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Finding Scarlet (Chapters 1 - 5) - @45BestWriter

Finding Scarlet (Chapters 1 - 5) by 45BestWriter 

Reviewed by -bethwrites-

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Overview:

From the five chapters I read, I can't really formulate a complete idea about what direction the story is heading. The chapters are very short, and the dialogue is written in script format, so literally one person says this and the next person says that with no transitions whatsoever. It would appear that Hazel is devastated after her mom's death, and her sole goal in life now is to find her sister who went missing five years previously. It would have been nice if the chapters were a bit more in depth, being that they're all about a paragraph long, that way I would have more to go from.

Plot (so far):

CHAPTER ONE: Readers are informed through a text Hazel sends that it is her birthday, but she is too depressed to celebrate anything because her mom died a year ago, her sister disappeared five years ago, and she has no friends.

CHAPTER TWO: Hazel meets up with her friend, Grace, at the coffee shop. She once again emphasizes the fact that she is sad and she doesn't want to celebrate her birthday, but Grace got her a gift anyway.

CHAPTER THREE: We are told through a flashback that Hazel met Grace while she was looking for Scarlet on the beach, and in this flashback Grace tells Hazel that she will help her find Scarlet. This signifies the beginning of their lifelong friendship.

CHAPTER FOUR: Hazel runs into a woman by sheer coincidence, and after seeing that the woman is wearing an apron that just so happens to have Scarlet's name on it, they follow her and ask her some questions. It turns out that the woman's name is Pamela and she runs a plant nursery that used to be owned by a lady named Scarlet, who lives in Florida now.

CHAPTER FIVE: This chapter is very, very short, and from the two line dialogue and thoughts of Florida that we're provided with here, we can safely conclude that Hazel is going to hop on a train to Florida with Grace in tow.

Character Development:

To be honest there wasn't much of that here. The book doesn't give time to develop the character or let the reader come to their own judgements and conclusions regarding the characters. We are only informed of their actions and their words, with no emotions attached besides the narrator blatantly telling us that "Hazel is sad." The book is so focused on Hazel being torn after her mom's death and her resolve to find her long lost sister that not a lot of time and effort was put into giving the characters dimension and discernible personalities.

Writing Style:

The book was written almost entirely in script-style format, with almost stage like directions for actions and straight forward dialogue. GIFs and pictures were added in almost every chapter, mostly to describe things that the characters were looking at, or to describe the characters themselves. The chapters were, at the most, a paragraph long give or take, and there wasn't much cohesion with the plot. The writing style was very choppy too, and there wasn't much flow to it.

Summary:

The idea behind Finding Scarlet was a sad and poignant story about a girl trying to recover after the death of her mother and separation from her sister, but its execution doesn't allow the reader to connect with the story. The lack of actual dialogue and substitution with script like conversation don't give the characters much life, either. With a few corrections and editing, though, Finding Scarlet could be a meaningful story about what it means to pick up the pieces after tragedy strikes