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Judges labelled 'yet to send in marks'. Please send the marks for your assigned books (that can be found in the booklists chapter) asap.
RJ; Seokjin
Judge:- spillthetae-hyung
1. FLAME OF LOVE by chimchimwithsugar
title (4/5) : it's a pretty decent title, while it's not overused, it's still moderately cliche, but not necessarily in a bad way and it hints towards the unpredictable nature towards the plot.
cover (4/5): the author has a theme among her story covers which is the monochrome background and same font, i actually really like it! it's just the 'f' font throws me off a little.
description (3/5): it's very short, but at the same time it hints towards the nature of the story (much like the title) again, it's still a little cliche in the fact that so far it gives me the impression that the female lead has to save the male lead from his own struggles.
prologue/first chapter (13/15): i decided to judge the first chapter rather than the synopsis because it wouldn't be fair to make a judgement on such a short excerpt. i really enjoyed it! and it made me laugh, i won't lie. the only thing that pulled me out of the world the author created was the pov change. there was no indication for when it happened so i was confused for a moment until i read further down to find out we were in seokjin's perspective. i find that if you make frequent pov changes, third person is much easier to do that in, and still have it flow.
writing style (19/25): the writing style was very smooth, mistakes were few and far between and the diction was well used with a refreshing amount varied synonyms. however, so far the story has mainly been about dialogue with very little description. the narrative only really seems to appear when it's ara's (female lead) perspective, take chapter two for example where it's all from jin's pov the chapter is mainly just back and forth dialogue between jimin and jin with very little descriptions.
plot (14/25): i wouldn't really call this plot cliche, it's unique in the fact that the author attempts to tackle real issues. that being said, i wasn't really a fan of how seokjin was only motivated to try and wean himself away from alcohol just for ava's sake and not for his friends or even for himself. it seemed like the typical "the girl is my cute" trope and considering alcoholism is a real and genuine struggle that requires a lot more than a romantic interest to tackle, i found it unrealistic. that being said, the author didn't obviously romantize the problem, and you can see she tried to deal with it appropriately but it just didn't come across that way. furthermore, the plot moved really fast and seemed to lack some depth behind the characters, like we're only given a brief description of their history and they become really close really soon despite the lack of interactions shown to the reader.
character development: (17/20): again, so far the characters seem to lack a realistic depth. the only time we really interact with them is if they're either with each other or they're talking about each other. that being said, they're all pleasant characters to read, and despite having some undeveloped issues (which i'm sure will be explained later on in the book) their progress in the storyline is somewhat smooth.
latest chapter: (9/10): so it's not quite finished yet and i've read up to the latest chapter which is chapter eleven, and i quite like how she's left this. so we're made to think that jin went over to ava's to reconcile and things get a little heated, but then he wakes up and everything he thought he did, everything he thought she said was a dream and it ends there. it actually did leave me wanting the next chapter.
