Congratulations to everyone because nobody is a loser. If you didn't win, you can always come back and try again next time.
Secondly, the judges deserve a standing ovation for their speedy and accurate judging. Let's give it to them. Tag your judge and appreciate them. 👏🏽👏🏽
In no particular order, the results :
The White Jackel
senioratlas25
94 / 100
The title doesn’t give anything about the contents of the book but it does sound lurid and ominous. The cover is eerie with its muted palette, and invokes a dark web feel to it, with elements like the fading woods and a man in an animal mask. The blurb is effective in telling the reader what they should expect. All around, there was some minor problems with grammar, wording and agreement, nothing that could affect the understanding or the enjoyment of the reader.
The author has a heavily descriptive writing style that suits the genre. It managed to put me in that spooky cabin right beside the protagonist. The narrative was so detailed and on point that actually added an almost sensorial feel. At times the rooms in which the character roamed were so nicely portrayed that pushed a claustrophobic nature to the narrative, which is a nice feat. The author created a fully realized world. I was very impressed by it.
Peter is a well-rounded character. It took some balls to write this proud, weary Professor/ghost whisperer/ paranormal detective, that goes so much against the grain, regarding what we usually see in this platform. Kudos for the courage, creativity and for doing a darn good job at it.
Favorite line: “The creaking planks of the cabin made him jump a bit, as he heard footsteps of someone, walking, almost dragging them, across the wooden floor downstairs. He knew it was a bad idea to come in here. He had been warned but did he listen? No. Of course not”.
Humble suggestion: Just keep doing what you’re doing mate. It is great. Keep honing in those skills and keep being creative
Judge : sunprophet
Wereology
Sugar_And_Spice125
64 / 100
The title is catchy, witty and original. The cover had some great elements. The font chosen was spot on, had a sense of motion and aggressiveness that goes with the theme. The subtitle was pretty cliché, but sparked my curiosity nonetheless. I was puzzled at the image chosen. I have no idea what that greenish scaly thing was but it didn’t make me think of a werewolf.
I liked the dictionary gimmick deployed at the start of the blurb. Shame it wasn’t toyed with a little longer, it had a freshness to it unlike the rest of it. I like aesthetics, and we had here a great set of diverse attractive faces and the art itself was pretty impressive. But it was way too pop, colorful and erratic. It failed in setting the mood of a supernatural werewolf’s tale. It showcased actors not characters. In fact, made me think I was being invited to a panel at vidcon. Kudos for the creativity with the names. Perfect grammar, well done.
Felt odd the use of the vocative “Miss Medusa”, in a professional or academic setting it’d be better to use Ms. Demgorgean or Dr. Demgorgean. For a good while the protagonist’s name is repeated before every single action. It gets unnerving. We were only following her, after all. The use of the pronoun She would make the text more fluid and reader friendly. And if the earlier aesthetics is correct, we should envision Malakai, a middle age man, as Noah Centineo?! Odd.
The fact that the protagonist just rescued a random wild wolf and took him to her apartment and started talking to him as if he was a teenage pet seriously compromised the verisimilitude of it all. Even in a fantastical world where this woman has snakes for hair, her actions didn’t seem real. And that problem carried on to other characters in various segments, making all seem a bit out of the blue. A lot of the decisions made by the characters felt random, and their sentiments were way too abrupt, no build up was offered. That impression was caused due to a lack of proper character building, most of them felt paper thin. And a lot of the dialogues felt too juvenile for the character’s supposed age bracket.
The Authors style of writing is proper, fluid and pleasant. There’s not much flourishing but that was never a requirement for a good writer. The story is creative and original, the writings style is engaging. The only problem is the lack of further layer to the characters.
Favorite line: “I can’t control this anger... I don’t know if it’s mine or the wolf but when I saw her crying, me and my wolf was crying... it was like her pain became mine”.
