From the beginning, the story feels warm. The protagonist is someone I could easily feel for and her love for her friend Blaine was very well depicted. The antagonist, her family, and so forth really stand in contrast to that with cold yet understandable feelings. The element of the tentacles is really well used. They appear in a lot of different ways, and seem to represent being trapped, bonded… maybe trapped in traditional gender roles, too. The ending of the story is very suited to the tentacles’ meaning and the story’s overall theme, and every chapter is well put together and well-written.

That said, though it has creepy elements, I don’t know if I can consider this a horror in the same way as the other contest stories. In terms of being scary, it felt more like a thriller, an action, or a coming of age love story than something profoundly unsettling or disgusting.

5 stars for what it was—a very good story—though in terms of the contest theme, I don’t quite feel like it’s up to par.