For reference, Over the River was written by RedRockingHood and can be found here.
RedRockingHood has been a member of the Fear Mythos community for quite some time, though she hasn't written many stories, so when I saw she'd written a short blogpasta, I jumped at the chance to get to review it.
Over the River consists of 15 posts from the perspective of Ash, an abused and jaded son who tries his best to take care of his little sister Crystal. Throughout the first half of the story, Ash details his oppressive life under his abusive mother who takes every opportunity to restrict and belittle her children. The story is kept realistic, with the abuse not going too far to blatantly warrant police intervention though with Ash often talking of wanting to buy a tape recorder to catch his mother saying something particularly questionable. Honestly, I can say from personal experience that that's.. definitely realistic!
But Crystal is clearly where the story's focus shines. She remains quiet, being picked up from school by her older brother every day, getting the brunt of her mother's emotional abuse, saying very little but frequently crying. Throughout the course of the story, she makes a friend (eventually nicknamed "the blue fairy") and starts to progress into various stages of hypothermia, much to her brother's surprise and horror. At the climax of the story, Ash takes Crystal and runs off, hoping to make it through the local woods to their grandmother's house.
From here, the story undergoes a quick descent into its conclusion. The blue fairy finds Crystal and peels her skin off, revealing a wooden girl who reveals strings forcing Ash to continue writing as the two surreal monsters run off into the newly-formed forest snow. Admittedly, when I finished reading this ending, I got goosebumps. This was an altogether unexpected and chilling ending that put the entire story under a far more tragic light. From this, we can see that Crystal had been the one pulling the strings and manipulating Ash from the start, remaining silent until she needed something. Ash would do anything for his little sister, and this was bitterly exploited. This even calls into question the legitimacy of their mother's abuse.
The story had been setting up a focus on the Fear known as The Cold Boy, but it brilliantly subverted it with a reveal of The Wooden Girl, and this is truly commendable. It makes sense thematically, and it provides an excellent reason to read the story a second time. Even ignoring this story's basis in the Fear Mythos, Over the River feels like a classic grim fairy tale, the mental image of a cold blue fairy and a girl made of wood running off into a snowy forest as the abused protagonist types to his death being one that will probably stay fresh in my mind for a while now.
But there's one area where Over the River falls short, and that is that of the subplot of the tape recorder. Throughout the first half of the story, Ash makes a number of mentions of saving up money to purchase a recording device to catch his mother in the act of verbal abuse. Shortly before the climax, Ash posts a link to an audio recording of his mother (voiced by tgecko). Now, this was set up very well, and there being only one recording was perfect considering the story's short length. But the actual recording left a lot to be desired. The dialogue was fairly tame, almost something I'd expect even a functional mother to say in anger, and since by this point in the story the focus was more and more on Crystal and the blue fairy, to be pulled out of that to hear a bit of a tame (though well acted on tgecko's part) audio sequence that was supposed to serve as the conclusion to a significant subplot is.. well, it didn't feel effective.
Finally, on the matter of the blog's appearance, RedRockingHood certainly picked an appropriate and simple design. The background is that of a snowy forest, which seems simply aesthetically pleasing at first but is, of course, definitely an appropriate background to see as the story progresses. But the blog's gadgets (the Blog Archive and the About Me boxes) take up so much of the space that the actual posts feel squished. This isn't a serious problem or anything, but I feel like it made the reading experience a little more annoying.
So Over the River is a short and very effective horror story, appropriate in many aspects. It has a few lesser points to the delivery and the layout, but the story stands so well on its own and the ending leaves such an impression that these can be easily forgiven.
RedRockingHood really outdid herself.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Pulling off Masks, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
Author: PullingoffmasksStatus: OngoingFear(s): Plague Doctor; the Grotesque (?)
What happens when you take a person who is majoring in anthropology and analytical in nature, sit them down in front of a computer, and proceed to tell them about the Slender Man and Fear Mythos? This blog, my friends… this is what happens.
It starts off with the character (I believe her name is Mara?) talking about getting into the mythos, but first making sure that if any weird stuff starts to go down, she’ll handle it. Yeaaaah… Well, that doesn’t necessarily work out (this is a Fear blog). Anyway, after each Fear/Slenderblog she reads, Mara makes a list of rules that the protagonist within that story abides by. Quite clever, and I love that particular aspect about this blog.
