[r] the girl who cried wolf - underground muses

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The girl who cried wolf by undergroundmuses
Score: a++ 10/10 would recommend

 

(warning for spoilers, if you're someone who hasn't read the fic yet. you should do it though. read the fic, i mean. it's great. also pls forgive any errors, i've had a long week.)

me: notices the chapter titles are some long, sad aesthetic quotes

me: a fic writer after my own heart :''')

 

So right off the bat, I noticed that only the first word of your title is capitalized. I'm personally a fan of pretentious lapslock titles, but for me it either has to be that or Perfectally Capitalized, so I would suggest that you pick one. For "the girl who cried wolf," I would actually suggest the latter. Or changing it entirely, because I really do like the aesthetic of the chapter titles and I feel like matching the fic title would fit. 

Then I read your description/foreword and got hooked. Have I mentioned yet that I'm a fan of the sad aesthetic? Because your description fits that so well.  The foreword is also really good at pulling people in - it's definitely the right scene, just maybe a tad bit too long. What's the point in copying and pasting the whole thing when they're just going to read it in the first few chapters, right? It's good to leave a little mystery.

The whole thing seems a bit weirdly spaced (like there's too much space between paragraphs?) but honestly that's a trivial matter. For me, it takes a little getting used to, because I often associate spacing between paragraphs with flow so I end up reading much slower, but it's a hassle to change (I know this, unfortunately, from firsthand experience,,, rip livejournal,,,) and it's really fine.

You wanted me to focus on your characters, so: I'm a fan. You were worried about them being too similar, but I honestly don't think that's an issue. They're all - especially the girls - really developed as their own characters; Jisoo is her lost love, Lisa is her desire to save, Jennie is her desire to protect, Chaeyoung is her concern, but they're all also so much more. What I get is that you picked a character trait, which is really great to distinguish them. My only advice would be to take care to avoid making them defined by those characteristics. Strong female characters don't have to be strong in the physical sense, just human. I'm also not sure how "accurate" you wanted to make the characters according to their real life counterparts, but I don't find it an issue because I don't really associate rpf with the actual people... Oh, and maybe make them a little less dramatic? It struck me, particularly in the scenes where Lisa ran out of the house and with her and the pack, that sometimes the dscriptions feel a little... dramatized? Unreal? It's kind of hard to describe, and it doesn't feel like it's not things that people would actually do, just maybe the way you describe it? Kind of like their characters should either be toned down or fleshed out more. (Not in the sense that they're too similar, but that they're too 2D.)

On that note, I find that having a beta reader is really helpful for picking up on things that could be improved, especially with things like descriptions or confusing stylistic choices (which is very much a personal problem. Maybe I'm projecting). In this case, maybe someone who's good with how a story flows. You're doing fine right now (and jiminaura, if they're a co-author as beta?) but it usually helps to have an extra eye (or two) to catch things that you don't (depending on what your beta is good at, at least. I can't for the life of me beta only for flow, because I at it myself, but I'm bomb at general mechanics).

Something else that I noticed is that you tend to right a lot of one-liners. As in lines, like there's dialogue and a descriptor/scene and it only takes one line so it looks a lot like this:

"Can you move down a seat so that Doc and I can sit by each other?" Sneezy asked, with a sneeze.

"If I wanted to sit there, I woulda sat there," Grumpy replied grumpily.

Sneezy proceeded to sneeze on Grumpy's food.

"Well I just lost my appetite," Grumpy said, also grumpily, before gathering his things to leave.

Upon reaching the door, he scowled at Mary Margaret, my poor, dear, sweet Snow. I love Snow.

(scene from Once Upon a Time, don't @ me pls)

Your writing is definitely not as choppy as this, I just wrote an quick example.

Anyways do you see how that can get kind of monotonous after a while? You could add in a descriptions or two, or make the character say a few more words to break up the repitition. (This was more prominent in the first chapter, less so by the fifth. It's better than paragraphs upon paragraphs, though, they're such a slog to read through and it always reminds me of English readings. So you don't really have to go back and rewrite anything, just be more aware? Although if you do choose to rewrite it, it can only get better.)

As for the plot, I absolutely love it. I've never read anything like it and I've recently discovered an affinity for wolf!au and supernatural beings!au. It's still the beginning so I can't say much on it, but I'm really interested in seeing where it's going! I can't for the life of me figure out where that cliffhanger is going, though. Maybe I need to reread the whole thing?

There's not much else to criticize/talk about. Your grammar, spelling, other mechanics are fine. The story elements (plot, pace, etc) are dandy. I, personally, loved it.

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