𝐏𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐈𝐈 | Review Shop II

Her Purpose [Alba]

Book: Her Purpose
Author: sulkytae
Reviewer: oraclesighter
Chapters read: 28, including prologue

First of all, I have to comment on the outstanding cover. I can say for sure this is attention grabbing, all the elements, the color scheme, as well as the title of the story. There’s a saying that goes “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but we all know that this doesn’t apply to Wattpad. Many readers, including me, choose to click on a story if it has an attractive cover and overall good presentation. You’ve definitely nailed it on this part. 

Although the blurb sends forward the main message of the story along with its premise, it needs more details and stronger hooks for a reader to actually know what to expect—and in fact, I think it would attract even more readers if you were to mention the romance part. 

It creates a compelling and effective hook since we’re informed the protagonist will pass away due to cancer, but just before this occurs, she falls in love with her best friend, who reciprocates his love for her. Not to mention it brings another conflict into play—which is what readers are looking for. 

Conflict is intriguing, if you’ve got more than two conflicts in the story, mention them. I think it’s a good idea to add more context of the plot and reveal this conflict as well, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include the original concept you have in the blurb of Elizabeth wishing to do something meaningful with her life. Include it. Mix it with the romance part, create a few hooking lines, show briefly how it clashes with everything and creates another conflict. 

Otherwise, a possible reader may lose interest because they expect solely a story about a girl with cancer, and nothing else since, well, nothing else is mentioned. They don’t know what to expect, they need more information. Of course there will be other things other than cancer happening to her, she is a human (and a very realistically written character at that). SHOW THAT in your blurb! 

Moving onto the plot, it’s incredibly gripping. As I mentioned briefly in the blurb part of my review, what makes it so compelling is the question on whether Elizabeth will survive or not, along with how the rest of the characters like her family and love interest face this challenge with her, among many other topics. 

What makes this story so special and interesting to read is how realistically this is written. You portray the results of her illness very well, such as her having to visit the doctor numerous times, how she deals with her symptoms—the way the symptoms slowly overcome her, classmates reacting badly and many even hurting her feelings because of it, her having to abandon school and try to accept the fact that she may not have a future any longer, etc. You take many factors into consideration, write them in a raw, uncensored way, and manage to bring numerous complicated feelings in readers through this. You nailed on creating a deeply emotional story.

During chapter 2 I genuinely felt sadness for the father when he turned to drive to the ice cream shop. I usually don’t feel emotions other than shock during plot twists or joy if there are a few funny lines in stories, so getting me to actually feel that little saddened heart drop is RARE. I’m telling you, you gotta be good at your craft to be able to impact me in such a way.

it’s so understandable—each action the parents and rest of the characters take after getting to hear the devastating news. The dialogues and reactions are realistic, the way you add speech characteristics from real life such as characters pausing momentarily or trailing off when something’s hard to say for them.

I also noticed how you made Beth kind of “bottle up” her sadness upon hearing the news of getting cancer. The impact of the news shocked her so bad that it all came pouring on her moments later when she arrived back home. Very realistic. 
I’ve experienced that type of reaction myself and it makes this scene so incredibly believable—to be so stunned at first that you can’t think straight nor react straight.

Perfectly written. 

However, I’d like to address a specific dialogue interaction between two students upon her arrival at her college:

"I know. Do you think she should even be here? What if she, like, collapses or something? 
“God, can you imagine? That would be so awkward for her and annoying for us."

I found it a bit unrealistic for the characters to straight up say that it’d be “annoying” for them if she were to collapse. I would just cut that part out where they mention it’s annoying, then leave the rest in. 
I don’t find it reasonable that anyone would get “annoyed” by someone fainting. Unless they’re extremely antipathic. I do agree that students probably may make fun of another student for fainting, however. 
I’ve seen similar things like this occur before. But you need to incorporate the use of subtext here.

For example, this line: “God can you imagine, that would be so awkward for her.” If you want to emphasize the annoyance coming from this person, use body language to describe how she’d be annoyed if that case were to occur, like side eyes, wincing, raising chin (defiantly) at her, etc etc. I think the euphemism, or in other words, subtext, would work better this way—have more impact. 

In the mechanics, I love how you subtly include flashbacks of memories during chapter 14, it doesn’t stop the flow of the story at all and it works well to create contrast and parallel scenes to the past and what is going on in the present (when Nathan and Beth were just kids recently meeting each other, for example, and then we move to present again where everything is pretty chaotic, considering Elizabeth’s illness and what happened at the beach the other night). It adds even more tension to the scene because we get to experience exactly what Beth is thinking and feeling. 

Well the entire story in general is just a big fat hook. You genuinely can’t put it down once you’ve gotten into the story. Just wanting to find out whether Elizabeth survives or not is the most gripping part, because at one point you think “yup, it’s over for her” but then there are other moments where, for example, the father explains how he survived his cancer and the mother is convincing Beth how strong she is with the bike metaphor, and that makes you rethink and go like “wait, is she going to live…??” which ends up urging you to read till the end to find out what actually happens. 

And it’s not just the premise that makes me stay, it’s the characters. The protagonist is such an intriguing character to get to read about, her thoughts, the way she behaves, how she chooses to handle the situation. Not to mention her parents, along with Nathan, being all incredibly charming characters to get to read about as well. I instantly fell in love with Elizabeth and Nathan’s relationship. This created an even stronger hook and reason to stay, since in the case of Beth not surviving, I am extremely intrigued in how Nathan, along with her family, will deal with it toward the end of her life when she becomes weaker than she is at the moment. 

I’ve already said this a million times, but seriously, I have to repeat: I can say for certain all of the characters in this story are extremely well-written and act like actual humans. It all feels so real, the way they act, talk, and think. It makes so much sense, it’s such a breath of fresh air to see authors write multi dimensional characters and in a realistic way. Kudos, you completely nailed this part. 

Your writing is impeccable. Every description is well-written, clear to imagine, and each action has flawlessly chosen words for its, as I mentioned, description. I haven’t found a single grammatical error, nor any confusing sentences. Honestly, a very beautiful and clear writing style.

Overall, this story was a fun read. I’ll definitely be sticking around to find out what happens to Elizabeth and the rest of the characters. I also won’t forget to recommend it to anyone who’s searching for stories like these. 

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