Cat’s Reviews: Take Your Time
You probably know that kind of stories that just takes you a while to get into, right? As a writer, you should think about whether you want people to take their time to read your story or if it should be something that they can read in a short break. For today’s reviews, I chose three of those stories that need you to focus on them for more than just a lunch break, two novels and a comic! If you’re an author and want to get a review for your work as well, you can sign up here.
Novel of Fate
Title: Tie Him To Me
Author: KatWilkinson
Platform: Tapas
Type: Novel
Genre: BL, Fantasy
Summary: Twenty-two-year-old Heart has been struggling to keep money in the bank, and his tuition paid, but all of that changes after Fate runs into him one night on accident. After a cryptic entanglement that ends with Fate interested in humanity and its weaving’s, and Heart sporting a new set of five invisible threads, Heart enters his new beginning. It’s this new start that entangles him and leads not only his life but five others in a completely new direction. This is their Fate, the one they take into their own hands. The one they fought and planned for. A war is coming. And Death will come to ask for their lives, but only they have the power to change it.
First Impression
The title is interesting, the story had my attention quite quickly because of that. Additionally, the cover shows me what I can expect from this. What I noticed is that the title isn’t that easy to read on the cover because covers on Tapas get shown really small. The novel’s summary is longer than the average I see on Tapas. It’s a bit confusing at the beginning but grabbed my attention more and more towards the end. In general, everything gives me a good first impression of what I can expect from this story.
Would I continue reading?
It took me a while to get into the writing style of this novel. It’s not something you’ll read in a short break but it’s good when you have time to sit down and really get into it. Some long descriptions make it seem like the story isn’t going anywhere at the beginning but the characters get introduced quickly which makes it interesting enough to continue. It’s a good story that draws you in when you start reading more of it!
Simple and Complex at Once
Title: Age I- Age of Darkness
Author: Doublekey
Platform: Tapas
Type: Comic
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama
Summary: In an age, where darkness threatens humanity, two brothers, chained by fate, have to overcome their own fears. Follow the adventures of Frederick and Nigel in their quest to defeat the evil and rescue their loved ones.
First Impression
It’s not a bad thing but the title is a bit long. I can’t think of a way to shorten it and since it’s a comic, it’s not that bothering. What’s important is that the title looks good on the cover. However, it cover itself seems a bit overloaded. There are some big bright parts but there’s not really something happening that would justify making the potential reader’s attention focus on those parts. There’s nothing that really stands out because of the general brightness. The summary is simple but good. It’s not really something special but makes the story seem interesting.
Would I continue reading?
At this point, I should mention that I started reading from chapter 3, which was a request from the creator of this comic. I noticed that there is a lot of text at the beginning. This is probably necessary to explain everything that’s important, it’s just not something I like in comics. However, that’s just a personal opinion. The art style is simple but shows everything that’s important pretty well. The story seems to move forward in the plot rather slowly which is why this comic didn’t really grab my attention. Again, there are surely people out there who enjoy slow-paced comics! To really get into this kind of comics, you need time and the willingness to accept lots of descriptions before it really pulls you in.
Colours to Dive Into
Title: Jade Kingdoms
Author: surenlicious
Platform: Tapas
Type: Novel
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Summary: Since the bygone Age of Mirthless Synergy, the Sentient Mind was gifted by the galactic serpent Vritra to the mortal coil to give it its intelligence. Upon seeing its misuse, Vritra took back His gift and caused life to collapse. Now, a 100.000 years later Vritra’s descendants are about to face their progenitor’s true purpose. For within the Jade Kingdom, the stronghold of Vritra’s people, Princess Suren and Duke Vandrake rise from their nadir to push back against the coming tide of their long-dead Sire, facing the rage of their people’s heritage, and the outcries of the future generations in danger.
First Impression
Even though the cover is very bright, it gives me parts to focus on. It definitely won’t get lost among all the other covers. The title doesn’t really stand out because of the bright colours but the parts of the cover are arranged in a way that makes my eyes wander from the middle to the title, which is good! The thumbnails keep up the colourful theme. However, the summary seems very complicated at first. I had to read it a second time and take my time to really understand it. Maybe a bit less information and more trying to get the potential readers interested in the story would improve the first impression of this novel.
Would I continue reading?
Honestly, this wasn’t easy to read, at least for me as someone whose first language isn’t English. You really need to focus on reading and not try multi-tasking. The dialogues are good but even after reading for a bit, I couldn’t really create an image of the scenes in my mind. There are some descriptions but not enough for me to understand the surroundings and the characters right away. It really takes some time to get into the world of this novel and I’m really impressed by the world-building! Once you really get ahead in the story and see what’s going, you’ll enjoy it.
So, we have a variety of reasons why these stories need a bit more time to really make the reader want to continue. The writing style, the world-building or even just the necessary explanations can make busy readers drop off. However, people who are really looking for something new and interesting to dive into will find what they’re looking for in these three stories! Are you searching for another kind of story? Maybe you’ll find one among the other reviews I already did!
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