Events take a turn for the worst when Mara begins seeing the Plague Doctor, and dear lord this interpretation is creepy. Okay, so I haven’t read all of the blogs out there, but the Plague Doctor is pretty enigmatic to me and seeing it portrayed as the main antagonist in this story is awesome. The way it follows the protagonist, appearing to be there but maybe it’s not… Skimming what’s real, what’s hallucinations… Yeah…
That’s another thing I’d like to bring up. Okay, spoilers, but can I just say that the whole “Maybe Mara is crazy” angle is what is making me love this blog so much? I honestly don’t know whether or not Mara is actually being stalked by the Plague Doctor, or if she’s just having delusions. I’m leaning more towards “The Plague Doctor is real and he’s giving her mental illnesses to screw her up”, but I think it can go either way. The “going crazy” posts are well done, too.
I’m still wondering what the character is going to do in the future (this is addressed in the blog, actually), but Mara is just so interesting that I think that her blogging from her phone could keep me glued to this blog for a while. It does look like we’ll be seeing some more plot-ish stuff considering recent events and I’m pumped! Keep ‘em coming!
Mara: I love her. She’s one interesting coo-coo. She starts off by being genre-savvy (yes), reading through all of the blogs/watching vlogs, making rules, stuff like that. But the thing is, she’s not actually being stalked, so it makes this portion of the blog realistic! In fact, almost all the posts in which a Fear doesn’t show up are realistic because you actually feel like Mara’s a real person.
Let’s see… Oh, she’s very, very analytical in nature (like me!). It was probably a good idea to establish this early on since we start to see that side of her slipping up (she’s still analytical, but I think she’s missing a few things…). She has a very good sense of humor (except when she’s angry, and even then she can produce something hilarious) and the references she makes are very, very good (she mentioned Kender. I love Kender. Yesyesyesyesyes).
And again, she feels like a real person writing this blog because not every post is “weird eldritch crap” that she deals with. In fact, I’ve come to enjoy the little filler posts that have to do with people on bus rides being annoying, or updates on her personal life (especially comments about her little sister, ahaha). To add on to this is that she has to deal with real life issues that affect the course of the story.
The Plague Doctor: I don’t normally do character reviews for Fears, but when I do it’s because the Fear is one of the driving forces behind that blog and it essentially becomes a character in itself. Ah… that might be a little confusing, but oh well.
So, the Plague Doctor. Screw this guy, I mean, holy crap. The stuff he puts Mara through is just… blah, screw this guy! But I love him, or this interpretation of him. He isn’t something that goes around spreading diseases like a flower girl spreading daisies at a wedding. No, in this blog his methods are much more insidious. I’m fairly certain that he’s causing Mara to develop the mental illnesses which just screw up her life even more… and allowing him to grow closer to her. That’s the scariest aspect about this blog, people; maybe Mara is just hallucinating, or the Good Doctor is doing it to her. We don’t know.
With that said, I do love the stalker-ish bits about the Good Doctor (like how he appears behind her when she looks at her reflection in a window), as well as the hallucination bits (particularly the part about the cages). The “writing this down because he is telling me I need to” is reminiscent of the first act of RAPTURE, but it fits with this blog. I can’t put my thumb on it, actually… Hrmm…
---
All in all, this blog is extremely well done. When the creator first told me it had over two hundred posts, I was skeptical about reviewing it, but I found that in the end it was worth it. It was a pleasant surprise to find the Good Doctor showing up as the antagonist and I think the way he’s treated within as genius. I was kind of bored with the poems around the beginning of the story, but the rules/theories make up for that. I wish we could see a little more of Mara’s family and how her conditions are starting to affect them. We’ve seen a few hints of this, so I’m thinking that later on it’ll be addressed in proper form. Finally, the character is just great. I feel really bad for her because of the situation she’s in, and people, this is great. Empathy for characters… Blah, just, good job. Really good job. I think this is probably my favorite blog I’ve read over the past few days.
And now onto the Wild Mass Guessings!
It's All In Mara's Head
Possible, and I’m not ruling it out.
Mara Will End Up Killing Herself
Due to some incident regarding friends/family, or because the Plague Doctor starts to get closer to her, or… well, just being done with the hallucinations, not wanting to deal with the crap anymore. I hope this isn’t what happens, but… *shrugs*
The Wooden Girl Will Come For Mara’s Sister
Just a hunch that I developed over the course of the story. We’ve seen the Wooden Girl appear in the dreams/hallucinations, so…
This Plague Doctor Is A Combination Of… Err, Itself and the Grotesque
Something Alliterator said on the thread, and it makes a bit of sense when I think about it. Maybe the Plague Doctor is the cause of “Grotesque” dreams in this universe (As well as Choir fungus and Intrusion nests?)?
Doctor Beeke Is A Red Herring
This guy is too freaking obvious to be an Oathbreaker, and I’m not saying that because of his name. Okay, yeah, so he prescribes Mara her medication and starts to up the dosage… Well, alright, but from my experience with therapists, there’s two doctors you have to see. One is how it’s portrayed in the story, the guy who asks you questions about how you’re doing and stuff. The other guy is the medicine dude, the one who takes the other doctor’s notes into consideration before deciding to cut the dosage in half or up it.
