The Aster Awards 2023 [CLOSED]

: ̗̀➛ GENERAL FICTION

1. The Queen of Arrows by BellOfSilence

Title - 7/10: I feel like there could've been a title even more fitting for the book. The current title would suit a lot of books, so I don't feel like it does the actual story justice.

Cover - 8/10: Very pretty, I love the picture and how it's used in the media throughout the book, but this also doesn't really convey the idea of the story very well. All I know is that it's about a girl, likely in the middle ages, who uses a bow and arrow. Usually I'd say either the cover or the title needs to already give something about the story away, as these are usually the factor
that decides whether someone is interested in even reading the blurb or not.

Blurb - 9/10: The blurb really does the story justice. It's now very clear what the story is about and the writing style (which is amazing) really shines through. A personal pet peeve of mine is
questions in the blurb, though. They don't usually add any information, and when they do it's
usually not a very thought-provoking question. My personal rule is that if it can be answered
with a yes or no answer, it's better to rephrase it or leave it out completely. But some people
do really like the format, so it might just be me.

Plot - 15/15: Honestly I don't have much to say except for that it was very nice! Of course Robin Hood is a classic story, everyone knows the basic idea (taking from the corrupt rich, giving to the poor). This still had the same themes, but a new perspective.

Creativity - 15/15: I have never read a story like it, although I don't typically read historical books (fiction or nonfiction), so I don't have much to compare it to.

Grammar - 14/15: Grammar mistakes are negligible. They're there but if I wasn't specifically looking for them, I wouldn't have found them. It's those things even grammar checkers probably would skip over (like extra spaces or combined sentences that grammatically would've been better separated).

Characters - 5/5: I like the main character! She sounds like a badass and very smart. And Hood reads exactly how I'd expect him to be from the folklore! Personally I haven't seen anyone have that same interpretation, so it was very fun to read.

Interaction with the reader - 4/5: The writing style was very engaging. In the beginning I found it to be a bit difficult to get into, but once I got there, it was very easy to stay engaged.

Overall- 15/15 points
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Total points - 92/100

2. Hypodermic Transgression by nxnsxgnorsDxmon

Title - 10/10: Perfect title! Nice choice of words, unique, yet totally makes sense with what type of book it is!

Cover - 2/10: Parts of the cover are difficult to read ('transgression', the subtitle, and the author). I also think the fonts are too much, it makes the cover very busy making it hard to determine what to look at. The picture used is okay but covered up too much by the stickers and the rose
petals. The main font used was nice though.

Blurb - 7/10: The blurb does what needs to be done, but it does have rather long sentences and consists of only one long paragraph. Cutting it up might help out a bit. Also I do think just the emojis to break the parts up might look less busy (from a phone format, at least).

Plot - 15/15 points: The story has a very nice pace. It's not too slow, nor is it too quick. Honestly I was gonna be worried that the plot was going to be thin due to all the warnings (I'm the kind of person who usually skips over smut), but it actually wasn't. It was very well done. Not only was there a plot, the plot was also very engaging.