Humble suggestion: You have an original approach to the old werewolf motif that everybody loves. It has lots of potential but needs some refinement. I don’t know how much of a pantser your writer’s self is but your story could use some world building and more attention to characters. There’s a lot of questions you can ask yourself: who they are, what drives them, and what they’re like. Most of that won’t ever see the pages but this exercise will make them truly alive and their motivations more credible to us readers and more discernible to you as a writer. So keep on writing, you’re good at it.
Judge : sunprophet
Black Sheep
empiresofwater
95 / 100
The title is not exactly creative, but the subtitle holds promises of great intrigue and mystery. The cover has a nice gothic haunted manor feel to it. Good, but the background and the foreground practically blend together, while the lettering is difficult to read. All that could be improved by jacking up the contrast levels of the image.
The blurb is interesting and the mention of cosmic horror was unexpected, and sparked my curiosity. The prologue is a masterful piece of writing. Grappling, dramatic, simple, even romantic. The reader could feel the haziness and confusion of that character’s last steps.
The Author boasts their impeccable writing style through its elegance and proficiency. The first chapter is a proper master class in storytelling with the competent use of active verbs and a stellar upholding of the “show not tell” golden rule. There’s a sneaky use of some very unexpected verbs and qualifiers what bestows the text with a particular atmosphere and, at the same time, shows the playfulness of the Author.
The descriptive quality of this book is rich when needed but never overbearing. There’s no fat, just the essential to ground the world and help the reader to visualize the increasingly eerie developments. The mix of na almost noir investigation with the elements of supernatural is gold.
Favorite line: “The path in front meandered, wading into the trees and through thorn-ridden bushes. No man had carved this road. It seemed to have been here longer than the forest itself, and the woodland had simply grown around it”.
Humble suggestion: Change that cover! Your story is pretty incredible and deserves na enticing and nonstandard art in order to captivate a larger number of readers that will certainly get a thrill out of your amazing original work.
Judge : sunprophet
Grey I : Intentions
TierneyDanae
95 / 100
The cover is pretty and gloomy, the black and white color scheme is in tune with the overall motif. While the subtitle is promising, the title itself is boring, to say the least. The pair itself is elegant but not enticing enough. The blurb was perfect, in the sense it fulfilled its purpose, injecting mystery and introducing some pertinent moral rhetoric. The disclaimer with the distinction of “stabby-screamy” versus “smutty-steamy” was gold. Gonna take this one for life, if the Author don’t mind.
I liked the book from the start. The first chapter conveyed very well the protagonist angst and with a few efficient lines let me know what that dreadful town was all about. The Author expertly resorted to some well known imagery regarding the ordinary and stifling little town stereotype, letting the reader themselves tap into their own bias and cognition to help construct that world.
The Author showed a great sensibility for description. They paired the despair of the environment to the sensorial beauty of the protagonist’s escapism. It only made the difference between those parallel realities more stark.
There was this glaring inconsistency. The protagonist started hating the city and only a few chapters ahead she stated she loved it. This kind of change of view is to be expected, but should be accompanied by certain personality development, preferably sparked by some life-changing event.
The Author shines when the protagonist goes on descriptive mode, perfectly mixing the physicalities with the perceived personality of other characters. The main character, Jordan, was rooted in two very common tropes in YA: the manic pixie dream girl and her offbeat too cool for school persona, and the ugly duckling ordinary girl that appeals to relatability. The fusing of these brings out the best of both, making Jordan a pretty unique and captivating character. Just the fact that this girl would climb up a tree in the middle of a nocturne jog, screamed how refreshing and bold she is. This also lend itself to some amazing interaction with the other more mysterious characters. I liked how was Jordan’s own inner darkness that bridge the gap between this ordinary girl and her mundane life and that extraordinary trio. Gotta say, I cringed a little every time she referred to James as “Lion”. She’s too cool to be so corny.