Now, that’s assuming that every therapist place is like the one I’ve been to, which it may very well not. Still, until proven otherwise, I’m guessing that either this universe’s medicine dude is screwing with Mara’s medicine, or it’s being drugged from an outside source and not by Doctor Beeke.
Another Intern Will Be Punched
Probably while Mara is yelling “I’m Batman!!!”
Pulling off Masks
Author: PullingoffmasksStatus: OngoingFear(s): Plague Doctor; the Grotesque (?)
Plot:
What happens when you take a person who is majoring in anthropology and analytical in nature, sit them down in front of a computer, and proceed to tell them about the Slender Man and Fear Mythos? This blog, my friends… this is what happens.
It starts off with the character (I believe her name is Mara?) talking about getting into the mythos, but first making sure that if any weird stuff starts to go down, she’ll handle it. Yeaaaah… Well, that doesn’t necessarily work out (this is a Fear blog). Anyway, after each Fear/Slenderblog she reads, Mara makes a list of rules that the protagonist within that story abides by. Quite clever, and I love that particular aspect about this blog.
Events take a turn for the worst when Mara begins seeing the Plague Doctor, and dear lord this interpretation is creepy. Okay, so I haven’t read all of the blogs out there, but the Plague Doctor is pretty enigmatic to me and seeing it portrayed as the main antagonist in this story is awesome. The way it follows the protagonist, appearing to be there but maybe it’s not… Skimming what’s real, what’s hallucinations… Yeah…
That’s another thing I’d like to bring up. Okay, spoilers, but can I just say that the whole “Maybe Mara is crazy” angle is what is making me love this blog so much? I honestly don’t know whether or not Mara is actually being stalked by the Plague Doctor, or if she’s just having delusions. I’m leaning more towards “The Plague Doctor is real and he’s giving her mental illnesses to screw her up”, but I think it can go either way. The “going crazy” posts are well done, too.
I’m still wondering what the character is going to do in the future (this is addressed in the blog, actually), but Mara is just so interesting that I think that her blogging from her phone could keep me glued to this blog for a while. It does look like we’ll be seeing some more plot-ish stuff considering recent events and I’m pumped! Keep ‘em coming!
Characters:
Mara: I love her. She’s one interesting coo-coo. She starts off by being genre-savvy (yes), reading through all of the blogs/watching vlogs, making rules, stuff like that. But the thing is, she’s not actually being stalked, so it makes this portion of the blog realistic! In fact, almost all the posts in which a Fear doesn’t show up are realistic because you actually feel like Mara’s a real person.
Let’s see… Oh, she’s very, very analytical in nature (like me!). It was probably a good idea to establish this early on since we start to see that side of her slipping up (she’s still analytical, but I think she’s missing a few things…). She has a very good sense of humor (except when she’s angry, and even then she can produce something hilarious) and the references she makes are very, very good (she mentioned Kender. I love Kender. Yesyesyesyesyes).
And again, she feels like a real person writing this blog because not every post is “weird eldritch crap” that she deals with. In fact, I’ve come to enjoy the little filler posts that have to do with people on bus rides being annoying, or updates on her personal life (especially comments about her little sister, ahaha). To add on to this is that she has to deal with real life issues that affect the course of the story.
The Plague Doctor: I don’t normally do character reviews for Fears, but when I do it’s because the Fear is one of the driving forces behind that blog and it essentially becomes a character in itself. Ah… that might be a little confusing, but oh well.
So, the Plague Doctor. Screw this guy, I mean, holy crap. The stuff he puts Mara through is just… blah, screw this guy! But I love him, or this interpretation of him. He isn’t something that goes around spreading diseases like a flower girl spreading daisies at a wedding. No, in this blog his methods are much more insidious. I’m fairly certain that he’s causing Mara to develop the mental illnesses which just screw up her life even more… and allowing him to grow closer to her. That’s the scariest aspect about this blog, people; maybe Mara is just hallucinating, or the Good Doctor is doing it to her. We don’t know.
