What is your opinion?
A touching & moving story
"I was very moved by this story which compellingly and elegantly discussed complex issues including homophobia, anxiety & suicide. To the author's credit, these issues were discussed sensitively and realistically without resorting to any airbrushing or fake resolution."
Loved this story
"So lovely and I loved there was no will they won't they just pure love and support ❤️ "
The Sea and It's Mysteries
"Beautiful book, it inspires you to do better. I loved every second of reading this book. Well done author💞"
Wow!
"The story was written beautifully and I think it was done in the best possible light."
Captivating!
"I haven't read the whole book but I felt the need to write a review. I love it! It shows that not matter what you see on the surface there are people that truly for you, some aren't afraid to be out there and show they care, some just care from a distance. It's also inspiring in terms of sexuality, it encourages people who are afraid to show their true selves, people that conceal the gems that make them who they are. This is beautiful. I can't wait to read the rest of your novels. All the best❤ "
Interesting
"Really interesting, really liked going on the journey with Nico and facing his fears along the way. The support from Ryan and others were nice and the fact he could find someone to understand him as he is. Little bit of confusion with dialogue but got the gist of it. Some gramma errors but it’s a nice story. All the best"
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🏳️🌈
"I fucking love this story...the plot is awesome, I love the characters, and it's just......❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🏳️🌈"
review
"Review: I haven’t read everything, But I felt it was such a good story and there is so much good here in the opening I really wanted to touch on it. Disclaimer: I give the types of reviews I want to receive. I don’t just say if it’s good or bad, I look for things that I think might help the writer improve or alternative methods. So please always take the review in the spirit it is intended. I enjoyed reading this chapter. Your plot is interesting, and your main characters are relate-able and have some nice layers. There are a lot of interesting twists here. I think you will have a very Dynamic and dramatic book here. Things to consider: … Absent cold abusive father, angry fed up callous mother. These are good plot devices and conflicts but are a bit cliche. Be sure they aren’t too stereotypical and two dimensional Maybe instead the father is absent…but does care, just can’t get away from work because it is what covers the expensive therapy and medication bills. Or perhaps they have their own mental illness to cope with, since some of the reactions seem disjointed and don’t make sense. Mom is fed up and angry… because she is frustrated that nothing is working, and the school is threatening expulsion and he won’t graduate because of the ditching; which is how most school would react to someone just running off campus. They might be overbearing about where he is because they are worried about his safety and him having an attack with no one to help him. Exposition. There is a Great deal of exposition. It’s OK to allow the reader to discover things as they read. I think you lose a lot of drama and tension when the character explains everything up front. Most of the time it is much better to let the reader experience instead of explain. For example. The panic attack at the beginning. I think you lost some of the punch there because we aren’t in the moment with him. My Step-son has been having panic attacks since he was 5. I am not saying there is only one way to have a panic attack. Obviously each one is different as are the people having them. If I were going to try and write his panic attack from his perspective I would do it like this.: *Pennies… I can’t swallow the penny. Mom was talking… stupid penny… I don’t know mom… am I alright Why is it so dark? My hands hurt. Fists… stop making fists. I am breathing mom!.. I don’t want to breathe with you. This is stupid. I hate this. DON’T Cry… WON’T cry… Why… I hate pennies. FINE mom… FINE… Just stop talking. NO... don’t’ stop talking… Swallow… Breathe in…. Breathe out… her hand is warm. Mom is so calm… how? Breathe in….. Breathe out…. Breathe in…… Breathe out…' I hate my panic attacks. I hate the things my body does when they begin. I hate that my mother stops everything and holds my hands while speaking in that practiced even calm tone. I prefer her voice with its cheerful bounce and light high tones. Her Too loud laugh and girly giggle. I even prefer her angry growling voice and full belly shouts. I hate her ‘calm down’ voice. I can finally swallow the penny taste and I whispered “I am calm now.” Mom's voice goes back to normal as she wipes my cheek. I am half a foot taller than her now but she smiles up at me.. “That was good… You did really good.” I know she means it, and I hate it. “Do you want a hug?” she asks with arms wide. 'NO, I'm not ten anymore MOM.' I am too old for this. I have to curl down to rest my head on her shoulder. 'This is for her so she won't feel bad,' Something like that. Obviously everyone experiences anxiety differently, but that is why it’s important to take the reader into the moment with him so they can feel it with him. Exposition creates distance from the read and the character like with a narrator. I know it was long but I hope it helps and gave some useful tips."
