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Finished Matthew and the Chimney Sweeps by @matthewchimneysweeps.
TLDR; If you liked the Book Thief, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn, this is for you. Very good, fun, and thrilling from start to finish.
Characterization: All the right notes - This story is an ambitious one. It seeks to recreate the innocence of youth while having a more adult-like plot. The foundation of this requires, demands, that the characters be portrayed as children, act like children, have the emotional capacity of children, and most of all the emotional understanding of children. There is tragedy, there is pain, there is joy, there is fun, there is adventure, and all of it requires a certain tone only children have. To that, it lands solidly on its feet so everything else follows with a foundation to work from.
Side characters: Its a zoo! - Holy freaking crap theres a lot. I don't just mean a lot. I mean, A LOT! The fact that I was able to keep track of most of them, the way they act, their roles in the plot, and basically be able to tell the difference between Amanda and Chloe is amazing. This is partially due to the rich characterization most have. (Most, not all.) It almost gave me a headache keeping track of them all as you only grew in characters every chapter, but I made it. Whew.!
World Building: Dynamic, perfect - At first you don't know much about the world. You know pretty much nothing. Yet this doesn't hurt the story because you start off where the main characters entire world really is just a small confined space. Yet as the story grows, his world grows, and the world building grows with it. So at first you only have one room, but by the end you have a full city as freedom, mind, social circle, and life all expands. This is perfect for the plot. Rather than give us information on the entire city when the only relevance was a single room for 2-3 chapters, and rather than give us no information when his life and plot expands, it is dynamic and lets us expand WITH the character. In fact, half the fun was exploring the world with him, going on an adventure!
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Grammar: slightly Below Average - The story feels like a first draft for the most part. Its not so bad that you can't easily tell what is going on, but the grammar may bug some. It is better early but the grammar seems less polished the further you go. Half sentences, no punctuation or capitalization, the basic things you typically see. I can understand this would get steadily harder to maintain when you do 10+ chapters and you are still pumping more out, but now that it is a completed story it no longer has that excuse and feels unpolished.
Word Usage: fitting - The word usage fits the character. With the character being a child, the word usage is largely simple.
Plot: Despite the strong characterization and dynamic world building, the plot doesn't suffer for it at all, but provides adventure for the world building, provides drama and conflict for the characters to grow in, and makes a world feel alive. I didn't expect to find myself going from a Huckleberry Finn and tragedy tale into child-level politics and gangs and a Lord of the Flies feel around racing while having family and a hint of Merry Poppins, but it takes you all kinds of places without losing you once. I found myself sitting up in my chair, leaning forward on my elbows, and almost falling off my chair reading the monitor, twice. You never lose focus on the larger story amidst the smaller arcs, and it ends on a massive cliff hanger nicely tieing together every arc together and promising another exciting adventure.It also is a bonus to me that the story is long enough to actually feel like there is a plot with character development, growth, and time to explore everything the world and characters has to offer.
Overall I would rate it 3 smashing out of five.
With polish, it would easily be 4/5. I had an absolute blast. You love to hate the villains, and you are on an adventure with the main character the whole way through as he gets a family of sorts that you want to adopt into your own. One guy feels like a big brother and I cheered for him in the end chapter.
I'm out with a smashing!!
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If you are interested in learning to write, mastering the craft, want some really good reads, or just to chat and hang out with a mature group of adults, feel free to hit me up for a smashing discord book club that has lasted years.
