B#6 | Case One: Dear Luhan | BambiDear

✎ Steph's Bookclub Archive - For All The Completed Reviews -
ZsQDyX7.jpg?1
 

--❏ Steph's Bookclub Reviewshop ❒--

 
poster

Title

Author

Characters

Category

Genre

Status

Case One: Dear Luhan

BambiDear

Oh Sehun (EXO), Luhan (EXO)

Romance, Dark, Mild Angst, Horror, Semi-fluff

One-Shot

Description

In which Sehun writes a letter to his boyfriend, Luhan.

 
 

Title


Objectively, the “Dear Luhan” indicates to a passing potential reader that your story will fit the lines of a more generalized “Letters to one’s lover” sort of tale. While this works in the favor of your story, because the reader then does not expect the subsequent horror to come, I think you’d benefit from at least changing the “Case One” part to reflect something that sounds a bit more like a realistic criminal file. Use numbers and letters, make it look official and ominously impersonal. I think it would be interesting to see how a reader would react to the same title with a minor alteration.

Descr.&Forew.


Short and to the point- obviously, when you make the conscious choice to limit yourself to one sentence, you lose the opportunity to add nuance to what the story is going to be about- but again, this works in the favor of your story. I like that you lead the reader on by presenting to them the falsehood of a normal relationship.

Graphics


Wasn’t a huge fan of the font of the title, although I did like the random blurred bars of text superimposed over your main characters’ faces. Something colder and more sinister in terms of color scheme would fit the story better.

Char. Dev.


Sehun's voice was believable throughout the story, and I think you did a pretty good job with the concept of a psychotic narrator; however, at times you tended to over explain moments that Sehun as a psychopath would not have wasted time explaining- establishing the unreliable narrative concept is important, but make sure Sehun isn’t overdoing it. Additionally, if Sehun is a psychopath, he should display diminished empathy and remorse; I appreciate that in going along with your concept of someone who feels empathy in a more twisted way, you distort his emotions and rather than have him feel guilty over killing people, you have him focus his guilt on the way Luhan reacts. You do this well, but make sure you’re really emphasizing Sehun’s disinterest in the lives of anyone but Luhan. Also, you seem to fluctuate between a disinterest and a pleasure in killing- for example, Sehun describes the harmony of a skull smashing into concrete at one point, while at another point he almost clinically describes the murder of Luhan’s father. Try to make sure that if he’s apathetic in one place, he’s apathetic throughout, unless he’s starting to become more interested in killing. Also, as another note, Luhan was kind of colorless for me in this story. I’d like to have seen more detail spent describing him in Sehun’s voice rather than having Sehun tell us outright that he did certain things.

 

Appearance


not sure I was the most fond of the centered font, but it was easy to read. good appearance.

SBC

Orgin.&Plot


I thought the cliff hanger was a good place at which to end your story. You had a unique premise and you stuck to your guns throughout the story, never over-imbellishing or understating what was happening. It was quite easy to predict what your story would be simply based on the premise, so I definitely approve of your decision to hide the genre. There are a few moments however, that were not believable and did not feel well researched; when writing a story that bases itself on something like a police force, or a mental asylum, or anything factual that mirrors real life, you want to make sure you make it sound as believable as possible. For example, the situation with the nurse and the discussion of solitary confinement could have been made more believable/sounded more mature and well researched if you had thrown in some jargon and done a quick search engine survey of psychiatry/forensics/etc/.

 

Flow


You did well with carrying the story forward, though there were a few luls in the storyline that inevitably stemmed from the way it was planned out. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think going back and altering syntax/throwing in more ominous sounding adjectives might even help you to achieve a sense of lurking dread from the very start. Double check the way you jump into thoughts, however, because you seem to get choppy and break away from a smooth structure in this regard. I’ll provide an example:

“At that moment, the sound of the thief’s skull cracking and his blood staining the brick walls crossed my mind. I smiled at the harmony that was made.”

To me, this sounds halfway between a step back in time and a rather unnecessarily detailed flashback. Instead, why not explain what’s going on here? “Your innocence made me think back to when…” would be a good starter, and would connect the fact that Luhan believed the alibi to the fact that Sehun is now thinking of the harmony of sound coming from his murder.

Writing


Your writing is pretty good! other than grammar issues and verb issues, you’ve got a really smooth style that’s easy to follow and a pleasure to read. However, I will say, along a similar line of what I mentioned before in terms of your flow, that you were injecting notes of non-real circumstances into your writing. There were moments where it seemed like I was being shortchanged on descriptions, or where you abbreviated the pathway towards a certain situation in your writing and there was no explanation of how something was happening- for example, when Sehun randomly mentions using an axe to split the head of a rabid dog open- if he’s asking Luhan if he remembers this, then Luhan has to have seen it, but how would this be something to mention lightly when an axe is probably the most gory way to kill a rabid dog? you could use a gun instead. that’s more believable (especially in the context of possible contact with rabies infected animals).

Another example of abbreviated description/ rather unbelievable structure is when you write “I left you and quietly took a sledgehammer from a nearby construction site.” was the construction site mentioned earlier? where did it come from? spatially how far away is this site from the man? how did Sehun catch the man if he had to run over to a construction sight to get a sledgehammer, and how did he manage to swipe a sledgehammer so quickly? see what i’m getting at here? Be a little more exacting in the aspects of your story that you’re throwing in- one shots are unique in that because they are so short, they have to be airtight, and you can’t really throw in a major plot point like that and then not explain it.

Gramm.&Spel.


Grammar was probably your weakest point. You have issues with verb tense change and with plural/singular as well as a few pronoun issues. You also tend to confuse certain sentence structures, and some of your descriptions get just a bit garbled. The best advice I have is for you to read over your work out loud. Does the sentence you’re reading aloud sound confusing? Are your verbs parallel or not? Make sure reading it aloud is not awkward, and you’re good to go. Beta readers help too!

Gen.Enjoym.


I really liked this story! Thrillers and psychological stories are right up my alley, so I was really happy when I saw that I would get to review this story. That being said, I think there are a few flaws that can be easily corrected with a little attention to detail and review of some of my constructive criticism! Great job with your creativity and your work on this story.

 
 
 

Title : 7/10

Description & Foreword: 7/10

Graphics: 8/10

Character Development: 6/10

Appearance : 10/10

Originality & Plot: 7/10

Flow: 7/10

Writing: 6/10

Grammar & Spelling: 5/10

General Enjoyment: 8/10

71 / 100

 
© writerFairy Layouts 2015
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
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