Rebel Town Reviews [OPEN]

The Virgins' Club (Chapters 1-5) @BaabaRoyale

The Virgins' Club - (Chapters 1-5) by BaabaRoyale 

Reviewed by _GinaLexis_ 

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Overview: The title of the book, 'The Virgins' Club' gives us the impression of a typical teen fiction, however, it is anything but that. Right from the beginning, it establishes a wonderful tone of voice that sets it apart from other stories. It has unique characters in a world ruled by money, power, and sex. What begins as a fun story soon turns chilling with a gruesome murder, lies, and deceit. I was excited to begin this book and I'm glad to say that it did not disappoint. The writer wanted me to focus on the plot, the characters, and the writing style which will take up the rest of my review.

Plot: The plot of the story is definitely one of a kind. The story itself takes place after the driving action. The murder has already occurred and one girl, Samantha has been taken in as a suspect. Then we move on to see the events of the night and its consequences from the eyes of different characters.

The reason for Samantha being arrested remains a mystery. Some evidence must have been found that pointed towards her. I am waiting to see how the writer would deal with that. The rest of the characters all behave strangely. Some openly accusing the girl and others fighting to help her.

Since the focus has been on characterization, the plot hasn't moved much in the five chapters that I've read. We still don't know how the murder took place, who found him, what happened etc. But, every chapter succeeds in creating a sense of suspense and thrill in the reader. So far, the plot is good.

Characters: There are many characters in the book and that is not an exaggeration. The best part is that all of them give the feels of a protagonist, so we can't help but concentrate on each of their actions. They all seem different like they belong to another world. The writer never misses an opportunity to display their wealth, power, and the arrogance that comes with it. The downside of this is that the reader feels detached from the characters. After all, they are on a different level of high society. When the reader can't relate to any of the characters, you know that something is wrong. To correct this, it is essential to humanize them. I suggest giving them weaknesses, faults that money cannot correct.

The various characters give off the same feels. They are all rich, spoilt, and arrogant with some people that they hold close to their hearts. Also, many of them seem to have changed after the death of Gates in the same way. It becomes monotonous when each of their dull and lifeless faces compared to their previous glamour is described in the same way repeatedly.

The suspense is still in the air and that is a good thing. I have no idea which one of them might have done it but that's probably because we haven't been given enough information yet.

Writing Style: The last topic of focus is the writing style and I have a lot to say about it. The book is written in the first person with multiple narrators. Each of them has something to add to the story, something we didn't know before, their thoughts on the event, their beliefs, their perspectives and their roles in the murder as a whole.

While the writer follows all the rules of a multiple-narrative to the book, there is one thing that's amiss. Each viewpoint narrator needs to be given their own narrative voice. If done well, this kind of writing would be able to make the reader believe that it is a story being told by different people.

But, this is the one thing that the book lacks as it is quite evident that one person is writing the story. One way to correct this would be by the use of dialogues. By giving them all a unique voice of narration, this story has the potential to come to life. Right now, it is very easy to get confused between all of them.

Another matter I want to address is the genre of the book. It seems to be leaning towards a murder mystery. In that case, if not used properly the writing style of the book can be disastrous for the story. We know that one of the narrators is the killer. If this was a third-person narrative, their thoughts and feelings wouldn't have to be mentioned. But since, this is the first-person narrative, the readers cannot be robbed of the same.

However, if the writer were to tell the feelings of the girls, the killer would be revealed much before the climax and that can ruin the plot of such a good book. Since this is still in the beginning stages, I would suggest the writer keep these things in mind as they can either make or break the story.

The descriptions in the story are simply brilliant. The similes used are creative and fun. I especially loved the second chapter. I did notice many run-on sentences and some comma splices. Although the writer does a good job showing, there are some telling sentences here and there that would be better if shown.

I noticed excessive use of adverbs in some places and realized it has already been pointed out by a fellow reader. In fact, there are quite a lot of corrections that have been made based on which if the book were to be edited, it would be a much better read.

Summary: A book with a brilliant storyline, unrelatable yet very intriguing characters and a murder that would keep you on your toes. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first five chapters and am looking forward to reading more. It has the potential to be a great book and I can't wait for that to be actualized.