Quinn and the Metropolis

by Jay Pillerva

QUINN VASQUEZ has problems with her romantic life. No biggie. It’s just like your average teenage drama. But what if you suddenly have these monsters that begin popping out of nowhere, and suddenly, poof! They’re gone, and everyone goes about their lives like nothing happened. As these strange happenings begin to unfold, why does it feel like time has been repeating itself over and over again? Most importantly, where did those monsters come from?

As everything begins to spiral out of control, Quinn kisses her normal high school life goodbye. She becomes a fugitive and is blamed for all the weirdness. But why, what has she done, or are the accusations rooted in what she didn’t do…?

Follow Quinn as she discovers the secrets of the Metropolis and learns how to grasp its bizarre existence.

268 pages, Paperback

Published March 9, 2023

About the author

JAY PILLERVA is a freelance digital illustrator and author. She loves drawing cute, warm things and writing dark, scary books. How fitting!

The Metropolis Series is her independent illustrated novel series. It explores what happens to fictional work after the Author abandons it. If you like time travel, horror, monsters, and characters breaking the fourth wall, feel free to check out her work.

Reviews

[Moras Dela Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC

[Lourdes · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you to Ms. Jay for inviting me to read Quinn and the Metropolis, in exchange for an honest review. This is a spoiler-free review. Every thoughts, feelings, and opinions about this review is solely MINE. *

This novel tells a story of a new student, Quinn Vasquez. Ever since then, she is having nightmares about Cassandra, her seemingly evil "twin". If dealing with her nightmares was not enough, Quinn has to deal with matters of the heart (as any normal teenagers do). Things started to become strange during the school's annual Festival, that Quinn questioned her sanity. She soon discover that there is more to her reality and Quinn wants answers, right now!

This novel is short and fun to read, especially with those stunning illustrations by the author. It blew me away, reading it chapter by chapter - eager to know what will happen next. I like how the author, Ms. Jay, create Quinn's character and mold it that fit right into the story's atmosphere. The character development of the protagonist, is fast as the story deepens. The story itself is fast-paced and so intense that you will definitely feel the frustrations of each characters.

The only thing that bothers me are the twists in the story. Don't get me wrong because I love being surprised and caught of guard with stories. But here, some of the scenes are confusing and I felt that because the paced was so fast that other issues were not addressed or answered properly, before jumping into the next scene.

[Wana · Rating 4 out of 5]

HONEST Review:
I was having a lot of trouble with the first book, trying to figure out what was going on. It felt a little dragged out, as if nothing was making sense. I was on the verge of dnfing it, but after about 100 pages, I got the hang of it. I finally understand everything that was going on. But then again, I couldn't understand the story in the next few pages.

But as soon as I started reading the second book, all of the issues I had with the first, vanished, since everything made sense immediately.

The two books are easy to read. I read this for 5 days? Not because its slow but because I have chores to attend to. I'm on vacation now finally and I'm the one who is assigned to clean the house and cook so the only free time that I can only read is in the afternoon (if I get the work done immediately) and at midnight.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The character development is excellent, and I can't put it down because I'm curious as to what will happen next in the line of events. I'm excited to read the third book. I'm patiently waiting hehehe 😁

[Alfeesya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I would like to say thank you to the lovely author for giving me a chance to read her book! I like the plots, the storylines and the characters. The main character, Quinn, is a nice person and someone that you could easily be friend with. However, I fell in love with the other character, Julio who brought the story even more alive and interesting. In the middle of the book, the chapters might be a little confusing for me but I managed to go with the story along. This book is also a fast and short read, but since I’m a slow reader, I take a long time to finish it. Let’s talk about the ending. The ending is something I couldn’t bear! 😄 Like I really really need to know what will happen next! It’s really cliffhanger! But overall, this book is a good book and if you’re a fantasy lover, you might want to try this! Recommended!

[kb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intense with its world-building and conflict creation, Quinn and the Metropolis by Jay Pillerva is an adventure not to miss. Can be challenging to read with all its zigzags but worthy to be TBR-d, especially for YA fantasy readers.

Read my full review on Bookbed.

[Ericka Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the author Ms. Jay Pillerva for giving me a copy of your book in exchange for an honest review❤️

In the story, we follow our main character Quinn Vasquez, a new high school student at St. John's Academy. A typical girl who needs to deal with high school crushes and school works. However, when she started having nightmares of Cassandra, her so-called evil "twin" and encounters a bunch of students who would kill each other just for a box of pizza, she realized her life in the Metropolis wasn't so typical or normal at all.

"For sure, my mind wasn't the friendliest place I'd ever encountered."

