The Black Cat Awards 2019 Reviews

Action/Adventure 2nd Place - Dirty Rotten Demigods by @Dark_Writes

🥈 Action/Adventure 2nd Place Winner 🥈

Dirty Rotten Demigods by Dark_Writes

Reviewed by AmyMarieZ

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Title: The title Dirty Rotten Demigods is unique and immediately grabs my interest. It's short and punchy and has a great ring to it. I love how it gives an indication of the humorous, sarcastic, and unapologetic tone the story will have. It's a perfect fit!

Cover: I like the way the cover looks, particularly the use of the yellow text for the word "demigods" in the title. It looks striking and daring on the grey background. I'm a fan of the image, although it gives off more of a horror/serious vibe than I was getting while reading the story. Based on what I've read, I feel like something a bit bolder might work well with this story, but perhaps the image becomes relevant later on.

Another thing about the cover is that other than the yellow text, it's fairly dark and grey, almost monochromatic. I wonder if it might make the cover pop more if the image or white text provided more contrast with a brighter white. I like how the author has styled his name for a number of other stories on his page. I feel like keeping that same text styling could work well for this cover too.

Summary/Blurb: This blurb is fantastic! I absolutely love it, and it immediately makes me want to pick up the story and read it. The humor in it is right on point, and the tone matches with the rest of the story perfectly. It gives me the impression that this story will be sarcastic and poke fun at pop culture in ways that will keep me laughing from start to finish, and the story delivers.

Descriptions: The descriptions in the prologue of this story are really captivating and unique. I was particularly impressed with the description of the sky during a storm as "bruise purple and batshit crazy". After the prologue, the style of narration had a whole lot of personality and wit. The level of description was fairly minimal, which overall fit well with the style of narration. At times, for example in chapter 1, I felt like a bit more description of what's going on could have enhanced the scenes and made them more visual. However, it seems like the amount and the way descriptions are presented in this story is very intentional, so I wouldn't want the story to lose any of its originality by trying to alter the storytelling too much.

Plot Development: The prologue of the story is original and overwhelming in just the right way. I love the tone and humor in the narration, and even though I'm not sure exactly what is going on, I feel like I need to find out! While I really enjoyed the prologue, I actually enjoyed the first chapter of the story more! The prologue is fun, but I feel like this story is actually strong enough to stand without it. The first chapter has a unique and attention grabbing opening (although it is not quite as explosive as the prologue.)

The first chapter serves primarily as an introduction to Doug and his predicament as a dejected demigod. It does it in a really witty way by describing all the things he wishes he could be the demigod of like "pizza or whisky or hair metal", but of course all the cool things have been taken, so he's left with boring things like post it notes that aren't made by "Post-it" and pooper scoopers.

The plot starts to progress in the second chapter with the buildup of Doug's jealousy of Nancy. It works well to propel him towards all of the quests he discussed with "Squiggles". The plot development is a bit slow during chapters two and three, but the action at the end of chapter three really gets things moving!

Character Development: The characterization in this story is very original and somewhat risky, but I think as a whole it works really well. I was really impressed with how the author chose to open the story with an itemized list of facts about our MC Doug the Demigod. This was very affective at hooking me as a reader because the humor in the list was executed perfectly. The chapter gave me a great idea of what Doug's character is like, and how he's not exactly what we might envision a "demigod" being.

The one drawback of this type of characterization was that I didn't feel an extremely strong emotional connection to Doug. I know a lot of things about him and that he's an interesting character, but I don't feel like I really care all that much about him, or at least yet. That's not necessarily a problem, because the story is entertaining enough to make me want to keep reading, so I'm sure I will warm up to Doug as it progresses.

Some of my favorite characterization in this story was of the supporting characters. I thought the way Squiggle's character was presented was hilarious. He is just sitting on a bench asking for money for beer. When Doug sits down and starts talking about going on an adventure with Squiggles, the guy just completely goes along with it, even though it turns out he's actually not the "Squiggles" Doug thought he was. What a strange character! He's great!

Some other characterization I loved in this story was the group of friends sitting around and chatting at the bar in chapter four. All of them are so unique and memorable. I loved how it's stated that Nestor always claims to be a wizard when he's drunk. It's unique and funny, but at the same time realistic because I feel like a lot of people kind of go on repeat when they get drunk. The 90's snowboarder hat is the perfect detail to make this character stand out.

I thought Ike was also a really funny and realistic character. There's always one random guy who just shows up at the bar and inserts himself into a circle of friends. Finally, we have Santana and the interesting dynamic going on with her ex boyfriend and current girlfriend who are obsessed with conspiracies surrounding an 80's video games. I don't know how the author comes up with this stuff, but I love it! The way chapter four was written made me feel like I was sitting right there with the characters. To be honest, I actually felt a stronger emotional connection to these characters than I do to Doug so far. I'm really excited to see how their stories will intertwine.

Overall Impression: I was grinning the moment I started reading this story. The narration is hilarious and clever. The sarcasm and pop culture references are all right on point. The characterization is presented in a unique and engaging way, and each of the characters have distinct and memorable voices. Although the plot seems to just be getting started, I'm sure that this story will be a thoroughly entertaining and thrilling read.