Oct 29, 2023
THE FINAL CHAPTER!!! And a title drop for it too! It's been a long journey, but it's wonderful to finally be here!
Graduation is here, with a little bit of an outro for all the characters. It's nice to hear about each of their futures, because we really came to care for all of these characters in their own ways x)
(I also really liked Ares father buying back the tiara, and them using that tiara now as a symbol of the bygone 'beauty contest' era~)
And now we finally see that the U-Word stopped because Fantasia was happy, and the goal of this story always was to help Fantasia find happiness -- and now her inner beauty is too impossible to deny x) It's a wonderful message, and one that really transcends the limits of the novel. Fantasia is NOT ugly!!! For sure!
This was a really unexpected journey with twists and turns I definitely didn't foresee!! I think you set off to write this story with a very specific message in mind, and you kept true to that message throughout, which is really amazing. Ravel and Fantasia were perfectly endearing, and I truly came to care about them over the course of the novel.
I think the biggest thing to improve would be editing and pacing, but I could say the same thing for my own novel. Having to write these stories quickly over only 3 months means that there's not much room for editing!
For your story, I felt like the introduction speed was good, and then the Beauty Contest then became the main focus -- so much so that it felt a bit strange to switch back to Slice of Life afterwards. The Game sections post-beauty-contest, while I loved seeing the side characters progress, didn't feel as strong or purposeful as the rest of the story (especially compared to these final chapters here with Fantasia's Birthday and the Bank of Love!!) I think if you shortened the Beauty Contest a bit, and tightened up some of the Gaming Guilt/Summer Horizons arc, this story would definitely be stronger overall. The final chapters were really solid, and I'd love to see more people read to this point!!
Thank you for sharing this Unique story with us, and for sending a positive message with your work. I can tell through your writing the amount of passion and devotion you have to this, and it really shows!! Congratulations on completing your novel 👏👏👏 and again, my apologies for being a slow reader (that is entirely just due to me and my personal life >_<)
I am very glad I got the chance to read this!!! I hope you are super happy with how it came out, and congrats again on writing it for the contest! 🎉
