Book of Spooky Tales Review

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»Book of Spooky Tales Review«

Title (4/5)

It's apt enough. Though I might add in "SM" cause of the characters.

Foreward/Description (8/10)

Definitely keeps your readers prepared for the spooky stories ahead. Good one.

Appearance (2/5)

I'm failing you in this aspect because it has so much room for horror with pictures and poster! You could have put a non scary but blackish picture of the characters in a poster. That would have been nice and would give your readers some shivers before delving into your stories

Plot (13/15)

I am going to be nice and give a one-liner for each short story. Horror truthfully isn't my genre and perhaps because I love watching horror movies these stories did not creep me out that badly. Some input on how to improve the overall feel in this section:

Hide and Seek: Cute kids, I like how you incorporate the chinese essence but maybe you should give a little bit more description on the prayer room so we can picture it in our heads. Potential to end off scarier such as making the ghost appear in front of Kris or Sehun for a longer period of time; ghost has attached himself to Sehun for example.
The princess and the "pea": This was good because the devil staring back at the end was quite creepy but you know what could have spooked your readers to death? A picture.
The Creaky Window and the Door: This story was a tad bit confusing especially towards the end cause it felt like you were repeating the story to before Seohyun went into her room and then I think about it again it didn't seem so.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall: Yes the mirror was creepy but I felt the saseang fan lead up was a bit irrelevant and unncessary. You could have written it from a second/third point of view
The Last Bus: This was quite good. Creepy. *thumbs up*
Selfie: There wasn't a punchline; it looks like a happy ending to me and not scary
Lizard's Treat: Nice horrifying description of the "monster" but once again there wasn't a and my question is; so was his wife like the mother of lizards? Why did the old man kill lizards then? Shouldnt they be like his babies? It seemed to be the old man was feeding lizards to his wife which would not make lizards part of her final attack
Sooyoung (part one): Good imagination on this story! Hot and sadistic. But you might want to add more bulk into what happened to Sooyoung; give some hints into some form of possession like how she suddenly became lifeless and not herself anymore; unable to control her body etc
Toilet antics: Sorry but I didn't feel a necessity for this chapter; could have made the saseang scarred and imagine things or get haunted haha
Sooyoung (part two): Same as the above; I don't feel the good connection. When I started reading it it seemed interesting cause I was guessing some reincarnation story but in that case Sooyoung should have felt the feeling of being the victim not a bystander. Couldn't catch the gist of this story sorry
Blind: I honestly cant decide if I like or dislike this story. Firstly it was confusing because your first part made it sound like Taeyeon had already taken off her contacts due to mother's nagging. Also, contacts feel nothing like an eyeball; I thought she had picked up Yoona's contact lens instead. It could have been made creepy if Taeyeon just ran her hands around and grabbed the eyeball and screamed; look up and see Yoona's face staring back at the mirror without an eye. That would have been freaky ;-)
Hope you find these pointers helpful ;-)



Originality (13/15)

Credit given. Horror stories are not a norm. Nice attempt.

Grammer & Spelling (18/20)

No major english errors. But you can definitely improve on your flow of sentences and phrasing into proper english. One example: "Who asked him to abuse her"


Flow (7/10)

Not much to comment here as they are short stories. Within each story they are quick to finish with a fast moving plot. Did not sense bad abrupt turns so you get an ok score on this.


Characterization (8/10)

Also not too much comment here as there isnt much of a build-up.

Overall Enjoyment (8/10)

Like I mentioned, something different from the normal fluffy stories and short stories make it easy to read without spending much time =]

Reviewed by: eunhyuksgal

81/100!

 
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ThanhXuan
#1
Chapter 135: Thanks for the review ♡
Amalya
#2
Chapter 134: Thank you for taking the time to review my story oohkatsoo. I didn't mind the wait and getting the additional perspective was a good thing in the end. ;)
I have been warned about the too many characters too quickly thing in a previous review and have yet to try and fix that, but duly noted again. haha As for the capitalization issue, I think I was going for that fairly bizarre context (in English anyway) where you capitalize some of the terms when they refer to very specific named creatures (Namjoon's father as a Titan (Perses in his back story) versus titans as a race). Likewise for chimaera though that one was never meant to be capitalized. The only one I really had an issue with in writing was actually Cyclops and that was because my spell checker kept saying the lowercase spelling was wrong. >.> lol
I will certainly consider adding more descriptions or definitions for some of the harder to grasp terms, such as what a titan actually is, in the future. I was much better about doing that in my Norse mythology story to be honest. lol I'm pretty sure the time crunch to finish it before the deadline made me sloppy here.
The game they played was meant to sort of parallel a crude cross between more modern day football (in the US) as evidenced by the in-story name, which is a fairly barbaric sport to begin with, and the gladiator events of ancient Greece and Rome, which were very barbaric events in which the competitors often died. As for the sudden appearance of the monster, I'm not sure I can actually fix that one, or if I want to at the moment. I'll think it over and see what comes of it, but either way, I do appreciate the review all the same.
It's especially nice to confirm what I am able to do well in the story just as much as it's good to be aware of what can be smoothed out more. So again, thank you for the review. I hope my comment might be able to help explain things a bit more in turn but I shall credit you and the shop immediately. ^_^
aya-ELF
#3
Chapter 4: Hi!! I have a question, do you guys only do reviews for completed stories??
libianno
#4
Chapter 128: Thank you for the review on Chasing Pavements. I appreciate you straight forward and honest opinions. I will use the pointers you have provided me well :)
funkybastard
#5
Chapter 12: Hii, I just start writing and i really want to improve my skill and i like how blunt and forward this review shop is ^^. How do i request from the shop?
thelittleluhan
#6
Chapter 113: Thank you for the review! I didn't expect what you gave me, I was honestly thinking it would be a lot worse. I'll definitely keep in mind what you said about Title and Appearance. I did feel the same about the title being less focused on the main character when you mentioned it, so that's definitely something I'll work on. I might see if I can change the title to a more fitting one (but I'm soooo bad at titles >_<). Thank you again for taking the time to review my story. You don't know how much it means to me that you at least enjoyed it ^_^
sorindae_
#7
Chapter 110: This review really hurt my feelings. But it's okay. I know of I have to improve my grammar. Thank you for helping review this story.
ZiahZiah
#8
Thank you so much for the review! (honestly, I thought I'd get worse) hahaha I'll change that grammar error soon. I'm so glad you pointed that out. :) by the way, may I ask who my reviewer was? I wanted to credit them in my Foreword! Thank you! :D
-dulcet
#9
Chapter 84: Oh thank you for the review. I'll credit you indeed I'll keep your tips in mind. Thank you :)