With that said, I do love the stalker-ish bits about the Good Doctor (like how he appears behind her when she looks at her reflection in a window), as well as the hallucination bits (particularly the part about the cages). The “writing this down because he is telling me I need to” is reminiscent of the first act of RAPTURE, but it fits with this blog. I can’t put my thumb on it, actually… Hrmm…
---
All in all, this blog is extremely well done. When the creator first told me it had over two hundred posts, I was skeptical about reviewing it, but I found that in the end it was worth it. It was a pleasant surprise to find the Good Doctor showing up as the antagonist and I think the way he’s treated within as genius. I was kind of bored with the poems around the beginning of the story, but the rules/theories make up for that. I wish we could see a little more of Mara’s family and how her conditions are starting to affect them. We’ve seen a few hints of this, so I’m thinking that later on it’ll be addressed in proper form. Finally, the character is just great. I feel really bad for her because of the situation she’s in, and people, this is great. Empathy for characters… Blah, just, good job. Really good job. I think this is probably my favorite blog I’ve read over the past few days.
And now onto the Wild Mass Guessings!
It's All In Mara's Head
Possible, and I’m not ruling it out.
Mara Will End Up Killing Herself
Due to some incident regarding friends/family, or because the Plague Doctor starts to get closer to her, or… well, just being done with the hallucinations, not wanting to deal with the crap anymore. I hope this isn’t what happens, but… *shrugs*
The Wooden Girl Will Come For Mara’s Sister
Just a hunch that I developed over the course of the story. We’ve seen the Wooden Girl appear in the dreams/hallucinations, so…
This Plague Doctor Is A Combination Of… Err, Itself and the Grotesque
Something Alliterator said on the thread, and it makes a bit of sense when I think about it. Maybe the Plague Doctor is the cause of “Grotesque” dreams in this universe (As well as Choir fungus and Intrusion nests?)?
Doctor Beeke Is A Red Herring
This guy is too freaking obvious to be an Oathbreaker, and I’m not saying that because of his name. Okay, yeah, so he prescribes Mara her medication and starts to up the dosage… Well, alright, but from my experience with therapists, there’s two doctors you have to see. One is how it’s portrayed in the story, the guy who asks you questions about how you’re doing and stuff. The other guy is the medicine dude, the one who takes the other doctor’s notes into consideration before deciding to cut the dosage in half or up it.
Now, that’s assuming that every therapist place is like the one I’ve been to, which it may very well not. Still, until proven otherwise, I’m guessing that either this universe’s medicine dude is screwing with Mara’s medicine, or it’s being drugged from an outside source and not by Doctor Beeke.
Another Intern Will Be Punched
Probably while Mara is yelling “I’m Batman!!!”
Built For Two, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
Author: DJay32Status: FinishedFear(s): The Archangel, the Blind Man; the Empty City (?); Several Fears mentioned in passing
A bit of a mind-screwy plot (which you find out more towards the end), but it follows a teacher/professor during the holidays/throughout January. He’s a bit of a loner because his wife and parents have died, but he seems to have some sort of specter that hangs about him. After listening to DJay’s commentary on Built for Two, I now know what it is and I think it’s pretty good, though I’m not sure how one could see in-universe that explanation.
The story really starts to pick up when the protagonist returns to work after Christmas and talks to his class about “Boxing-Day”, wherein one of his students give an alternate take on the Christmas tale. As you might have guessed, it turns out to be disturbing and unsettles the rest of the class. The student disappears a few days later and it has an effect on the teacher, leading to one event after the other.
The main theme of the plot seems to be paradoxes, and they’re examined in-depth within the blog. One of the characters – another professor, actually – gives several presentations on stuff like this, which I found very intriguing. In fact, all of his seminars are very interesting to read about, especially the one about the Hands and the Pieces. I also love the mindscrew of an ending the audience gets.
The Fears… Well. They could have been portrayed better. They acted too… human, I guess. There wasn’t anything uncanny about them, nothing to really make them… terrifying. I guess a better way to put this is that it didn’t feel like the protagonist was in any danger from the Fears, aside from the one assault that was caused by the Wooden Girl. The Empty City was the one that came closest to it, and even then it didn’t seem as frightening as it could have been.
The main protagonist is pretty uninteresting… at first. His writing is, well, good. It’s nice to read. But he’s pretty boring for quite a while. Occasionally he’ll say some things that catch your notice (“I want to live in the ultimate paradox”, anyone?), but up until the second half of the blog does he start to become better. I think the most interesting thing about him is that we learn that the other professor, Julian Dupire (I hope I’m spelling that right), is either a future version of him or they’re parallels. That… Well. That was just really cool.
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If you like a good dose of mindscrew complete with some fascinating concepts and takes on the “Game” that the Fears MIGHT play, check out this blog. Fair warning, though: You will likely be confused at the very end, and if you aren’t, well, you cheated.