Normal isn't included in this book's vocabulary. I thought it would be a cute and chill story but I was caught off guard by how thrilling it was. The world-building was great, plot was interesting, writing style was good and illustrations ( it's an illustrated book btw) were amazing that definitely helped in creating scenes in my head. The characters were kinda okay for me, sadly I didn't really felt a connection w/ them. However, I do admire Quinn for her bravery I mean, if I were her and I've been having non-stop nightmares & seen zombies in the streets of Metropolis I would not survive even a second! In addition, I can't stop smiling because of the moments Quinn and Curtis shared together, though it can be really cheesy that I can't take it sometimes.

"We influence people by the way we act toward them."

It was indeed fun and an exciting read but it can be a little bit confusing at times because it was really fast-paced that some scenes and topics of the chapter weren't addressed properly. Also, there are moments where I felt disconnected and lost because a lot of twist and turns were happening that I need to process first. Don't get me wrong I love YA Fantasy that offers a lot of twists but it wasn't really delivered well in my opinion. On the brighter side, I enjoyed it and that ending was a total cliffhanger! Quinn and The Metropolis deserve to have a spot in every reader's TBR list! Definitely will read the second book❤️

[Gae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the author for giving me a copy of Quinn and The Metropolis, the first book from The Metropolis Series. She is also the illustrator of her books. An author and illustrator of her own books - now how cool is that!

In this story we find Quinn Vasquez navigating teenhood as a typical new student of St. John's Academy which included keeping her feelings for her crush, Curtis, while maintaining a straight face in front of his girlfriend, Rachael. All the while she thought that that predicament was already complicated enough until she repeatedly wakes up in different timelines, haunted by her "evil twin" Cassandra, and chased by... zombies?

Movies that came to my mind while reading this book: Happy Death Day 2U, Wreck It Ralph, The Truman Show, and Stranger than Fiction.

I hope the movies are not much of a giveaway because there's a crucial part in the story that makes sense to the neverending time loop of Quinn. And that also explains the existence of Cassandra.

I like the plot twist in the story. It's something that I rarely see on the books that I've read. The part where Quinn looped into different timelines and experienced different kinds of adventures made me want to read further on what could possibly happen next.

Despite the good twist, I felt the narration of Quinn (POV is first person) was a bit flat for me, and quite unnatural considering she's a teenager. Well yes, she had some monologues that sounded like she's talking her age. But there are some that looked like I was reading subtitles of an anime which are formatted in standard sentence construction in English.I hope I'm making sense.😋

The first book ended in a cliffhanger. I would like to get answers on the ending, and find out who is telling the truth on the next book.

[Totally Not · Rating 5 out of 5]

Babala! May mga minor spoilers
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Ito ang pinaka masasabi ko sa nobelang 'to...
aaminin ko wala pakong nakikitang libro na i-tinalakay ang ganitong klaseng pagkukuwento. Kuwento na kung saan alam mismo ng mga bida (ng mga ilan sa kanila) na kathang-isip lamang sila ng isang may-akda, o kung tawagin siya sa seryeng ito, The Author.
Hindi pako masyadong exposed sa mga aklat na gawang pinoy, kaya nung mabasa ko 'to, napagtanto ko na sobrang laki ng potential ng ating mga kuwento.
Ang nobelang, Quinn and the Metropolis, ay sinisundan ang mga pakikipagsapalaran ni Quinn sa napakaganda, ngunit, napakamapanganib na mundo ng Metropolis. Subalit ang pinaka-setting ng nobela ay nasa St. Johns Academy, kung saan kailangang lagpasan ni Quinn ang isa sa pinakamalaking hamon niya sa buhay... ang crush niya. Hindi ko pa rin maintindihan kung bakit kinasusuklaman ng marami si Curtis. Maliban dun sa isang scene, mabait naman siya. Para sakin, para siyang teddy bear, isang klaseng kaibigan na sasamahan ka sa mga paghihirap mo.
Pero hindi siya ang paborito kong tauhan, ang karangalang iyon ay mapupunta kay Julio. Noong makilala ko si Julio, doon nako na-inlove sa kuwentong 'to! Parang siya ang cherry on top ng masarap na banana split!
So yun! Pasensya na kung hindi masyadong pormal o constructive yung review ko. Nais ko lamang ibahagi ang aking mga nararamdaman sa nobelang ito.

[Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a fan of series or fantasy but I absolutely enjoyed this book from start to end. Jay's drawing and writing are excellent – if I only I can do the same :)

I can't wait for book #2

[Eliza M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’ai d’abord connu l’autrice en tant qu’illustratrice (d’autant plus puisque je lui ai déjà commissionné le dessin d’Helena, personnage dans ma trilogie) grâce à son compte Instagram que je suis depuis quelques années. C’est aussi par son entremise que j’ai pu voir qu’elle était aussi autrice, justement, et qu’elle a publié cette trilogie qu’elle a rendue accessible gratuitement pour fêter l’anniversaire de parution du premier volet. C’est ainsi que j’ai pu mettre la main sur ces tomes et que j’ai commencé par la lecture de ce premier tome.

Critique complète ici : https://lesmotsdezaza.wordpress.com/2...