Cat’s Reviews: Food, School and Family Issues
This time, it’s a comedy story on Episode that I had a closer look at! Some weeks ago, I already did a review on an Episode story but it was a drama story. Normally, I prefer drama over comedy but you should keep reading to find out what I think about this story specifically! If you’re an author and want to get a review for your work as well, you can sign up here.
Title: There’s No Accounting for Taste
Author: Marianna Escalante
Platform: Episode
Type: Interactive Story
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Ellie wants to be on a cooking competition show, even though she can’t cook. A misunderstanding leads to her getting accepted into a school with a culinary program. Will she ‘fake it until she makes it’, or will she learn to cook well enough to get on the competition?
First Impression
Honestly, my first thought when having a look at this story was that it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s written by someone who got bored and doesn’t really care about the story. The first impression really makes me think that the author put some thought into it.
Let’s start with the cover because that’s the first thing readers see on the app. It’s interesting because it shows me right away what general topic the story is about. Maybe it’s a bit too dark on the right side because my attention is on the lights in the back and not on the character at the front or the title. That might be something to rethink. However, everything in the cover fits really well together.
The title is a bit longer than what I normally see on Episode but it’s a nice saying that fits well to the cover and the overall first impression. After reading the description and a bit of the story, I think the title is great. It tells the readers so much about the story without them noticing yet and it can be used in the story as a signature phrase over and over again!
The description itself is simple but good. There’s the most important basic information about the story and the main character. It also makes the reader curious while also giving them a chance to decide if this is the kind of story they want to read.
Going into detail
As always, I’ll go into more detail here. This time, I’ve read the first three episodes.
Characters
What I noticed very quickly is that the characters’ personalities are very obvious but also realistic and relatable in this story. The same goes for their relationships, you feel how much they like or dislike each other. Especially the main character seems to be very well developed. The characters’ personalities make the scenes interesting. There was never a moment when I thought that a character was acting in a way that didn’t fit their personality.
In my opinion, the main character, Ellie, has a personality that you either like or dislike, there’s no in-between. Although I’m not completely sure how realistic her goals are, she seems like a rather relatable character to me. I’d say her family members are rather similar to her even though she has a more developed personality because she gets more attention in the story.
Another important character, Eduardo, is a bit more complex. While I can quickly point out Ellie’s motives and flaws, I’m not really sure what exactly Eduardo wants or what his weaknesses are. I can name one or two flaws after taking some time to think but they aren’t as clear as Ellie’s. That might just be because I haven’t read that much of the story yet and it’s definitely not something that would keep me from reading! Eduardo’s family gets a lot of attention as well. It seems like they are also rather well-developed, maybe a bit more than Ellie’s family members.
In general, it seems to me as if every character is created to be seen as either “good” or “bad”. It makes the story less complicated and gives the characters’ personalities some general structure but could seem a bit too simple to some readers. However, it’s a comedy and not a drama, so simple structures aren’t a bad thing!
Plot
The plot is interesting, although I think I know where the story is going. However, there are some little twists and characters that make me wonder what the storyline will look like. That’s what kept me interested. I wanted to find out how the different characters will come together and help each other to or keep each other from reaching their goals. To sum this up: It’s about the journey, not the destination.
In general, I think the theme is not really the most original. You often see a story where a character pretends to be someone or know how to do something to reach their goals. However, the details make this story unique. I also haven’t seen many of this kind of stories on Episode yet.
Writing style
The writing style is simple. I had no issues reading the story, even though English isn’t my first language. The dialogues are written in the way the characters would really say it which gives the story extra points in seeming realistic. I also really enjoyed how well everything gets explained in the dialogues instead of using the narrator for that. The reader gets to know the characters’ personalities because they’re shown, not just told. Additionally, the pacing is fine most of the time even with all the information packed into the dialogues. It’s easy to follow the story but some scenes are just naturally more interesting than others.
Directing
Overall, the directing is great! I didn’t see any major mistakes and I noticed an effort to use advanced coding. The group scenes look really good because the characters all do something while the focus is on the main characters. Also, there aren’t any layer issues.
There are some choices but I’m not sure how important they are or how much the reader can really influence the story. If they don’t have a big influence, maybe adding a few more would improve the story. If they do, it would probably be a good idea to make that a bit clearer.
Would I continue reading?
So, it’s a comedy story and I’m normally not the biggest fan of those stories. However, I really enjoyed reading this one! Maybe it’s not for someone who just looks for something fun in every scene but it’s a rather light-hearted story that’s interesting and enjoyable. The episodes had the perfect length for me. I started to care about the main character a bit, which is what keeps many people reading. I’m curious about what will happen next, how long it will take the main character to reach her goals and what that will mean for her life. In my opinion, that’s a great way of getting people hooked on a story!
My Final Suggestions
I’d suggest cutting down the time for characters who aren’t that important in the episodes that I’ve read. At the beginning of a story, I want to get to know the main characters, the love interest and the main enemy. All the other characters can get more attention once they really start being important. This was done well with some characters but sometimes I wondered why a character was introduced but then just ended up in the background.
As for the comedy aspects of this story, maybe it would be fun to have a character who makes bad jokes every now and then? I know that sounds like something that every comedy story has but it can be done in an interesting way. I’d see one of Ellie’s siblings taking that role or maybe even both because the interactions of them could add quite a few funny moments.
This is a story that I really enjoyed reading. I hope after reading this review, you’ll give it a chance as well! If you do, let me know what you think about it in the comments! Which are your favourite characters from this story? I definitely choose Eduardo as my favourite for now!
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