yla (๑)┊’s Reviews > A Whisper To A Scream > Status Update

I also wrote a lengthy passage of text referencing my qualms with the story prior to me finding out that updating one’s progress comes with a word limit:

The manner in which the book attempted to comprehensibly weave scenes, characters, and dialogue together was jarring in its dissimilitude from the enthralling fundamentals of its storyline. Although, strange as it is, this particular issue wasn’t prevalent in the prologue at all. The writing was passable enough, and even included a few similes here and there to spruce things up. It was during Ellory’s formal introduction as the central protagonist, however, that the overall quality of the writing plummeted, and the baseline from which much of the issues I have with the story surfaced, as a whole.

The prose enveloping the succeeding pages can be likened to that of a standard Wattpad story — lackluster, infuriatingly simple, and illustrative of the barest minimum. The distinct essence discernible from the prologue was practically tossed out of the window and, in its place, is a hollow semblance of what could have been a bearable read amped up by an intriguing premise; marred with detracting grammatical errors, to boot. Of course, I would’ve let this entire shortcoming slide. It would have dissolved before my very eyes had I been given the impetus to mentally correct every glaring error — that is to say, if I felt it’d be a waste if I didn’t continue — though, much to my chagrin, the prose wasn’t the only defining aspect of the book that was Wattpad-like. The beginning scenes — ones meant to ensnare the reader — were unimaginative and ticked the checklist of every story with a high school backdrop ever. The characters themselves don’t fare any better in this department and, aside from Adam whose morally questionable nature is hard to not be riveted by, were mere cardboard caricatures of popular character types. The protagonist, Ellory, for instance, is your usual rebellious heroine who regularly engages in snarky but honest rebuttals every second she gets. Granted, I’m only at the third chapter and further character development could be in store for Ellory along with the rest of the cast, so I’m not going to dwell on this matter for too long.

All in all, ‘tis a shame, really. I was really enthused by the synopsis of the book, and the details it presented were a dream come true. A guy that hides behind a charismatic mask with an affinity for blood seeping out of corpses. Sounds like music to me. I didn’t even have to read any spoilers for my interest to be piqued at an unnatural level, which is an achievement in and of itself because I live and breathe for spoilers to get rhapsodic about a certain plot point or portion of a book. Nonetheless, I still do believe that ‘A Whisper to a Scream’ definitely has potential to, at the very least, be a decent pastime read in spite of the damning inadequacies I’ve mentioned above. It just can’t secure my flimsy attention span at the moment. For now, I’m keeping it on hold until the motivation to plough through Ellory and Adam’s tale hits me like a freight train.