The Sea and it's Mysteries
"The author has put great thought in each chapter. The Song Selection is indeed very beautiful. However, the ending could have been better. Honestly, after reading the whole story, the ending felt very hurried. But, its a Great Read. It throws light on Important issues like Mental Health Disorders. "
Let's go!
"Firstly, I've read up to 5 chapters and within those chapters I related to the protagonist more then once. Dealing with your sexuality in an emotionally, physically, and abusive home is hard and I feel as if you really tried to show us, the readers, that. Whenever the protagonists returned home, it was like he was entering hell, leaving all hope he had outside on the lawn. You could see his suffering. Thank you for sharing a message of pain, love, and healing. Now, here are my suggestions about things you should consider trying to edit! Continuously throughout the first 5 chapters, the protagonist is always telling us about a person instead of allowing the reader to form their own opinion about a character. Show, don't tell. Don't tell me Sidney is a messy person. Show me his messy room or messy locker. This'll help to make your characters seem more "real" because they felt super robotic. Also, it may not seem like it needs to be done, but please do your research about emotionally abusive parents and apply that knowledge into Nico's mother and father. I promise you, they will seem more real and more evil then they already are. Allow the reader to see how degrading and manipulative they are. Maybe they're narcissistic? Who knows? Just try to make your characters more realistic instead of so stiff and robotic. If you read the comments I wrote in the story you'll understand what I'm trying to say. Just as you would look up traits of narcissistic and emotionally abusive parents, look up traits of victims of an emotionally abusive parent and stick them right into Nico. As someone who's come from that sort of household, you don't realize you're being abused. It's just something normal until someone calls it out. It hard to acknowledge it and talk about it. Appeal to the readers emotion. Let us empathise with Nico at his lack of knowledge of the abuse. Ryan is like my favorite character thus far. I love him, but I hope that he doesn't "save" Nico. I hope Nico saves himself. Break away from the cliche! I love this book and I'd hate for it to be another boy version of the typical jock saves abused girl. Your message is so beautiful and I just want to personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this story with the world. It has my heart and my ultimate respect. Keep writing, reading, and edit, edit, edit! Never give up because you are an amazing writer. After a good polish, this story will be a masterpiece."
Writing from the Character's Voice
"Good story, full of elements that pull on someone's heart strings. Right from the start I sympathized with Nico and was rooting for his and Ryan's relationship. Abusive families can be a hard topic to tackle; it's challenging to put that in writing. From your writing I can see you are driven to communicate emotion; your stories are meant to inspire empathy. I think they work well to do that. My concern is I found myself confused as to who was talking in the story. At times it felt like the story was Nico's voice, but quite often it almost felt like the author was placing their own ideas onto their character. For instance, Nico's family is terrible--as a reader you know that. But how would Nico know that? If he lived with these people all his life, wouldn't he be more likely to downplay their abuse, mistakenly thinking that was just the way parents were? Reading about Nico mentally calling out his parents for their bigotry seems to come out of nowhere. For example, in chapter 2, Nico thinks 'Or would that be too much for this Christian household. oh, wait we're not Christian, you just dislike gay people.' and later on: "...and they were good influences? Hitting me and yelling at me? They were toxic.' I found myself wondering how he came to the point of realizing how terrible his parents were. However, I didn't need to author to call them out for me. Already from reading the story, i sympathized with Nico. Seeing how his parents treated him, I didn't like them, I identified them as being toxic. That was an act I, as a reader, got to do on my own--which has more impact than if the author prompted me to. My suggestion would be to work on separating your voice, as the author, from Nico's. It has more impact if the reader gets a say in determining who the bad guy is in the story, and WHY they think that person is bad."
Fluff With Depth!
"I read through this in one sitting because it was just a very (for me) light read, and it was enjoyable! There was a lot of given background throughout the story, which was really good. I like that because it helps build the relationship between Ryan and Nico really well. Ryan, Will, and Will's siblings were great characters, and I enjoyed Nico quite a bit. There were some cliches in here, like Nico's views on "jocks" and the parents, and some spelling/grammatical errors, but really cute otherwise!"
Really great
"Love the story and the characters. Thank you for sharing this story. Really enjoyed it"