Built for Two
Author: DJay32Status: FinishedFear(s): The Archangel, the Blind Man; the Empty City (?); Several Fears mentioned in passing
Plot:
A bit of a mind-screwy plot (which you find out more towards the end), but it follows a teacher/professor during the holidays/throughout January. He’s a bit of a loner because his wife and parents have died, but he seems to have some sort of specter that hangs about him. After listening to DJay’s commentary on Built for Two, I now know what it is and I think it’s pretty good, though I’m not sure how one could see in-universe that explanation.
The story really starts to pick up when the protagonist returns to work after Christmas and talks to his class about “Boxing-Day”, wherein one of his students give an alternate take on the Christmas tale. As you might have guessed, it turns out to be disturbing and unsettles the rest of the class. The student disappears a few days later and it has an effect on the teacher, leading to one event after the other.
The main theme of the plot seems to be paradoxes, and they’re examined in-depth within the blog. One of the characters – another professor, actually – gives several presentations on stuff like this, which I found very intriguing. In fact, all of his seminars are very interesting to read about, especially the one about the Hands and the Pieces. I also love the mindscrew of an ending the audience gets.
The Fears… Well. They could have been portrayed better. They acted too… human, I guess. There wasn’t anything uncanny about them, nothing to really make them… terrifying. I guess a better way to put this is that it didn’t feel like the protagonist was in any danger from the Fears, aside from the one assault that was caused by the Wooden Girl. The Empty City was the one that came closest to it, and even then it didn’t seem as frightening as it could have been.
Characters:
The main protagonist is pretty uninteresting… at first. His writing is, well, good. It’s nice to read. But he’s pretty boring for quite a while. Occasionally he’ll say some things that catch your notice (“I want to live in the ultimate paradox”, anyone?), but up until the second half of the blog does he start to become better. I think the most interesting thing about him is that we learn that the other professor, Julian Dupire (I hope I’m spelling that right), is either a future version of him or they’re parallels. That… Well. That was just really cool.
---
If you like a good dose of mindscrew complete with some fascinating concepts and takes on the “Game” that the Fears MIGHT play, check out this blog. Fair warning, though: You will likely be confused at the very end, and if you aren’t, well, you cheated.
Daniel and Friends, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
Author: Acelegin
Status: Ongoing
Fear(s): Several
Plot:
The title is actually a fair summary of the plot. It’s about Daniel and his friends living within a world where eldritch abominations are after them. The reason why is still a mystery, but it has something to do with Daniel being special. Oh, and there’s something going on… some sort of Fear returning, and a Game Master. I haven’t read the other parts of the “Daniel-verse”, so I don’t know much about the Game Master.
The plot kicks off when Daniel and his friend, Tony (who has some sort of skill that allows him to find people), go off to find a missing kid… Yep, you know where this is going. They arrive at a house where this strong, creepy dude is hanging about. Daniel fights with him and eventually lures him off while Tony calls the police, they find the kid in the house, and Daniel comes back to tell them that the suspect just dropped dead. Well. Okay, interesting start. Oh, and later in that same post Daniel says that he saw a tall guy with a bald head dressed in black… Uh-oh. D:
And that’s when everything goes downhill for the characters. They start getting stalked by a lot of the Fears. I mean, holy crap. Daniel has the Archangel come after him, the Blind Man giving him some sort of sword, the Plague Doctor taking an interest in him, a Dying Man fragment being placed within him, the Smiling Man leaving flowers on Daniel’s bed, the Cold Boy meeting Daniel at least once, the Wooden Girl appearing at random points, the Slender Man stalking him, and finally there’s the Fear called Vision, some sort of dead or dormant Fear that appears to Daniel at points of the story. There's also the shenanigans that Tony gets up to later in the blog...
Pretty much, this entire –verse is cluttered with Fears.
I’ve mentioned this before during my Fable of Fears review; if you’re going to have a lot of Fears in your blog, have them stand out, to actually affect the plot in a certain way. If they’re there solely to be a minor antagonist to the character, or to provide him an obstacle on his way to face the main antagonist, the Fears will quickly lose some of that terror that’s about them.
In fact, I’m not even sure if the blog is meant to be a horror blog. It’s like… Well, an action Fearblog. You’d think that with the Fears it’d retain some form of horror within it, but to me all I could see was epic fighting against the Fears and their servants. There was nothing that made me feel scared, or made me feel worried for the protagonists. If it doesn’t affect the character, if there isn’t some form of harm the antagonist can do to him, then it makes the Fear less scary and makes me start to get bored with the story. Another thing is that almost all of the Fears are made more… human. It’s just that vibe I got whenever a Fear appeared; they didn’t seem like some eldritch being that came to terrorize people. They seemed like comic book villains that show up every now and then to remind the protagonist that they're still there.
