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Review #4777441
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 Fireberry Fever Dreams  [18+]
Everyone is the Chosen; everyone, the villain. Right or wrong, you must decide.
by Joto-Kai
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Rated: 18+ | (4.5)
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Greetings! Thank you for requesting a review.

I’m finally here… phew, what a saga. I was dreading it all week because I don't really do longform fiction these days, but when I sat down and actually read it, it didn’t seem like 10,000 words at all by the time I was done. Perhaps that’s because it was such a dark and gripping tale, with the quickly changing scenes keeping me on my toes as I connected all the dots.

For me, it was quite readable for the most part; the different scenes and characters were fairly easy enough to keep straight. But I would recommend you avoid having two characters with the same first letter in their names, especially in such a tangled web: I had a hard time remembering who Milos and Maril were.

It's a dreary, heavy story, full of treachery and confusion, but with a glimmer of hope at the end. If you were looking for helpful advice, I'm not sure I have any. The moral ambiguity and inconclusive ending are quite hip and postmodern, and it would probably be the kind of thing people would like these days, as portraying reality in a more honest way than a simple black and white narrative.

You write well, with dialogue driven narration which reveals characters in bits and pieces. I felt bad for young Jode, struggling to cope with the reality of the demons he unleashes and denying that something so horrible could actually exist. It reminds me of myself...

In a way, the wild concept of the fireberries is a nerve-wracking metaphor for the depths of turmoil and rottenness inside ourselves that we all have to deal with at some point. Some people choose to embrace it and dive deeper into the treacheries of their dark side, like Milos, using magic against magic when the whole point of his career was to eliminate magic. Others wrestle with honor and morality and consequences, striving for what they think should be the right thing, only to wonder if it was worth bothering to stand up for it at all.

You've certainly given me something to think about... It reminds me of how I felt when I finished reading the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Take care, thanks for sharing, and keep writing *HeartT*



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