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Ginger: Black Room

With a sense of determination in his voice, Ethan made a decision,"I believe, it's time for me to return."

COVER AND BLURB:-

The book cover you've opted for your book is simple for sure, no overdo, yet not very lucid as well. The background could've complimented better, if some different colour were used. Font looks really expressible, if I'm not wrong, it's SIX CAPS, and the choice of font overpowers the entire cover.
Author name should have been made more accessible to the eyes.

As for the title, to be honest, it's eye-catchy & grabs the immediate attention of the reader, it develops a curiosity in the head. However, once diving into the book, I couldn't really discern how the title is relevant to the plot? There's not a single mention about it in the entire book till where I read, that is till where you've updated.

Blurb has been measured well. Doesn't reveal much, but enough to spark curiosity & suspense. Only a slight tick off, where the words, "In an unforeseen event" has been used twice in the blurb, dampens the coherence there. Otherwise, it's good.

CHARACTER(S) AND PLOT DEVELOPMENT:

The prologue was quite stirring & thrilling, mind-boggling as well. The setting & the way of narration has a gripping effect, leading to anticipations of several theories in head, which is a good sign. The interactions were engaging, & developed eagerness to find out what would happen next, & the end was damn a non-expectant twist. However the ending also felt a little rushed, you missed a few descriptions of the characters, it would've been more striking if you'd taken some time to describe the sudden turn in the train of events.

As for the Plot Development, the storyline is consistent & not rushed, I personally like it. The secrets are unveiled slowly with each chapter, as Ethan & his friends/co-workers satisfy their very role of detectives fairly well. You've beautifully woven the storyline, incorporating a commendable style of writing. What caught my major attention was, how a single event i.e. the murder of the elder/younger daughter of the Andrew's family led to a forbidden path of past mysteries that were simply long forgotten in the folds of failed investigations.

The account of multiple past crimes that seemed interconnected to each other catches most of the attention, igniting the eagerness to know the truth that lay behind. The well-versed description of crime scenes, interrogation episodes of victims & witnesses, the investigation carried out by Ethan, the interactions between the characters etc. everything is top-notch & I mean it. I was really amazed by how well the interconnectedness of the various murders & accidents were revealed all throughout the storyline, without any effort, as smooth as just like a movie or series. The mysterious theories of Ethan's Dad's death, Detective Jaydee's car accident, Pali Haz's owner's death, etc keep the readers hooked, & not to mention but their description is really grappling.

The revelation of Ethan's short-term memory loss, his marriage with Veronica that he no longer remembered, whereas she still looked forward to rekindle her relationship with him, & the multiple intriguing theories of the so-called "organization", of which unknowingly, Ethan himself was part of, all really fall in their right place to weave a good story plot so far. To talk about the character development, Ethan's character sketch has been vividly given a graspable existence in the reader's mind, same goes for his friend Simon. However, contrary of what mentioned in the blurb, Veronica being one of the major attention-seeker, as you've mentioned that that things drastically change after her arrival, I found that her character hasn't really contributed anything worth remembering to the story plot so far, except  for the fact that she's wife of Ethan. Her scenes are limited too, her character somewhere fails to leave an impact in the reader's mind, probably because of the lack of involvement in the plot.
Other than that, the backstory of Ethan's Father Aki, Chief Louis Amber & Jaydee seems a little blurred, their past still tangled in untold mystery, which I'm sure will have more to reveal in the upcoming chapters.

Ethan's interactions with his brother are also described well & packed with emotions & brotherhood love.
All the other side characters have also got a fairly good chance to be remembered in the reader's conscience for long, mostly because of the strong & better way of imaginative narration.

WRITING STYLE AND PACING:-

The way you've framed your story with the perfect & justified balance of thrilling suspense & revelations, from beginning till where you've updated, I'm beyond stupefied & ofcourse, impressed too. There's perfect detailing of everything, let it be the characters, the scenario or the surrounding. Your writing style is good & appreciable to the point, where it really had me picturising each and every scene in the back of my head...as if I was there witnessing everything, just like a VR or Theatre Movie.
However a small loophole I encountered would be worth mentioning, as it needs to get clarified. You must've noticed that I mentioned "younger/older daughter of Andrew's family" elsewhere here in the review. This is mainly because I'm still unclear about whether the one that got killed was actually the older one or the younger one, because at two different places you've mentioned, that the sister that was alive was a little girl, as it seemed from the interaction & somewhere else as the older sister. It confused me a bit, so ensure that such contradictions are not arisen in the book, leading to ambiguous content delivery.

For me, pacing is just as fine as the writing style. The story flow is in perfect grasp for now and the rhythm seems fine to me. There wasn't much of waiting for the interaction of the main characters of the story and I really enjoyed that.

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY:-

Your vocabulary is really fabulous & there's nothing to point out. Words chosen really compliment well & synchronize the coherence & relevance of the story pretty well. There's no repetition of words, & that's the best part. As I've mentioned in my previous reviews also that constant repetition of words make the readers lose their interest and get easily bored, no matter how strong the story build up is. So you deserve praise for that. Well done!

Talking of the grammar, there's no issue with narration part, tenses, or spellings, but I noticed that there's some noticeable ambiguity in usage of appropriate pronouns. Like you've used 'she' & 'her' for male characters &  'he' & 'his' for female characters in many places, & to be honest , it really had me confused at many places. I often got derailed of my reading spree, to contemplate whether this particular character is actually female or a male. You should know that this even might annoy the reader, making them lose their interest. That's a serious note, that needs to be rectified soon. Also, a few typos but that's manageable as they can be easily corrected once editing is done.

PERSONAL ENJOYMENT:-

I personally enjoyed reading the story. It took me long to publish your review because I read the entire book until where you've updated, & I felt that since it's a thriller mystery, I must first read the entire story, & then only reach to a conclusion & present my views. No doubt, the story is really intriguing & captivating. Storyline is plotted in such a way that it truly demands more & more suspense & twists all along, that adds up to its favor. Some reasonable editing is recommended. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming chapters of your book to be published. Keep writing.

All the very best for your future writings, keep up the good work Katlibxy !

Author: katlibxy
Title of the Book: Black Room
Reviewer: TaeTaeGinger