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A review by jamesflint
Walking on Knives by Maya Chhabra
2.0
Galley provided by publisher
Rep: bi mc, lesbian mc
The main problem with this was that it was too short. This isn't the kind of story that can be condensed into 25 pages, as was attempted here. There needs to be time to develop the characters and relationships (especially when you're trying to convince readers that a character who is in love with someone, falls in love with someone else), and there just wasn't enough for that here.
In addition, the writing felt like it was at times pushing for purple-prose territory and failing, but failing in such a way that it wasn't particularly easy to read or compelling. The novella also opens with a rape scene, which felt totally unnecessary. All it was was a plot device to make it so that the little mermaid fears, or is at least wary of, the sea witch's sister because she shares a resemblance. There are much better ways to have that come about, and honestly it was not a scene I wanted to be reading at all, let alone as the opening scene in the novella.
Rep: bi mc, lesbian mc
The main problem with this was that it was too short. This isn't the kind of story that can be condensed into 25 pages, as was attempted here. There needs to be time to develop the characters and relationships (especially when you're trying to convince readers that a character who is in love with someone, falls in love with someone else), and there just wasn't enough for that here.
In addition, the writing felt like it was at times pushing for purple-prose territory and failing, but failing in such a way that it wasn't particularly easy to read or compelling. The novella also opens with a rape scene, which felt totally unnecessary. All it was was a plot device to make it so that the little mermaid fears, or is at least wary of, the sea witch's sister because she shares a resemblance. There are much better ways to have that come about, and honestly it was not a scene I wanted to be reading at all, let alone as the opening scene in the novella.