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《Nihwé》A World so Dark and Deadly

Reviewer: MissRut

My review on;
A WORLD SO DARK AND DEADLY
Author: kennedyrrrr3

Thank you very much for trusting me with your book.

The Cover: While the book cover is not the darkness or remotely the deadliest, the use of blue-gray color pallet creates an inviting hue and promises a futuristic glimpse into the story. Honestly the way the text colors and fonts come together is amazing but the entire theme should focus more on portraying the upscale tech innovations. 4 points.

The Title: This story feature is different and keeps the interested audience waiting on a bated breath to understand the angle the story is coming from. It almost seems like a riddle even. It’s intriguing. 5 points.

The Blurb: I command the author for successfully building the worst wave of anticipation. World so dark and deadly and no hint to what the ‘world’ is like, absent memories of the previous world, with only one person in the know? I didn’t think it was possible to keep people hooked at a glance but this writer knows what to do to keep one interested in whatever is brought to the table. 4 points.

The Setting: The story takes place in the new world where there is absence of the vibrant undertones of life we know as of today. Higher powers in the unknown are in charge of this new cyberspace. Unlike the old world, this one has creepy skeletons not just the cupboards but at every single turn. The four extra centuries old world is home to the good, the bad, a whole lot of ugly and a few other people that just want to be left alone. 15 points.

The Plot: It seems to be unfolding quite nicely. There isn’t anything too unexpected to see just yet but willing anticipation that now spills over especially at the very last scene where the careful calculations of mystery by plays out. The dramatic twists in the prologue and the ending of chapter two are quite unnerving but everyone wants to see where this goes so maybe awarding points for this is too soon but at least it gets 5 points.

The Characters: So far we have a mysterious boy, average girl, with a sick mom and Pablo Picasso for a dad as well as a mysterious leader of shady organization who want to bury the truth regardless. Whatever the history or past they must have had, they’re working together to play this game of chess to the finish. The stakes are higher with them as the chess pieces. 4 points.

The Content: For a book that’s just coming up, it would have had a lot of background prepping to have such rich content. It is adequately detailed with utmost precision and for the first time in a long time, I don’t think anyone is going to despise the history lessons along the way. There’s a uniqueness to it like that. The elements at play to make it a science fantasy are far from disappointing. 16 points.

Writing Style: I love where the writing comes from. The in-depth transition between the scenes in the book is not your usual once upon a time reads. It has great potential for something greater. While I commend the author’s capabilities with recreating this kind of adventure, it seems lacking in details for some key elements in the story. There isn’t enough weight on some factors at play; readers may tend to see Winnie’s mother through judgmental lenses as though she is out of her mind rather than ill because of some weird act or the other. She seems to pose a much greater concern and may or may not look like a cause to worsen hers or Winnie’s predicament as the story progresses. I suggest pumping a little more life in that direction to even it out so it doesn’t seem like she operates a different narrative. Still, it looks great. 7 points.

Grammar, Vocabulary& Sentence structure: The words aren’t wrongly used but maybe a bit of it wasted. ‘Winnie carried the bowl of noodles from the kitchen which was downstairs, behind the art gallery upstairs to her mother.’ No one is really interested in all that but if it has to be included, how about, ‘Winnie took the bowl of noodles from the kitchen behind the art gallery upstairs to her mother.’ It has been established already that the living quarters occupies the higher level of the building and the gallery is down below.

That being the case it could still be, ‘Winnie took the bowl of noodles upstairs to her mother.’ Everyone should know it was definitely coming from the kitchen. In that vein, it wasn’t mentioned previously that Winnie was working on a bowl of noodles so maybe, ‘Winnie took a bowl of freshly made noodles up to her mother’, would be even better. In any case, the little bits of happenings between the lines count.

Also, rather than saying, ‘she looked at me blankly’, one could use, ‘she gave me a blank look’. If that format is to common, there is always the option of, ‘the look she gave me was blank’. That works too depending on usage. Little slips like this can be corrected to make the narrative even more beautiful.

Lastly, there are a tad too many paragraphs. I suggest use of more conjunctions in writing. Apart from these few occurring hiccups, the work is basically on point. 15 points

Engagement with the reader: This is the best feature of this book. It’s one to definitely follow up and I’m sure anyone that chooses to read it would not regret it. Everyone is looking forward to updates. 13 points.

Total Points: 88/100