Jul 30, 2026
I like the prose the most so far. It's genuinely fun to read and full of personality, so I can tell a lot about the main character purely through it. I'm not fond of the one-sentence paragraphs to seem emotional or w/e, but that's more of a me thing. It just kind of falls flat to me when it gets used so constantly.
I get the bullies are the plot device but they're so cartoonish and devoid of humanity, and no, i don't mean as people but characters in a story, that all the scenes involving them feel too out there to take seriously. I can see what they're doing in a vacuum and I'd probably let it slide in another type of story, but the world building and prose are competent enough for them to stand out in a bad way. It's such a Disney trailer way of showing that she's ostracized thay i genuinely think saying "she was bullied" would be more effective. It's done in such a blatantly cliché way that it has made every supposedly emotional scene fall flat to me. She was spiraling for the 4th chapter in a row while I was thinking girll why are you fighting cardboard and losing