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Title: The Clearing
Chapters reviewed: ALL
username: @roguewriter55
TITLE:
I remember the first time I saw the title, I thought it was a thriller/ghost story lol. Just because it reminds me of The Shining for no reason. Anyway, I am neutral about the title. The story revolves around 'The Clearing' in every subtext.
COVER:
I LOVE LOVE LOVEEEE your new cover. I adore it! It has a paperback feeling to it. You've given so much effort to improve on it since I first read the book, and even the first one was great enough. And I realised you made those banners (not sure what they're called) for chapter numbers in each one of them, which is soooo pretty. I just love writers who write diligently.
Blurb: Your blurb is clearly written, the objective and purpose of the main character, Victor in the story. It's normal to end a blurb with a question as you do. I'm not the biggest fan of ending a blurb with a question,especially the kind that says: "is it good or bad" because it tends to be obvious. If it doesn't end in a happy ending, it would be the contrary, but nothing's exactly wrong with such blurb!
PROLOGUE:
Anyone who is familiar with me and my reviews knows I am against prologues because they're basically useless. BAD prologues, that is. Yours is one of the few exceptions.
"With the warmth of the daytime hour gone, the cooler air had set in. A touch of winter with its hint of frost chilled the dark of the late autumn night. The moon, shrouded behind the thick layers of overcrowded clouds, faded to dimness. Quiet roamed the shadowy, tree-lined street, until someone began pounding on a solid wooden door."
Just how the first paragraph could be more straightforward yet so comprehensive? I just love how different your story is, the different emotions and atmosphere. Just from the prologue, you managed to set up the entire plot and the characters. A 7-year-old stranger who just NEED to be there for the family. But why? That's what we'll get from reading the story.
CONTENT:
What more could I say that I haven't told you? Your writing, your story, your characters are AMAZING. Amazingly written, paperback quality writing (the good ones, of course lol), so many clever dialogues. Victor is the most mature, gentleman adolescent I have ever met in my life, real and fiction. I know he's just a character, but it feels like you've raised a respectable child and is bragging about him to us. The 'lost' British boy in the middle of America, proud of his 'unknown' heritage and self no matter how different he is from others. He's pure, written to be pure and kind-hearted, and nothing more than that. And BONUS, he teaches waltz! At his age!
The kids, Rosetta dan Jason... have you ever watched Stranger Things? There's this little, quick-witted girl in the story, Erika. The FANTASTIC duo reminds me of her, which is one of the greatest characters written in adolescent drama series, in my opinion.
I also adore Victor's interaction with Kristy in every single scene. How he always blames his teenage hormone for being so into her haha!
The big part of the book is the magic that comes with the plot. The colored magic. How they work alone and combine to make a particular discipline, how Victor being the One Magi, causing Arabella to exercise her ambitions to use and 'breed' his descendants. The most memorable magical character other than Victor himself in the book is Gigi, the leader of the fairies. But there is so little of her. I hope there's more!
I know you're here to improve your story, but I'm sorry that I don't have anything to suggest. I wouldn't dare. If there's anything at all, I think your story reads like a HUGE summary to a HUGE magic series. If I were a publisher, I wouldn't publish your book, not because it's bad in any way. Oh no, it's great! I would first ask you to explore and elaborate your own plot and magical realm, especially everything that has to do with the Tribunal and the magical side of it, and write a massive book series about the world you've created. I would absolute;y, I WILL be the first one to buy the book if you write series of it. What you have written is great, but what you have YET to write would be phenomenal, as phenomenal as Harry Potter.
