Melanchoid

by Daniel Newwyn

When your dreams and your heart have been shattered, how far will you go to regain your pride?

​

L is supposed to be a genius—she learned AutoCAD by the age of 12, then earned a scholarship into the most prestigious architectural university in the City. However, her life spirals out of control after she fails to land an architectural job. After L gets into a huge fight with her boyfriend that spells the death of their relationship, she decides that she can't stay in the City any longer. Without a second thought, she packs up and leaves to embark on an aimless venture.

When L reaches a coastal village so remote it doesn't even have a name on the map, she collapses on the sands. On the verge of dying from a heat stroke, she's saved by a bizarre old man named G, whose passion is to sit and pray in front of a Moon God for hours. The man has a special knack, though—he's the best fisherman L has ever seen. G offers herself a second chance to become someone worthy, a chance to become the master of the old man's craft.

As L struggles to adjust to her new life, she befriends X, a happy-go-lucky teenage girl with the chirpiest sense of adventure. Together, they find the answer to the trickiest mysteries the Ocean has to offer. However, there's one question that L has yet to solve—

Her purpose in life.

As her inner desire to return to the City beckons, L faces a difficult decision. Will she leave the life she once had for good, or will she desist her love for the Ocean?

Kindle Edition

Published June 29, 2020

About the author

Daniel Newwyn is an aspiring writer, a professional eSports gamer, and a translator. His works have won a number of online awards in Vietnam and were listed among the promising Undiscovered Writers of Wattpad. As of current, he is the chief content producer of insightful eSport content such as Hearthstone Wildside Report. If not seen spamming words in front of his PC, Newwyn can be found taking photos of beautiful beaches or cuddling with his pet poodle.

Reviews

[Alex Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I have received an ARC of this book and I am leaving a review voluntarily*

What a fascinating read! I have found some of the best quotes in this book. This is a L, a failed university graduate moving to the countryside who struggles to find a direction of her life and contain an ego 'too big for her own good'.

The story is really solid overall, but the best bits of the book comes from the interactions between L and X, her main romantic interest. X is probably my most favorite character in the books I've read recently, and these quotes are the reason why:




“Do you think there is a Moon God?”

“I don’t know, really. Maybe she is somewhere out there, maybe she isn’t, but I would rather not know the answer. It’s better to live in ambiguity than to know the truth and never be able to dream again. There’s always an appeal in things that are out of my grasp, ya know. I don’t have wings like seagulls, nor do I have fins like dolphins. I can never reach the skyline where the gods reside, no matter how hard I try. So all I can do is sit on the roof of my house, the closest place I can ever be to the Moon, arching my head to the sky in patience, hoping that at one moment, one slightest moment, the Moon will finally gaze back at me.”



And this:



“Well, they gotta like me back first! Either they like me or I like them. I had this biggest crush ever on a boy back in kindergarten. I gave him my lolly, then he gave it to another girl! Boys suck,”



And especially this:



“I love ya, and whatever speculation ye going to make about how my feelings will waver won’t change anything. It’s not my business to tell myself to shut up and hold it in when the person I love will be stepping away from the sands we used to walk on and into Gods-know-where without so much of a second thought. You know what my business is? To shout at ya, loudest and hardest I possibly can, about how this foolish little woman has fallen for ya. Shouting like ripping my own vocal cord out. Shouting like throwing a rock into the endless space. Shouting like it’s the air I breathe, like it’s my blood, like it’s my lifeline. And I love ya. I’ll die and revive myself and I’ll still love ya. Like the sun rising in the West. Like the Moon swallowing the night sky. Like whatever ultimate truth, timeless notion that will ever go unchallenged. One year from now, five years from now, forever. And the sun will rise, and the Moon will shine, and I will love ya.”



She's the whole soul, the sparkling sun of the book. I would read this book all over again just to meet X again.