you provide such rich detail to your story. I especially love the detailed descriptions you provide to set the scene for the readers. It's these details that really make the story more engaging. And while the overall premise of your story is more serious, I appreciate the small bits of humor you sneak in as well. I can tell you have a good grasp on writing. Your plot is strong and has a purpose driving it. If I had to critique anything, I'd say I would like to see more character development early on. You do touch on this a bit with Celeste's background with her parents and her friend, Leah. But I'd like to learn more about Celeste and her daily interactions with the other students at school. She's clearly not part of the "in" crowd, but what does that mean for her at school? How does that make her feel or how do others perceive her? High School is all about cliques, so be sure to play that up.

Additionally, I think your writing would benefit from mixing up some of your sentences. I noticed a lot of them will start with "I", or you will utilize the same sentence starters for multiple sentences in one paragraph. This is a good literary technique to emphasize a point, but use it sparingly to help drive the point home when you do utilize it. Overall, I think you have a great story and you should be proud of what you've written.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or would like more help.

~Crimsonfred1