In My Opinion

The Vanishing Girls of Willow Creek by AneesaBadu

Title: The Vanishing Girls Of Willow Creek by AneesaBadu
Series: Willow Creek (book one)
Source: Feedback request
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Subgenres: Paranormal, Romance
Mature: Y (abduction, blood, bullying, cult, death, human trafficking, incest, infertility, loss of a loved one, medical depictions, mental health issues, miscarriage, murder, occasional strong profanity, racism, stalking, suicide, mentions of alcohol and drug abuse/use)
LGBTQIAP+: N
Status: Ongoing
First impressions: 34/40
Digging deeper: 64/100
Final thoughts: pending

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*****

First impressions: 34/40

Title: 10/10
Well, if potential readers don't know what to expect from this book after reading this title, I don't know how else to help them. Mystery, kidnappings, targeting girls—it's all here.

Story description: 7/10
Grammatically, this blurb is very clean and polished. But I think it's too long, and it gives away way too much information. I've read up to chapter nine now, and honestly, this blurb summarizes all of that, so I could almost read the blurb and skip those chapters. I struggle with this balance, too, of not sharing enough information to hook a reader's interest, and then over sharing and ruining at least the first part of the story. It's tricky. In this case, I think you could cut the first, fourth, fifth, and last paragraphs. My reasoning for the first, fourth, and fifth paragraphs is that they give too much information away, removing a lot of the mystery. As for the last paragraph, ending your blurb with thought-provoking questions is a great way to hook your readers, but following that up with more statements dulls the hook.

Another point I'd like to make is that this sounds like AI-generated content. Using AI to help you get some ideas isn't a bad thing, but just be careful to write things in your own words, instead of using AI to do it for you. If this is AI-generated, it's not eligible for entry in any official Wattpad awards, and many unofficial awards wouldn't allow it, either, so be careful about that. If it's not AI, as long as you have a record to prove you typed it yourself (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs history), you're good.

Cover: 10/10
The mixture of black, blue, and white on this cover creates a dark, foreboding feeling with an eerie, ghostly influence. Looking closer, it's just a girl's back, and I don't think she's in motion, but she's picking her skirts up as if she's getting ready to run. Then, there are outlines of trees on either side of her with some possible distortion as something swirls over and around them, creating a really mysterious effect.  The title and your name are clearly visible, and the font style, color, and placement all enhance the imagery instead of detracting from it. Great cover.

First chapter (and everything that came before it): 7/10
It's been a while since I first read the beginning of this book, so I went back and reread it to refresh myself, and I have some new thoughts about it. First, I think the characters page runs into the same problem as the blurb—giving away too much information. Instead of giving plot points, just give the basics: Harley's mom; runs a bakery. There are quite a few details in the paragraphs for each character that I haven't even encountered yet in the story, but now, they won't surprise me when I do. And the cornerstone of any mystery novel is mystery, after all.

The prologue is a nice, action-packed, thrilling intro to the story. It's pretty clear the events it's showing occur later in the story, so it's a taste of what to expect. Unfortunately, the characters chapter and blurb dull the effect, though, because instead of a reader making wild guesses about what could be happening with no solid facts to go off of, they have a lot of information to make much more accurate predictions.