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You thinking of how smashing I am. I know babe, its okay. Smash it.
The last couple days I've torn into pieces 'More than Imagined' by TJGreenspark.
TLDR; An ambitious and fascinating semi-original piece on a futuristic society that takes heavy inspiration from Divergent, Maze Runner, Hunger Games, and just about every other teen book/movie/tv-series I've heard of.
Main Character: Semi-smashing? - I have never seen such a fascinating combination of pure unfiltered and concentrated Nihilism, Heroism, Narcissicism, outright bitchyness, daddy issues, and holier-than-thou pride shoved into such a tiny body as this. Every word is at once in character, shallow, and makes me sit on the edge of my seat just waiting for someone with self-respect to punch her teeth out. She has more flaws than strengths but there is enough there for me to want her to come out as a half-way descent human later and for me to recognize there is hope and that she isn't a villain. Just young and stupid and has never been taught discipline or told 'no'. Overall a very good character. Her dreams and wishes and ambitions are clear from the start, but after some events occur that take her out of the comfort of what she knows into what she doesn't know, then cracks appear in both her and the story as she has to, more or less, rebuild herself from the ground up. This period then flaws as there isn't much in the way of reflection, opinion, or anything from her. She acts in character and changes into someone you love to hate, but there is never a point where she agrees or disagrees with what happens or what she finds or has an actual opinion. When she learns life-alterig and perspective-changing information, there is no reaction as if it never happened. Save once, when she goes on a bit of a run outside, but thats the only time she has an actual reaction or opinion on... anything. She just goes through the motions like a puppet. This lacking of reflection or opinion or reaction unfortunately cannot work because what she has gone through is go from an old person into a new person. She goes through a kind of baptism where the old dies and the new rises... and while the new version of her is different based on her new perspectives, it doesn't go all the way into proper exploration and reflection and decisions being made based on this new perspective. Its not presented as a failing on her growth, like a person who stubbornly tries to hold to the old, but as complete apathy and the changes just... happen. Because reasons.
There is a second problem with the MC beyond how her change is handled, and this comes more as a combination of the world building with her, in that it makes absolutely no sense what stage of growth she is at, if the story can even make a decision on what that growth stage is. There are times she is presented as completely ignorant and so poor she can only afford three meals a month, and other times as someone with the economy and understanding to have a PHD in multiple sciences and leader in various fields. There are times she is presented as completely disciplined and respectful as a nun and other times as the streotypical cheerleader squad leader that runs the school by simply being the biggest bitch of them all. As stated she is purely nihilistic, narcicistic, and filled with hollow self-entitled heroism, which is a fascinating and great combination, but the different moments these contradictory traits come out do not succeed to reinforce them into a well-rounded character, but bring them in further conflict with one another, and everything the world presents us with, so I can only scratch my head and wonder what she is actually supposed to be. This isn't a sign of great mystery, but great contradiction.
