B#6 | Born In The Dark | kurzes94

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poster

Title

Author

Characters

Category

Genre

Status

Born In The Dark

kurzes94

Jungkook and Dalnim (OC), rest of BTS

Boy x Girl

action, angst

Chaptered (ongoing)

Description

Jungkook and Dalnim meet on campus and they both have their secrets nobody knows about. After an accident, Dalnim's hard shell slowly starts to crumble.

 
 

Title


I really like this title; the reason I requested this story was because the title sounded very, very intriguing, and it has a lot of potential connotations. I think that, as it sounds very unique, it draws readers in and interests them; when I first read your title, I immediately felt compelled to read it and requested to review it, so it’s a very well chosen title.

Descr.&Forew.


I must admit, I didn’t expect your introduction of Dalnim. I read the description you submitted and expected a rich/poor dynamic, so when I saw “She prefers jeans over skirts, heavy boots over heels,” I thought it was gearing up to be a typical bad girl/good boy au. The end of that sentence completely threw me off, although I suppose I should have anticipated that from the title. However, I thought the straying from my misconception was refreshing. Now, your foreword. I generally don’t like character lists/introductions because they tend to give away the whole story and tends to make the writer lazy in describing the characters’ backstory, so I’m anticipating a lot from you now. The descriptions don’t give too much away, which is good, but I would suggest giving only trivial information that’s unlikely to actually come up in the story, and more important information like “Life let her down a lot of times, making her the flawless assassin she is.” to be included in the actual story. Questions like “But what is haunting him that makes him roam the empty streets at night?” are intriguing, and can be left in as a hook. I’m anticipating the story. Let’s go!

Graphics


Although the poster you have does fit the genre and general feeling of the story, I didn’t particularly like it. Jung kook and Dalnim look too out of focus, and the background and overlaying of the editing doesn’t really appeal to me. They’re also not very clear, and the fact that there’s a lost of black means that there’s not a lot of contrast, which annoys me slightly.

Char. Dev.


I like the dynamics between Dalnim and the boys; it feels very real but also convincing in terms of the assassin environment. I like the way they interact (My favourite line is “No, she didn’t love Kim Seokjin. But at least he made her feel something.”) this line not only reveals something about her interaction with Jin, but also reveals a little about how Dalnim is as a character. I also like the way you portray Jungkook as a slightly immature adolescent, and the introductory chapter where we first meet Jungkook feels a little like the HYYH MVs, although admittedly that’s the general feeling of the entire story. I love how you portray your characters as imperfect, and I really like that you develop not only their strengths but also their flaws, and that all the characters you’ve created for BTS seem like personalities that could fit them even in real life.

 

Appearance


The appearance is quite simple but satisfying, and I like the designs you inserted in the page breaks. That’s it, really.

SBC

Orgin.&Plot


I haven’t read anything like this story; the connections between the characters are really intriguing and makes me want to keep reading it. Although the meeting between Jungkook and Dalnim was rather predictable in the way that I knew they would hate each other in the beginning, I didn’t expect it to be in that way. I also didn’t expect their relationship to become closer in that way, but somehow, it felt very convincing.

 

Flow


The chapter lengths are perfect, and the transitions are very smooth and feel almost like a movie. The internal dialogues that you’ve given Dalnim and Jungkook are so contrasting that they complement each other, and that's a difficult feat to pull off.

Writing


Firstly, I think your writing is very good and enjoyable, but that your choice of words should be more deliberate, and you also need to use less periods and more commas. One thing I noticed is that you end sentences unnecessarily before moving on to the next, which would seem like it’s carrying on the next sentence, and that breaks the flow of the story. For example, “He does his job and lets himself be paid good money. Even when the green of the bills is tinted in a morbid shade of red”. This was originally one of my favourite sentences, but if you paid more attention to word choice and sentence structure, it could be changed to “He does his job well and gets paid good money –– even if the green bills seem stained with a macabre shade of red”, which is a sentence that feels more satisfying to me.

Secondly, some phrases are worded weirdly. In the prologue, the task the younger man undertakes is said to be ‘As easy as stealing a rattle from a newborn’, and while I understand what you’re trying to say, the phrase for that is actually “...stealing candy from a baby”, so that was slightly amusing.

Gramm.&Spel.


Like I said, the word choice and sentence structure could be improved. Your spelling is good for the most part except for a few instances here and there, and your grammar could be improved on. If you keep working on it, I’m sure you’ll be much better in future.

Gen.Enjoym.


I enjoyed the story a lot, more so as the story progressed and I got hooked on it and began focusing less of the grammar and spelling. The interesting plot and dynamic character interaction is something you don’t usually find in fanfics, so I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the character development. All in all, my expectations for this story were exceeded, and I really enjoyed it.

 
 
 

Title : 10/10

Description & Foreword: 9/10

Graphics: 5/10

Character Development: 10/10

Appearance : 10/10

Originality & Plot: 10/10

Flow: 10/10

Writing: 7/10

Grammar & Spelling: 8/10

General Enjoyment: 9.5/10

88.5 / 100

 
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fefedove
#1
Chapter 100: Omg I don't even remember having requested this and never credited either. I'm so sorry and I'll do it as soon as I have access to a laptop omgomg