Gemstone Reviews [Closed for Catch up]

Review #25-Beyond The Fence

Title: Beyond the fence

Author: shadowhunter809

Genre: Sci-fi

Rating: ASR

# of chapters: 15 (including the prologue) (ongoing) 

# of chapters I read: 2 (Prologue + 1) 

Blurb/Summary: 

Enclosing Albama and isolating it from the rest of the world, is a chain-link fence, beyond which it is prohibited to move. The government says that the fence is for the safety of the Albamaians. To protect them from the 'evil' outside.

Driven by curiosity and the poor conditions back home, Clary, holding no regard for the rules, crosses the fence to see what's on the other side. However, soon afterwards, she starts wondering if it were better to not have crossed the fence in the first place.

Join Clary and her friends in this thrilling, suspenseful tale of love, loss, and death. 

Review:

Cover:

I think this cover is cool because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the title, "Beyond The Fence" is literally behind the fence. How clever is that? Plus the author's name is part of the fence itself, which I also think is crafty (graphic designers these days—they have the craziest imagination). The only thing I find a little jarring is the hole in the fence, what I'm assuming is the city, and how damn overexposed the sun is.

The only in the fence makes me think—seriously? Why build a fence around an ENTIRE state when you can just grab a pair of pliers and chop your way through them? But it also makes me think—if the chain link fence was meant to protect Alabama from whatever is out there, it's not doing a very good job.

The 'city' if that's what it's supposed to be, looks like termite hills. I think it would have been better to just keep the place looking like a never-ending desert.

The sun looks like it's midway through a massive explosion, and is about to swallow up the earth.

Blurb:

My complaints about the blurb usually span over ten paragraphs, but this time, I really don't have much to say about this. I'm joking. I always have something to say.

Right now, it's the fact that I can't fathom how compliant the Albamaians are. What's separating them from the rest of the world is nothing but a chain link fence! It doesn't have barbed wire, electricity coursing through it, or watch-tower overflowing with the government's cronies. In the blurb, just saying that it's a chainlink fence really plays down the hype for it. If you told me that whoever was caught trying to escape was shot on site, and mentioned two or three other features of this fence, then I'd completely fall for it.

Also, what lies beyond the fence? Obviously, nobody knows (except for the fact that something 'evil' lies beyond it), but because it's a chainlink fence, you should be able to see through it. Does it look like in the picture? A deserted wasteland? Maybe you should throw that in as well, just for the sake of drama. It also supports what the government says—even if inside the enclosure people live in rundown shacks and are starving, if everything as far as the eye can see looks like nothing but sand and death, then it's fair for the citizens to not want to venture beyond the fence. It's better to die amongst your friends and family, than alone in the middle of nowhere.

Finally, I think that you could do without the last sentence "Join Clary and her friends in this thrilling, suspenseful tale of love, loss, and death." It just sounds like a way to suck in poor idiots to watch a bad movie, when the previous sentence "soon afterwards, she starts wondering if it were better to not have crossed the fence in the first place" was a strong enough hook to make me want to read on.