Talia’s review of Daughter's Drawings > Likes and Comments

Hi Talia,

Firstly, thank you so much for reading my book! I regret that the ending didn’t grab you. It’s been the most common critique of the book, and in retrospect I see what I wrong with it, and that pertains to the main point of your review that I want to address.

So, throughout the story you get these breadcrumbs that the person responsible for this family’s terror is a low IQ individual who can’t spell and all that, which obviously stands in stark contrast to these almost impossibly adept tactics he’s putting into stalking this family. At the climax of the story, when the characters are at the farm, Kimmy rushes off, later explaining that as she was cutting through the cornfield, she heard a gunshot and then thought she heard footsteps running away as she came upon the body of the presumed culprit.

My intention was to suggest that the low IQ person had been nothing but a pawn, a person to take the fall if ever the actual culprit came too close to being caught. In my mind, Kimmy is chasing the pawn, who runs into the actual stalker, who shoots him, and then only narrowly escapes as Kimmy discovers the body. This is also why I included the detail of a single person’s face being scratched out of the photo array at the end.

I understand now that I didn’t get this information across in an adequate way, and I would love to know what you would have liked more. I’m currently working on my second novel and any insight I can get toward not making the same mistake twice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you again for reading!

Nick, I appreciate you reading the feedback and providing more explanation. I was wondering if that's where you were going with that detail! I think what would've really driven that home and made the book perfect is a single note of ambiguity at the end, forcing the MC and the reader to question whether or not it was really over (and leading us to say "wait, is it actually the guy with the scratched out face?") - I was on pins and needles during the epilogue waiting for a final drawing to show up.

Regardless, this was such a good read and definitely up there as one of my favorites. Looking forward to your next one!