forum story club

Started Apr 09 by @IcarusFightsTheSun book

tune

I know I have a writing club, which is where I think the main order of operations will continue, but think of this as an extension of that.
anywho, I feel like my writing club is more based on productivity and helpfulness (which was by design, so: ✧goal achieved✧), but I propose a new place for just talking, theorizing, and sharing outside works.

what I mean is; bring in stories and series that you like (or dislike) and talk about them. what do you like about it and what don't you. would you have done anything differently, what would you have preferred instead. how about the writing style ,did you notice any at all and what do you think about it. (and add anything else you can think of)

this idea kind of spawned from a webtoon that I enjoy called 'reporting for duty, duchess'. in my personal opinion I like it, but it's extremely flat, story, character, and even in some ways, art. I went on a little silent rant about how I would've tried to improve it, and I kinda like the idea of doing that with other people.

(also feel free to just drop any recommendations any time, and write as little or as much as you want.)

Okay, so 1st up we have PumpkinHeads, a graphic Novel by Rainbow Rowell.
Basically it stars two seniors who are going off to college, and are expereicnign their last night working at the Local Fall Festival thingie. Great setting, quite quirky, and its full of fun banter!
The problem is that it starts being a romance in the last 3% of the story.
So basically the plot of it has Josie, the boy of the two main characters, and goody two shoes has been crushing on the 'Fudge Girl' for like, 4 consecutive years. During this final night, they go across the whole fields to find her, as she isn't working the Fudge Shoppe for some reason. Sort of a wild goose chase
And at the end of it, it turns out the Fudge Girl isn't really Josie's type in personality, and kinda hates the Festival's whole aesthetic. And its friends to lovers, turns out the main leads are in love.
Which uh
I disliked
the whole story is fun, has good writing and dialogue, but the finale just feels out of nowhere, and annoys me on principal
It honestly could've just been platonic, about best friends learning to stay in touch, but the romance was uneeded.
Which brings the whole book down for me

Second, is a YA Novel
Which is about a full Student Presidental Election
Basically
One of the characters is a girl(President like 3 times running)
Who is very apathetic about emotions and relationships, and has just 1 friend
And at the end she's jealous cuz said friend falls in love with the new girl, who happens to be funning agaisnt her
And Then she's like 'its cuz I love you, I don't want you to leave me!'
Which…Aside from that, she feels 200% aromantic, and I felt betrayed by the book
Its not like thats the main romance, it doesn't amount to anything
Also there's a verrry sociopathic character
Which is honestly creepy
He's like a 9th grader, we get a POV and it is honestly just a little unsettling(So good writing there)

Annnd finally
We've got another YA
Main point here is that it wibble wobbles between being friends to lovers, and crushing on a new person like 3 times
Starts with Boy falling in love with a nerdy girl, then realizes he really loves his best friend(Who he has been crushing on one-sidedly) Then a fight and go back, then back again, and then back again for the finale
Which just feels weird
This book(I believe its called, 'Always, Sometimes, Never' or something along those lines)
Also has a subplot where the girl best friend is crushing on the hot teacher
Which gets very weird at times, and it is hard to tell how much of it is her making a joke or if she's just a stalker

(Your writing is fine dw)
Aw man, I totally get it when when they really reach for unnecessary romance, feels a little like aro/ace erasure imo

The plot line of ‘friends trying to keep in touch even though they’re away’ is something I would personally identify with more rather than “hey, what if they kissed” yknow? Also that last one sounds a little to all over the place, so not really my cup of tea

Yeah
I didn't really describe the last one too well, might've done it a disservice
It may have one fewer wibble wobble of the romance then I described
and its solidly entertaining for the 1st half I'll say(Minus the creeper things)
Basically its about the best friends have a list of high school cliches they've never done
so they go around doing those exact things for their senior year
Which includes trying to rizz up a teacher

Ah okay, so it’s more of a boo b*tch mood(the reference isn’t important), I’d prolly still have to be in a certain head space to enjoy it but it doesn’t sound too bad

That was a netflix show I think
never watched it
But yeah its pretty fun
A general theme is that the writing and banter in it is good, they just handled the romance subplot poorly
That is to say they included it at all

Another relevant book is one I didn't finish
The lead girl has some pretty aroace vibes
She's had multiple crushes but she says how it feels meh, or not like her sister describes it
and another thing that I forgot but I think I had a second example
Then its romance with her nerdy coworker
I mean this one did describe the romance on the description so thats my fault
It also had a heavy focus about like some laws making gay marriage legal
which is cool, but felt too heavy material for me, I just wanted to read a chill book

I'm realizing I've got a lot of thoughts on YA books
i've still got like 3 more books I've got thoughts on

Post it!

