Amaryllis | REVIEW SHOP [ CLOSED ]

《Ananas》 The Story of Us

Reviewer: rebecca_batteur

Author: authorendrazimmerman

Cover:

Your cover is quite simple, as it only shows us a close-up image of two indistinguishable faces and a title, without much more decoration. However, I immediately notice that this apparent simplicity hides perhaps something much more complex and much more interesting than it seems. Contrary to what one might think, a cover is not always made to dazzle us and immediately saturate our minds with a plethora of elements that we can hardly distinguish from one another. Some covers are, and should be, stripped down. This is how, on the contrary, they mark the spirits and transmit just as well the emotions that they seek to impress in the reader. Here, I have to notice the proximity to the faces of the two characters. The angle of view is very close to both of them, so that we can distinguish very little of their features, simply their faces side by side. This gives us, the reader, an omnipresent sense of intimacy with this proximity already established between us and the characters. To see them so close that their two faces could almost merge into one conveys the idea that they are one, that the story revolves around them, with no other element around, in the background. plan or elsewhere, to distract the reader from this powerful bond that we already feel between them. Even the title is quite discreet, as if it did not want to disturb this relationship spread out on the cover. The way it is displayed on the cover works very well, it is visible and crisp and the font used is pleasing to the eye.

Title:

The title seems to perfectly sum up this desire to center the plot around this couple. This title is simple but it explains the situation very well. This is our story, about us. Once again, we have here an idea of intimacy and also of closeness between the reader and the character of the story. This formulation, which, rather than saying "Their story", declares "The story of us", implicitly includes the reader in the story and the reader feels immediately involved. Presenting this work simply as "The story of us" can just as well mean a love story as a family story, but in both cases, we feel the bond that the two characters share and we feel unwittingly attached to them too. Blurb:

I think this summary is very well constructed, with the opening sentence briefly telling what happened without revealing more, just enough so that we can easily understand the stakes of the plot; then, the opposition between the two main characters of the story, Nora and Christian, each entitled to their short explanatory paragraph which sets up the basic principles of these characters as well as the great conflicts that they will have to overcome throughout history. I find that each of their paragraphs sums up very well and effectively who they are as people, what drives them to act the way they do, their main faults and their fears. The summary thus ends beautifully with a concluding question made to encourage the reader to continue reading beyond this promising taste. The question is well asked and expresses well what will be the driving force of the rest of the story. Overall it's a short and effective summary, I don't recommend any major changes, other than an error that I also often noticed during my reading. You forgot a space between the point and the beginning of your new sentence. This is only a minor error but I thought it would be good to point it out.

Plot:

This is clearly not the plot that is the most interesting to explore. It is not that it is non-existent, there are several interesting elements which are distilled here and there but that is not what matters most in this story. It is, of course, as one could have already guessed, the characters and their evolution. This is the whole theme of the book, the relationship that the two main characters will perhaps succeed in rebuilding. So I don't intend to dwell too much on the plot side because I don't have much to comment on that, it's well put together and always seems coherent and, above all, it stays to the side and doesn't come encroaching on the slow and interesting arc of character development with unnecessary twists and turns. The plot gives its characters time to breathe and evolve in their environment, between them, things progressing exactly as they should. I did not find too big flaws that could disconcert me and make me lose the thread of the story. However, I have much more to say about the characters and their various reactions to the events that arise. So I'm going to immediately go over to that side.