Another thing I noticed (very quickly, as a matter of fact) was the dialogue. It’s… strange. It doesn’t feel like people are actually talking to each other in a realistic manner. I also don't think that all of the conversations would have been remembered quite down to those details (which could be considered nitpicking, but I had the same gripe with The Mystic, as well).
The plot itself… Well, I know that something with a guy called the Game Master is going down, but that’s because of a few mentions of him within the blog and some posts on the forums. I honestly don’t know what all this is headed towards, or what goal Daniel has… Well, I guess there’s “Kill The Fears”? I don’t know. :| Blah, I'm so confused...
Characters:
The main criticism I have with almost all of the characters is that nothing happens with them. Almost at the very beginning we’re introduced to an Archive guy called Collector Tsu… and after a while, he just sort of fades into the background. I don’t know if he has his own blog or not, but it seems like he’s there for plot convenience when Daniel needs information on a new Fear (I’m looking at the HELLFIRE Wal-Mart segment on this one). Another character is Jane, who is… Well, I have no idea who she is. The only information given to us is that she’s stalked by the Cold Boy. Does she have her own blog?... If so, I guess it’s a nice cameo.
Daniel: He’s the main character of the blog and is somehow “special” to the Fears… So, pretty much every one of them is after him. The thing that irks me most about this character is that he’s very, very over-powered. I started to get a hint of it during the first few posts (where Daniel’s character pretty much says “I know martial arts, so I know how to fight”, which is strange, ‘cause I thought martial arts was more defense. Could be wrong, though). Then there was the fight with the Archangel, which was… Well… Not very believable. There has to be a certain level of build-up, something that makes people go “Yeah, I think this guy has a chance on killing the Fear!” – instead, it’s more like “Okay, I’ve got a week to prepare myself for a fight with an eldritch abomination.” I think the term I’m looking for here is “Marty Stu”, and this is probably the main reason why I don’t find the blog to be scary at all. We know Daniel isn’t going to be killed, much less majorly wounded, by one of the Fears and knowing that makes us less worried about him.
Tony: I’m guessing he’s Daniel’s best friend; he’s an amateur private detective that is able to sense where things are at.
… Okay. How does he do that? I don’t believe it’s explained within Daniel’s own blog, and since Tony was using that I doubt he has his own blog. So, how does he have this sixth sense? Why is it not brought up again later in the story?
Other than this, I can’t really say much more about him. I don’t know a lot about his character.
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Right. I hope I wasn’t too critical of the blog. I’m not saying Daniel and Friends is bad, either; the grammar and spelling are good for the most part and the other Fears like Vision are really cool (in fact, I plan on introducing Vision within my own blog sometime next month). As a Fearblog, it’s not very scary… But it does have a lot of action in it, and if the action genre is what you like, I think you’ll find this one enjoyable. It pulls it off well, aside from the Marty Stu-ish traits that the main protagonist has about him. I hope that in the coming months the characters are fleshed out a bit more ‘cause I’d like to know a little more about them and their stories. Since the blog is ongoing, I’ll reserve judgment and give my best wishes to the creator.
Daniel and Friends
Author: Acelegin
Status: Ongoing
Fear(s): Several
Plot:
The title is actually a fair summary of the plot. It’s about Daniel and his friends living within a world where eldritch abominations are after them. The reason why is still a mystery, but it has something to do with Daniel being special. Oh, and there’s something going on… some sort of Fear returning, and a Game Master. I haven’t read the other parts of the “Daniel-verse”, so I don’t know much about the Game Master.
The plot kicks off when Daniel and his friend, Tony (who has some sort of skill that allows him to find people), go off to find a missing kid… Yep, you know where this is going. They arrive at a house where this strong, creepy dude is hanging about. Daniel fights with him and eventually lures him off while Tony calls the police, they find the kid in the house, and Daniel comes back to tell them that the suspect just dropped dead. Well. Okay, interesting start. Oh, and later in that same post Daniel says that he saw a tall guy with a bald head dressed in black… Uh-oh. D:
And that’s when everything goes downhill for the characters. They start getting stalked by a lot of the Fears. I mean, holy crap. Daniel has the Archangel come after him, the Blind Man giving him some sort of sword, the Plague Doctor taking an interest in him, a Dying Man fragment being placed within him, the Smiling Man leaving flowers on Daniel’s bed, the Cold Boy meeting Daniel at least once, the Wooden Girl appearing at random points, the Slender Man stalking him, and finally there’s the Fear called Vision, some sort of dead or dormant Fear that appears to Daniel at points of the story. There's also the shenanigans that Tony gets up to later in the blog...
Pretty much, this entire –verse is cluttered with Fears.