As for the trio, James, Nev and Kael, I did not like them, not at least until the dialogues began. Still, I was disappointed that they so easily fell into the unattainable model-esque perfection cliché. It would be much more riveting if they had some discernible flaw, physical or otherwise. Na oddity or zany quality could make your characters sexier and unforgettable.
Favorite line: “Apparently, apathy mixed with a little forward confidence and a warm body was irresistible to men, at least the kind I went for”.
Humble suggestion: The Author’s voice is in the same italics as the protagonist’s thoughts. Unnecessarily confusing. Make it bold instead.
And, more important, just keep on writing and honing in your craft. You have real talent, go be awesome and keep realizing into the world this kind of high-quality stuff.
Judge : sunprophet
The Law Of Beasts
JabreelWilson
81 / 100
The title is cool and effective, hints of conflict and action and has a kinect quality to it. Loved all the hermetic elements on the cover, it suggests the book will be filled of conspiracy and deceit. It’s really busy though, especially when escorted by all the lettering. If only there was a way to simplify it, while keeping most of those great elements. In short, it’s good but it could be great.
The blurb offers a lot to unpack, but it’s an enticing one, like I haven’t seen for a while. It could do without its last line, that references a more complicated element of world building.
I was confused by the Author’s initial disclaimer. The gravity of it disrupted the excitement I gained from the blurb. It’s hard to think that because one writes a vampire book, their belief in good will be questioned. But if you familiar, or not, with the Dunning-Kruger effect you’ll know that this world is full of ignorant people who are pretty sure of themselves, so, if it makes you more comfortable to deal with any repercussions, who am I to bitch about it.
The prelude was both poetic and action packed, so well done. But problems with punctuation and missing link verbs were far too common which compromised the understanding of otherwise beautifully written sentences. The first chapter was basically a dream sequence but succeed in telling more about the protagonist.
As for the random Greek letters scattered all over, weird as it was, I loved it. Gave me the sensation I was peeking at a secret manuscript. Sophisticated way to add mystery.
I was at odds with the Author’s choice to make the second chapter just a brief essay by a secondary character, describing the life of Jesus. It didn’t state anything new and, most important, had nothing to do with the plot. Exotic experimentation that doesn’t pay off.
Some puzzling choices were made here. While the prologue would be na awesome first chapter, the third one titled ‘Welcomed’ was by all means a preface. Spoken in first voice by our protagonist, it broke the third wall stating that the book was dictate to the actual Author. The nod to Anne Rice was informative but bizarrely placed. The exercise in archaic lexicon somehow fizzed out and only lasted the first paragraph. And yet the narrative quickly became more traditional and well paced and hence more pleasant and flowy. The way the protagonist omniscience works and allows her to see the present and the future of other characters as if she was in their bodies was creative and engaging.
Favorite line: “He was a man, a vagabond directly opposite of what I stood for, and what I’d built myself to be”.
Humble suggestion: You are so very good at writing erotica! Some sexy and graceful imagery you invoke. But I would advise you to resist the temptation, and not throw at us the more steamy scenes right in the first chapters. Think of those initial chapters as necessary preliminaries, they could still be sensual but not so much full on sex just yet. Leave those initial efforts to character building and to set up the world those characters live in. I had a hard time visualizing the scenes in the first chapters, like the characters were just floating in an indiscernible plain. What is a shame in view of the fact you end up having complex characters and a thorough world building.
Judge : sunprophet
Sarmayaa
fasurdain
50 / 100
The title is exotic and mysterious like it was a proper magical word used in some fancy incantation. But it’s a foreign word, so for the benefit of a larger audience the book could use a moody or intriguing subtitle to appeal to those who stumbled at the cover on the Watt’s front page or on a friend’s reading list. The cover itself was a bit prosaic. The font touching the borders and the two black stripes read somewhat clumsy. The blurb, although not riveting, does its job of telling us what the book is about and sets the mood. The only problem is the excess of ellipsis. Their use was so random that I can’t even discount it as a stylistic choice.
