| | Indefinite Hiatus | |
I hope to return to this project someday, but it isn't feasible with my current health issues and life circumstances. I have to cut things from my workload so I can breathe. However, I still intend to complete my current li...
Source: Feedback request Genre: Coming of age Secondary/subgenre(s): Supernatural Mature: N (cancer, illicit drug use, moderate profanity, sexual references, underage drinking) LGBTQIAP+: N Status: Complete First impressions: 36/40 Digging deeper: 95/100 Final thoughts: Complete
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First impressions: 36/40
Title: 10/10
This is a simple title that's as mysterious as its namesake in the story. It could work for multiple genres, and it definitely works great here.
Story description: 9/10
Short, sweet, and to the point. Love that. I only have a few suggestions here. First, I'd change "that" in the second sentence to "who," and moving "Indigo Rock" to the end of that sentence would make it stand out more. Second, the last sentence feels off to me. The rest of this blurb is in the present tense, and I think you're trying to say what they knew (or thought they knew) before Indigo Rock is about to change, but the past tense there feels weird. I would say either change it to "know" or something like "thought they knew," but this sentence doesn't feel like enough as its own paragraph, so playing with the wording a bit more than that wouldn't be a bad idea. As it is, this sentence feels more like it belongs with the first paragraph. But ending the first paragraph with "—Indigo Rock" would strengthen your hook, so I wouldn't recommend burying that by adding another sentence right after it. I don't have any specific ideas in mind for alterations, and you may decide it's better to leave it alone, but it's something to look at, anyway.
Cover: 9/10
First, I like the background image. It's simple, like the title, with the addition of the indigo rock within the tree trunk adding elements of mystery and curiosity. I also like the straight-forward font style. It's easy to read, and the oddity of the slight enhancements to the title keeps it from feeling boring or underdone. The white box around "Rock" and the actual rock feels a little strange because it's off-center and not around both words of the title, but that's the point. It's emphasizing the rock, both in word and image. And your name is clearly visible and doesn't detract from the rest of the cover.
The only thing I don't necessarily like is the text at the top. I can see why you want something there, because otherwise, there's a lot of blank space on the top half of the cover, but there's something not quite right about that text for me. I've been sitting here, staring at it, trying to figure out why, and my initial thoughts of changing font or shifting the text elsewhere on the cover don't seem like the right answer. Maybe it's just the left alignment. Everything except "Rock" is centered, and that break in symmetry right in the middle of the cover works well, but the left alignment at the top feels too rigid to me. I'd try centering it and seeing what happens. Maybe that'll do the trick. You could also try moving it to the upper right-hand corner of the cover, so it's placed over the tree, and see what that looks like. But otherwise, I love this cover.
