Gemstone Reviews [Closed for Catch up]

Review #8-Face In The Crowd

Title: Face in the Crowd

Author: LittleMissWeird97

Genre: Science Fiction 

Rating: PG-13

# of Chapters: 10 (ongoing)

# of Chapters I've read: 2 

Summary/Blurb: 

You, whoever you are, have probably seen me before. You wouldn't know it though.

Why?

It's because I have a thousand faces. I can change my appearance in seconds, and I can't put my power to waste.

They made me forget who I am, but they gave me this. I won't sit back and let them take over the rest of the world.

They can give powers to others, but I will keep fighting.

I fight with my brain.

I fight with my power.

I fight as a face in the crowd.

Review:

Disclaimer—I was a little confused about which book you wanted me to review. Under the title heading in the form, it said Face in the Crowd, but then the rest was filled out for The Manipulation Game. So because I saw Face in the Crowd first, I've reviewed that one. I hope that's alright. Otherwise, feel free to request for your other book at a later date (I will open up reviews to multiple books from the same author, just not right now). Sorry for any inconvenience :/ 

Cover: 

The title says "Face In The Crowd", but in the foreground of your cover I see a pair of legs, and in the background, random pedestrians. It's important that you establish a connection between the cover and the title—it makes your story more memorable.

Additionally, the title on the cover itself was kind of hard to read, because of the font colour. Not only does it not jump out at me and yell "READ ME!" but it hurts to look at because of the light/dark contrast between the sunlight and the shadow projected by the guy's legs.

A suggestion for this would be the following: I've seen a lot of images about "individuality" which involve a literal crowd of clones, with only one person standing out amongst them. Even though your cover literally implies "commonality" , what you really intend is uniqueness. So play with that.

Overall—Title + Cover image are unrelated.

Blurb:

Opening with the second person POV (breaking the fourth wall, where the character literally talks to the reader) hooked me right away. Because it really made me think, who is this guy? Who could this person possibly be?

Then, the part afterwards, where it says "I have a thousand faces. I can change my appearance in seconds, and I can't put my power to waste." Raised the age-old question. What would be the default look of a person who can become anyone? In X-men, the one with Jennifer Lawrence, her default appearance is this naked, blue, reptilian woman. While in Futurama, in one of the episodes, the default appearance for an alien that could transform into any other alien, was a pitiful-looking cricket with a top hat. Very interesting stuff.

I also like the sense of ambiguity you have with "they". Who are "they"? You've raised a lot of questions in this blurb, but for the better—I want to read on and find out more about the life of this person, and who put him in this position. It seems like a curse for him (or her) but at the same time, they're making the best of it.