There a consistent problem with spacing, excess of punctuation, and first letter capitalization.
The first chapter succeed in its dialogue. It was upbeat, realistic and showed from the start the dynamic between these two girl friends. The introduction of the book’s motif with the line about “opposite attracts” was a bit weak for a foretelling of such importance.
The Author introduces a lot of dialect, endearing vocatives or clothing items (that’s what I assumed they were). That in itself enriches the narrative, but it would be nice to have a footnote explaining what they mean. The problem rises when the continuous use of dialect is paired with the consistent non-capitalization of the characters names that are also foreign. There were times I lost track of what was going on.
In all the dialogues Maya seems real and lively. But after the span of five chapters I couldn’t pinpoint one single major trait of hers, anything that she likes or strives to. In fact, I never got to know exactly why Sarin feel in love with her so quickly, despite having a couple of P.O.V.s of his. Was because she was pretty? No other character mentioned that. Was because she was pure? What make her that pure then? Nothing in the text was said in correlation to that. So, there was a certain lack in character development.
Humble suggestion: Enjoy your craft. Take your time toying with your characters in order to find out who they are, what’s their background, where they want to go, what’s their view of the world. This is the simplest and organic way to construct compelling and credible characters. When they are fully realized you will discover that they will help write your story, and best of it, It will be easier to avoid clichés.
Don’t be discouraged about the lukewarm review, I could tell that you do have good writing skills. If you want to reach the next level, don’t be afraid to be a wee bit neurotic about your work. All the great artists are. It comes from passion and it’ll translate itself into attention to detail and the craving to improve your craft. Keep it up!
Judge : sunprophet
Strangled Love
strxwberrix
71 / 100
Really good book, The first chapter got me hooked, but it looked like Eros was the only character in the book which made it sorta plain. I loved how there was a flashback for every chapter, and it takes a really dedicated person to be able to map it all out. I noticed minor grammatical errors and change in tenses so you should probably meet an editor.
Moonshine
MountainChild01
69 / 100
Your book has potential but you need to work on some things. You need to put more description into your characters, and scenes. Make us understand and feel what the character feels, and also watch your grammar. Your cover also needs a change because to me, it says nothing about what the book is about, and first impressions matter. By the looks of it, you're trying to have a theme with all your covers but it won't help you in awards. Lastly, for such an amazing book, you have short chapters.
Persistent Silence
ARLockhart
98 / 100
I am speechless. Your book was not only awesome, by one of the best books on Wattpad. You gave your characters emotions, and your sentences were filled with so much depth, your readers were shook. You definitely deserve more recognition in the world.
Frost
IsabelBellaB
63 / 100
Your description needs a lot of editing and your book needs a good cover. The first chapters of a book are meant to introduce the characters and let us know more about them, but to the majority of your book, it felt like just dialogues which made it quite hard to pick. Overall, a good book with potential.
Vines
joyouscharisma
86 / 100
Your book was definitely interesting, You showcased your
protagonist's personality really well, and since your book is so good, I believe it deserves a better cover. The title? I don't exactly get what it represents in the book so I would appreciate it if you could elaborate. Other than that, it was a good read and I hope your book blossoms!
Glitched
Miss1Extinct
85 / 100
I love the inbuilt ideas in your chapters. You have a smooth plot, firm descriptions, and very detailed characters, and I am looking forward to seeing the progress of your book.
The Meat Tree
MattEerie
83 / 100
A great book with fresh ideas! Your description alone is enough to grasp the attention of readers, but please change your cover, and try to organize your chapters very well.
╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
F I R S T P L A C E
Persistent Silence — ARLockhart
S E C O N D P L A C E
Black Sheep — empiresofwater
Grey I : Intentions — TierneyDanae
T H I R D P L A C E
The White Jackel — senioratlas25
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
─────────────────────────
All participants, signify here if you want your score →
─────────────────────────