Reverie Reviews

review #58.S3: Woodpecker

Woodpecker

Author: Mandrikai_Yoshi
Reviewer: -sylver

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
SYNOPSIS

Woodpecker says the end of the world is coming, there's a dead body on a bed, an empty field in Somerset is somehow connected to a secret government project, and Samantha Brock is the only one that can discover the truth of what is happening and stop it, but then that isn't really the point.

In the days following the death of her mother, Samantha (Sam) Brock goes walking in the woods. She is visited by a woodpecker who, speaking in her mother's voice, prophesises the end of the world. She tells Sam that she must discover the truth behind what is happening and prevent it.

The impending "death of everything" acts as a backdrop to the personal grief experienced by the central character, and the three minor characters of the novel. Each is mourning in their own way, and each is unknowingly important to unlocking the secret of what is causing the sky to turn green and snow to fall in June.

Ben Erwin is Sam's recently ex-husband and a journalist chasing a story about a mysterious government project, Stuart Levitsky is a prime number obsessed mathematics prodigy, and DCI John Geering is a detective investigating the discovery of a dead body in a forensically clean flat in London. With the help of Woodpecker, who appears several times to deliver important information to Sam, their stories cross and finally collide. As the emerald-coloured apocalypse approaches they are catapulted towards a dramatic ending with equally dramatic conclusions.

I hope you like the story and find time to vote and comment - love hearing your thoughts.

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

1. TITLE

Review: The title is honestly very straight to the point. The prologue establishes that a woodpecker is important to the plot, and its importance does remain consistent especially when you read the end of chapter ten. Makes me think Project Starling has something to do with birds. Theory: the woodpecker is an escaped project. Overall I like the title but it probably isn't exactly an eyecatcher unless you're obsessing over birds. It's just a normal title.

2. COVER

Review: The cover is very pretty. I think you should make the title's text slightly bigger so it fills up the cover's space more, but other than that it's a very good vector-like cover. The font chosen compliments the image very nicely. Absolutely love it. Its relevance to the story is debatable. It's a good cover but doesn't exactly give off your scifi-thriller aspect.

3. BLURB

Review: I do love the concept of your story. It's giving thriller vibes, and conspiracies are always interesting to try to unravel. I do think you dumped a lot of information in your summary. The way you introduced each of the characters in your summary was a bit thrown together. I think it would've been better if you just introduced them in separate paragraphs then it would've been a bit more acceptable aesthetic wise. Six Of Crows is a good example of that.

4. PLOT

Review: The prologue was very pleasant and descriptive. Really liked the sensory details you used, and how the perspective was from the woodpecker. Loved that you managed to establish the type of relationship Sam and her mother had with one another in the first chapter before the mother was declared dead. It added to both of their characterizations.