The Aster Awards 2022 [CLOSED]

PARANORMAL

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1. The Smirk of an Oracle By strawberry1d

Title - 10/10

Cover - 10/10

Blurb - 8/10

Plot - 15/15

Creativity - 15/15

Grammar - 12/15

Characters - 5/5

Interaction - 2/5

Overall - 15/15

Total - 92/100

Review: I really liked the character description being woven into the book, not an automatic list of physical looks. Sometimes authors over narrate descriptive when they've already given you a character list. This author did a great job putting you into the character with how well they described their emotions but paced it just right. I got a little hung up on the narration going from past to present tense nonstop which killed the flow in several areas. You have to pick a format. But, the story itself was creative enough to compensate and that's just good writing.
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2. Havoc By scrabbleposts

Title - 10/10

Cover - 5/10

Blurb - 8/10

Plot - 15/15

Creativity - 15/15

Grammar - 13/15

Characters - 5/5

Interaction - 5 /5

Overall - 15/15

Total - 91/100

Review: The format of the title threw me off. The author's name above it makes it read as if it's part of the actual title, and the cover has an awards sticker so large that you have to focus too much to find any other information. The blurb needs to be separated out more. You miss the main points with it being one large paragraph. Other than that, I think this book is brilliant. Not only is it one of the most original I've seen but, it is also paced evenly and takes you right into the story. The dialogue needs to be separated out as individual paragraphs which tripped me up in the beginning but the story was strong enough that the error didn't matter after the first few times I saw it. The turmoil and emotion of the MC were truly excellent writing.

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3. Tethered Destinies By Minimoxx

Title - 10/10

Cover - 8/10

Blurb - 10/10

Plot - 15/15

Creativity - 12/15

Grammar - 13/15

Characters - 5/5

Interaction - 3/5

Overall - 12/15

Total - 88/100

Review: The author did a really great job at pulling the reader in immediately with interactive questions and then paced into character development. I liked how easy it was to catch the flow and just "read" the book. This isn't the first type of tethered concept I've read so for me, that wasn't something I could engage well with, and there needed to be dialogue breaks in several areas. Action sequences need to be separated from dialogue if not used directly with dialogue. It's still a really great concept, and I liked Amelia's personality because the internal conflict with well-placed details made her a whole person in my mind.