I’ve mentioned this before during my Fable of Fears review; if you’re going to have a lot of Fears in your blog, have them stand out, to actually affect the plot in a certain way. If they’re there solely to be a minor antagonist to the character, or to provide him an obstacle on his way to face the main antagonist, the Fears will quickly lose some of that terror that’s about them.
In fact, I’m not even sure if the blog is meant to be a horror blog. It’s like… Well, an action Fearblog. You’d think that with the Fears it’d retain some form of horror within it, but to me all I could see was epic fighting against the Fears and their servants. There was nothing that made me feel scared, or made me feel worried for the protagonists. If it doesn’t affect the character, if there isn’t some form of harm the antagonist can do to him, then it makes the Fear less scary and makes me start to get bored with the story. Another thing is that almost all of the Fears are made more… human. It’s just that vibe I got whenever a Fear appeared; they didn’t seem like some eldritch being that came to terrorize people. They seemed like comic book villains that show up every now and then to remind the protagonist that they're still there.
Another thing I noticed (very quickly, as a matter of fact) was the dialogue. It’s… strange. It doesn’t feel like people are actually talking to each other in a realistic manner. I also don't think that all of the conversations would have been remembered quite down to those details (which could be considered nitpicking, but I had the same gripe with The Mystic, as well).
The plot itself… Well, I know that something with a guy called the Game Master is going down, but that’s because of a few mentions of him within the blog and some posts on the forums. I honestly don’t know what all this is headed towards, or what goal Daniel has… Well, I guess there’s “Kill The Fears”? I don’t know. :| Blah, I'm so confused...
Characters:
The main criticism I have with almost all of the characters is that nothing happens with them. Almost at the very beginning we’re introduced to an Archive guy called Collector Tsu… and after a while, he just sort of fades into the background. I don’t know if he has his own blog or not, but it seems like he’s there for plot convenience when Daniel needs information on a new Fear (I’m looking at the HELLFIRE Wal-Mart segment on this one). Another character is Jane, who is… Well, I have no idea who she is. The only information given to us is that she’s stalked by the Cold Boy. Does she have her own blog?... If so, I guess it’s a nice cameo.
Daniel: He’s the main character of the blog and is somehow “special” to the Fears… So, pretty much every one of them is after him. The thing that irks me most about this character is that he’s very, very over-powered. I started to get a hint of it during the first few posts (where Daniel’s character pretty much says “I know martial arts, so I know how to fight”, which is strange, ‘cause I thought martial arts was more defense. Could be wrong, though). Then there was the fight with the Archangel, which was… Well… Not very believable. There has to be a certain level of build-up, something that makes people go “Yeah, I think this guy has a chance on killing the Fear!” – instead, it’s more like “Okay, I’ve got a week to prepare myself for a fight with an eldritch abomination.” I think the term I’m looking for here is “Marty Stu”, and this is probably the main reason why I don’t find the blog to be scary at all. We know Daniel isn’t going to be killed, much less majorly wounded, by one of the Fears and knowing that makes us less worried about him.
Tony: I’m guessing he’s Daniel’s best friend; he’s an amateur private detective that is able to sense where things are at.
… Okay. How does he do that? I don’t believe it’s explained within Daniel’s own blog, and since Tony was using that I doubt he has his own blog. So, how does he have this sixth sense? Why is it not brought up again later in the story?
Other than this, I can’t really say much more about him. I don’t know a lot about his character.
---
Right. I hope I wasn’t too critical of the blog. I’m not saying Daniel and Friends is bad, either; the grammar and spelling are good for the most part and the other Fears like Vision are really cool (in fact, I plan on introducing Vision within my own blog sometime next month). As a Fearblog, it’s not very scary… But it does have a lot of action in it, and if the action genre is what you like, I think you’ll find this one enjoyable. It pulls it off well, aside from the Marty Stu-ish traits that the main protagonist has about him. I hope that in the coming months the characters are fleshed out a bit more ‘cause I’d like to know a little more about them and their stories. Since the blog is ongoing, I’ll reserve judgment and give my best wishes to the creator.
A Fly On The Wall, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
It started as a way of telling the stories of those haunted by the Fears and went downhill from there (in-universe, I mean).
The Silent Observer is a “researcher” who begins looking around for some of the Fears that might be active around the college she attends. She looks for signs of their appearance, investigates the urban legends that might involve some Fears, and watches for any peculiar actions, especially with those having to do with her schoolmates.
So, it’s a matter of luck that right off the bat she finds a person who might be stalked by a certain doctor…
This has been a very enjoyable read so far. The pacing is pretty good for a realistic-type blog like this one, though some of the posts mentioning that there’s nothing going on can be kind of dull. They’re short enough to where it’s easy enough to get past them and occasionally they’ll give the reader some tidbits of information.
