What is your opinion?
A lovely novel
"I really like the author's style of writing, switching from present to past makes it feel like I'm reading two stories in one book. I will recommend this to my friends and I know there are gonna love it. The only thing I'm worried about is, I just can't wait to read the rest, please don't take long😊"
The book creates interest
"The novel piques the reader's curiosity. I enjoy traveling through your literary words."
Unique Premise
"I love this story! It's definitely not something that I've read before. I love the premise. Death visits a girl in her dreams and leaves foreboding omens. It's so delightfully creepy and I really enjoyed the dream sequences the most. Diana is a really good character too. You sympathize with her from the beginning. She really cares about her friends. I really fear for her because I don't know what Death wants with her. That's the other part of the story that I really enjoy: there's so much delicious mystery involved. You have no idea who Death is and you don't know what he wants. You're constantly questioning if he's even real. I love stories that make you do that. The mystery makes you want to keep reading. I also really love how much time and effort the author puts into making the setting real. This story takes place in Zambia and they really transport you there. It's really fun to learn about this culture and this country. This story reminds me a lot of Nnedi Okorafor's writings, an African writer who pens dystopian fantasies that involve magic systems based on her research into hoodoo. This story also reminds me of Neal Gaiman and his Sandman series because he also has a Death character who, at times, visits people in their dreams...although while Namwinga's Death is more traditional, Gaiman's Death is unconventional in charming ways. Still this story is sure to please gothic horror fans--which I just so happen to be. Sometimes the story takes too long to get going. There are lots of details about Diana's day, about going to school and talking to her friends and whatnot, that I thought could've been reduced significantly. I want to know about her daily life and I want to know about her character but sometimes it was so detailed and the scenes in the school were so long that they slowed the pacing. The story really starts off in chapter two with the first dream sequence. I found myself slumping in my chair while I was reading the sections about her going about her normal day and attending school, then sitting tall and at the edge of my seat when Diana confronts Death. Since the meat of the story is in the dream sequences and the details about Diana's daily life are simply bits of exposition, I feel as if the next draft would benefit a lot from reducing the latter and spending more time focusing on the actual Death plot. Also sometimes there were some spelling errors. "Agonizing pain" was spelled as "antagonizing pain," for instance. I still really enjoyed this story and I'm definitely going to recommend it to my gothic horror fans. It's such a unique premise and that's what I love about it the most."