Alright time for a specific trope rant
Liar Revealed, in the case of a secret internet content creator! And why they're all romance and it sux
First, Eliza and Her monsters stars Eliza, who draws a webcomic. One big problem I have with it is how confusing the universe story is. In Fangirl a different book, it is about fanfiction of a fictional story(Which is very based on Harry Potter, and also gay) and it has snippets in every chapter, and was easy to grasp, and entertaining! Eliza's comic, has occasional bits, but I don't understand what the setting is aside from the Home town island, or what the plot even is or half the characters. The only thing I do know is a theme in it because another character deeply discusses the theme in an email. This is a seperate nitpick tho.
Back to my main point: Eliza doesn't let anyone know she's the artist/author, and is extremely introverted. Sebastion(I think is his name) is her crush, and is also coincidentally a moderator of her comment section. Also: Bad internet representation. Somehow all the moderators know each other irl, and live in the same town. Anyways uh
Really the liar revealed in here ain't the worst thing maybe? Its mostly just another needle on the haystack. Theres also a weird subplot where there's an in universe book series that got ended midway through, and Eliza writes to that author for advice

The other example of this is a title I forgot
It focuses on a girl who makes cupcakes themed after books/movies on her blog
It has a subplot about a movie-book adaptation
Which is a bit of commentary about the views of the audience
Wait I think It was about like what age the book is for
Anyways
She meets a boy, hides the blog
(She also has a little brother, who I think was….gay maybe? I remember something queer in him)
A weird thing, is after a fight breakup, said boy aggressively heads to a convention where She gets a place with the blog(Not sure how realistic that is) So its like
More commentary about fan-creator relationship

I read this and Eliza and her Monsters in a row, which had me annoyed by the content creator liar revealed trope

I think I might need to re-read these to figure out why they annoyed me so much

Ranting about books is pretty fun tbh

it really is, isn't it lol
that's why I made this thread

ok ok, i have something too.
so as i mentioned in the intro, there's a webcomic i read called 'reporting for duty, duchess' and it's a kind of isekai where the main character dies and wakes up in a book they read, like, once. so the main character is an army general who grew up in a military home, but she kinda gets a bomb dropped on her face and next thing she knows she's in the body of a side character, rosalie, who in the book was timid, weak but a powerful duchess.

so firstly, I just have a general problem with the whole trope in how, I get that they want this kind of plot line, but it seems unrealistic in how someone could just be torn away from everything/one they knew and loved, take on a new identity, and almost completely forget about who they used to be except for when there's something there character couldn't have every possibly know, but now they do. I mean, it's a cool concept, but I feel like people have totally forgotten how low the bar can be for something to be traumatizing. I seriously can't believe anyone could be exactly the same after isekai-ing, especially into a book.

anyways, apart from that, the main character is a complete Mary sue, her love interest doesn't even follow the only personally trait he's supposed to have, she's got a harem trope following her every move, her rival breaks the laws of writing, her friend tried to murder her and she doesn't care.

like I said the main character can literally not fail if she tried, she has no flaws and everything always works out. she's a cold fish but either everyone loves her, or they're a terrible person. her 'military expertise' are apparently a cure all for every problem, also, is anyone going to talk about how she won a war in less than a month(don't quote me on that part) and with almost 0 casualties/fatalities?

and her rival, Sonia, is an actual Mary sue in the "original story", but now that our dear old mc shows up, her personality is completely different from how it was supposed to be. she goes from literally kokomi teruhashi( minus any human flaws whatsoever), to a sociopath who has no goals other than murder the mc

(this is getting long, so even though I WAY have more thoughts on it, i'll leave it as this for now.)

I feel like I've read something similar, but not the same thing, just a very broad genre niche of 'Isekaied into an Otome game as the Villianess' which is a lot of things somehow.
Genericly bad writing with that it seems

Now, for a non-YA example, we've got a Graphic Novel called 'Penultimate Quest' which is a pretty interesting story!

Basically the story follows a party of 3 on an island, where people go inside a dungeon, and fight through monsters, die, rinse and repeat. We have Johnny, the guy who is fully invested in the Heroism, in the advenutres. We have Harold, the cynical spellcaster, who in the 1st chapter, decides to finally leave the island, which causes a little fight in the group. And finally, Alma, the other spellcaster, and the reasonable one. The story starts with a intro of a basic dungeon crawl, then the aforementioned splitting of the party. Then, we get a flashback to how they met, and then, things get interesting,
This is not an island exactly. It is a sort of purgatory. There are no boats leaving, there is no place else to go. Harold meets an old researcher, who helps figure some twists in this whole setting out.

Essentially, this is an afterlife, where everyone here has died. Each character has a past, and a story. Harold was an Architect, who killed his Blood Brother out of jealousy. Johnny was a young boy, seeking escapism from a dog pile life.
And Alma…. well, she was a child of the woods who was taken care of by the Magician Merlin alongside the sorcerer who created the 'Island'. And she's immortal? Basically, in flashbacks and the epilogue, Alma goes from Arthurian times, the Egyptians, to Modern day America. So…she's immortal and specifically linked to the purgatory. Which is just a bit weird, as it makes it so that 1 of the characters is in their past, while everyone else important is sharing the same time period.

I will continue this talking about the good bits of the story later, stay tuned.

Oooh that’s sounds really cool ✨✨

I feel like I've read something similar, but not the same thing, just a very broad genre niche of 'Isekaied into an Otome game as the Villianess' which is a lot of things somehow.
Genericly bad writing with that it seems

Yeah ig. Funny tho cause I just found another one I like way better (it still have the adjustment problem, but otherwise it’s much better on the other parts)