Elephant Reviews [CFCU]

Child of the Shadows

By: AmeliaRoth

First Impressions (ex. Cover, blurb, title)

-Cover: The cover is beautiful but the author's name is a little hard to read.

-Blurb: The blurb works.

-Title: The title is good.

Mechanics (ex. Grammar, sentence structure, etc.)

Mostly spotless grammar and the prose is easy to read.

Plot & Characters

- In the beginning of the first chapter, the world isn't set up very much. It starts with the heist, which is fine, but in the middle it has some exposition that feels a bit forced. There are details but they seem a bit unrelated. Usually this style of exposition is better for slow scenes, not a heist.

- The MC describes his family out of nowhere. The beginning of the chapter titled "Chapter 2" was a good way of illustrating how horrible the parents were in a better way than the chapter prior.

- It seemed odd that the Guild was so particular about the timing of their mission. It also raised the question as to how they kept track of time.

- Does it ever explain why there's so many teenagers in the rebellion?

- In Chapter 12 Pt. 4, it says that Alec didn't want to reveal the real reason they were going into the city was for Blackheart's diary and that they felt guilty that they were lying to Rasul. But then when going over the plan, Rasul talks about "bringing Alec into the Empire stronghold where the journal is being kept" which makes it sound like they told Rasul about the journal or diary.

- In Chapter 23 Pt. 2, the turn of events near the end of the chapter that turned the tide for the main characters (I'm trying to be as vague as possible as to not spoil anything) seemed a little too good to be true or too easy of a solution.

- The ending felt really nice and impactful. It had the right amount of closure and unresolved questions to keep readers interested in books to follow.

This story has a lot of great, suspenseful, action packed scenes. Best of luck to you and your writing journey!