What is your opinion?
Plague
"A bioweapon aimed at America's LGBT+ community goes rogue and starts taking out the world. Compelling characters and pacy chapters. "
scp 049
"SCP vibes. Cool"
What a start!
"Immediately, this book gets you in the the heartstrings. I like how the character dysfunctions are weaved together with the plot to create something that's a little more raw and natural in comparison to something in Hollywood, for example. I thought the pace was well executed, and a lot of clipped sentences added to the urgency of the situation at hand. There were only a few instances where it looked like some editing had been done and something not deleted that should have been. I also noticed a mixed pronoun and an altered name (Amberson instead of Amberley). But again, it was very minor, and overall well written. It always interests me to see different styles of writing, and I really liked the briskness to this. For me, it just added to the goings-on and was matter of fact where it needed to be, then longer and more drawn out where emotions and descriptions took precedence."
Respect
"This is a review based on 4 chapters but I hold high praise regardless. What I Definitely Liked -Extremely detailed world building. There is a specificity to the world and the events surrounding it that make it feel very much lived in. I do have a specific problem but for now, this is some real hard work to the craft. -Empathetic Main Protagonist. Ivy as the main character carries a lot of empathy and so does her brother Oliver who also seems to be going through quite a rough life of his own. There is a balance to both of them that really will resonate with your intended audience. -Overall Strong Conflict. The idea of the plague and how it shapes the world is also a strong factor. Different groups of people are compelled to make certain decisions based on how the world currently is for better or worse. That makes for an interesting progression. -Strong characters. Each of the new characters introduced has more than a few layers to themselves and the author seems dedicated to making each of them fully realized. What I May Give Fair Warning -Exposition/Action Ratio is limited. I know this style of writing and I personally attribute it as a more Ludlum/Grisham/Sheldon/Archer style of penmanship, where there are a lot of important details that are offered per chapter prior to and in the middle of scant action and while that does ground things, it tends to make reading prose difficult. There's obviously fans of this style, myself included, but the risk here is that an audience could very easily be tempted to skip entire paragraphs because of the information presented. Out of respect for the fact that the book is complete, I won't assume this is something that needs fixing. It's obviously a writing style. As long as the author is okay with this, I'll only treat is as a minor issue. -Political climate of conflict. Obviously the book holds adult level discussions and I think they're for the most part handled really well. But the Ludlum/Grisham/Sheldon style allows for character dissection that will substantially alienate some of the audiences and that is bold strokes for an author. That is personally why I offer 5 stars. If you are looking for something outside of the box, I'd recommend giving it a try."
Wish I bought a gas mask
"Plague was an interesting read, to put it simply. Seeing from other reviews of this book, there were several more chapters while the version I've read just now was simply one and completed. So, I'm wondering where the rest of the story went unpublished and only remained as a one-shot special. Really, I can only guess what previous readers had discovered in what is a full-length novel. From the one chapter I managed to read; there were dilemmas that readers can address here. Personal difficulties, familial bonds, persons related to LGBTQ+ community subjected to ridicule and debate. In the perspective of our main character (Ivan/Ivy), it was a surmised into what might have been a hopeful and good life, was ultimately unresolved and tragic. Many who face these controversies can only do so much, some not at all and endured what their life's hand has been dealt with. In short, this really was such a book I wished I could have seen the full extension of. It set the tone, story, issues, hope. Start to end, I was given the full story of our main character with only half the detail to work with. I would have loved to read more!"
