Obsidian Reviews [CFCU] ✒

Review: Revêrie

Title: Revêrie
Author: Lacrine_Sienna
Genre: Science Fiction

Cover:

Your cover gives off a vintage feeling, keeping consistent with the story's setting. It creates a feeling of intrigue and mystery which entices readers to give the book a chance. However, it's not a traditional science fiction cover, so anybody browsing through the SciFi page might not pick it up.

Also, both the title and your name were a bit hard to read. Enlarging them as well as the subtitle would solve that problem immediately. The color of your name matches the background shade, making it even more difficult to read.

Overall, the cover does connect with your book and interests readers enough to give your summary a chance to pique their interest.

Title:

The Oxford dictionary listed two meanings for your title.
1) "A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream."
2) "A fanciful or impractical idea or theory."

Judging by your summary and first few chapters, I assume that your title means the second one. If it does, I have nothing but praise for you. The level of thought and understanding you've put into it is amazing.

Summary:

"Celine has been orphaned twice."
The opening sentence of your summary did it's job of hooking me very well indeed. With just one sentence, you've conveyed a lot of information to the reader and made them want to know more. Celine is a French name, signifying that the story's set in France. The fact that she's been orphaned twice intrigued me very much and made me very curious whether her previous life had been very dangerous.

The rest of your summary is just as amazing. It's concise and compact, offering quite a lot of information without seeming too.

However, there's a little bit of repetition. You've already mentioned that she's unable to walk in the second paragraph, and you've written it again in the third paragraph (unable to walk . . . partially crippled). And since she's had these powers since birth, it didn't make sense when you said she's stuck with them. To me, that suggested that her powers were recent and somewhat forced upon her. That's something you might want to tweak a bit.

Still, anybody reading it will definitely move onto reading the actual book. Just like with your title, the effort and understanding you've put into this is seriously commendable.

Story's Plot and Pacing:

"Time is a matter of perspective"
This is an absolutely brilliant first line and it does an excellent job as a hook. I was compelled to read on, which is exactly what a fantastic hook does.

The theories about time were very thought provoking. Any science fiction fan would thoroughly enjoy them.

The plot is very original and unique. Your writing raises all the right questions. When I read the prologue, that bit about Celine and Edmund getting injured, but still not dying really intrigued me. I was very curious to know how they survived.

And your writing style is absolutely gorgeous. You painted a picture in my mind with your apt usage of imagery and poetic style or writing.

"Nothing in the universe sees the world in the same way."
I really loved this one, because it said so much in so little.

"As a dreamer, I had hoped to change that.
As a scientist, I had hoped to achieve that.
On the second of May, 1940, I did
Barely a week later, the Nazis came."
I really loved this one, because of the way you structured it.

"I felt everything. It was me who was drowning.
My lungs that cried out for air.
My legs that tried to moved through water.
My life that ended."
Another beautiful, poetic statement that really makes you want to read it again and again.

The story is filled with intriguing mysteries. A mysterious machine, Aion, that was her father's invention, the strange dreams of drowning she keeps having, the false memories and her divine powers.

However, you need to tweak the pacing in the prologue a little. After the opening bit on time, you suddenly introduce the action without any prior warning. That felt a little bit jarring to me. You might want to check that out. Other than that, no problem with the pacing.

Characters:

Celine is well fleshed out, even though it's only the first chapter, so I look forward to the rest of her development. Under-representation on disabled characters is a big issue, so it's very heartening to see you use a disabled character as your protagonist, and not as a ploy for sympathy.

Edmund seems to be a very interesting character. He was her father's assistant, but he didn't leave after the father died, that's an intriguing bit right there.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar:

I didn't see a single grammatical or  punctuation error. Well done on that bit, it's refreshing to read stories like that. There was just one typo, already pointed that out.

My Thoughts:

I love reading Science Fiction stories and I loved this one. The plot is amazing, it's not the generic time travel plot, rather it's unique and refreshing. I'm in awe of your writing style, it's so beautiful and poetic. I've already jotted down the quotes I liked and I'm sure you'll just keep adding to them. I've used the word intriguing a lot in this review, but that's the best way to describe this story. Everything intrigues you, catches a hold of you, and makes you want to read it even more.

Anybody reading this review should definitely check Revêrie if you want to read a book with an interesting and engaging plot, strong characters, a clear and beautiful writing voice and quotes that'll end up in your all time favorites list.

Anything else:

The prologue was short and sweet, like all prologues should be and the chapter lengths are perfect. I really liked reviewing this book :)

If you have any questions or if you want me to explain or elaborate a certain point, feel free to ask me.