The Fears are very good in this. Whenever one is introduced, they get enough time to show what’s special about them rather than becoming a gimmick (I believe that’s the word). I can’t really pick from them to see which one I like so far, though I think the Eye has caught my attention with the way it’s currently being handled.
I would have liked to see more of the researcher side to the blog before it went into a personal account. It seems that while it does try to lean into that kind of genre, the main character doesn’t get a whole lot done and ends up spending most of their time trying to figure out what Fear is haunting the current person. More of the urban legends would have been interesting to read about, too, though more ambiguity would have been a plus.
The Silent Observer: The main character of the blog. She’s kind of a researcher and looking into Fear hauntings that may be taking place around her college campus. She lets you know right off the bat that she doesn’t want to tell her story because it’s not important, and that she knows she’s more than likely going to die. This tells me that 1.) She might be suicidal, especially if she’s investigating the Fears on her own free will, and 2.) She doesn’t have a lot of self-esteem if she doesn’t consider her story worth telling.
It’s really interesting to see this character go through the blog. She acts like how you’d think a normal person would, but over time I can tell she becomes increasingly stressed out. People die (or disappear) and Silent reacts like you’d imagine; at first vowing to keep a better eye on people, and when she doesn’t she starts to feel guilty about it and slips up. All of this is probably resulting in why the Eye’s now after her (feeding off her guilt, I imagine?). In other words, very good character development. Really liking the character.
Nessa: The girl from the first chapter. I read through “Loch Nessa” and I swear, I can see someone from my school making a blog exactly like it. Very realistic, and I like how it started before the main blog. Did you backdate the posts, or plan this out? Either way, it’s very good and gives a bit more characterization to Nessa. Made me kind of sad when I found out she died.
Neil: Not sure how I feel about him. He doesn’t appear much, but most of the second chapter revolves around the information he gives Silent about his sister, Marianne, getting killed (or DID she?!). I didn’t really feel anything when we later learn that the Quiet must have taken him, so it seemed like he was there just to introduce that plotline. However, I do love the conflict that goes on between him and his parents and the mystery surrounding Marianne. Is she real or did Neil make her up? Did her parents forget her, or is Neil crazy? Very nicely done in that regard.
Tallie: This was another character that I felt existed solely to introduce another plotline. When the end of her story comes, like Neil I didn’t feel anything. I know there were some mentions to her character beforehand, but it didn’t give us a very good glimpse of what she was really like. Perhaps having Silent interact with her more and writing about it would have given Tallie some better characterization.
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This has been a pretty good blog so far and I’m going to keep an eye on it. It’s a very good story with a well-developed protagonist and I’m anxious to see how this ends. Will the Fears catch Silent, or something else…?
Speaking of mysteries, lets open up some Wild Mass Guessings.
Silent Will Commit Suicide
I think that either the Fears will catch her or she’ll do this due to a combination of loneliness and guilt over what’s happened over the past few months. She has said in a hidden post-ish thing that she hopes she dies, soooo…
The Quiet Will Return
Due to a recent post that references Neil disappearing while Silent watches AND because there wasn’t any kind of real resolution to this plotline, I’m thinking the Quiet is going to return eventually. I’m not sure what will happen from there, though.
The Black Dog Might Show Up
Sudden thought, but perhaps Silent has some buried secrets she doesn’t want to share with us and she’ll get another Fear stalking her. HRMM. I doubt it, but who knows?
The Choir Is Responsible For Andrew’s Death
That… really says it all, I think.
The Fears Are Working Together
This is pretty much said within the blog. I don’t know why they’d do this, though, especially for just one person… Or maybe it’s just a person doesn’t have to be afraid of just one thing, which is very, very good. I like it.
Silent Will Be Swatted Like The Fly She Is
And said swatter will become a Fear of Extermination. DUN-DUN-DUN
A Fly on the Wall
Author: AmeliaTanaka Status: Ongoing Fear(s): Plague Doctor; the Quiet; Cold Boy; the Choir; the Eye; Will probably have a few morePlot:
It started as a way of telling the stories of those haunted by the Fears and went downhill from there (in-universe, I mean).
The Silent Observer is a “researcher” who begins looking around for some of the Fears that might be active around the college she attends. She looks for signs of their appearance, investigates the urban legends that might involve some Fears, and watches for any peculiar actions, especially with those having to do with her schoolmates.
So, it’s a matter of luck that right off the bat she finds a person who might be stalked by a certain doctor…
This has been a very enjoyable read so far. The pacing is pretty good for a realistic-type blog like this one, though some of the posts mentioning that there’s nothing going on can be kind of dull. They’re short enough to where it’s easy enough to get past them and occasionally they’ll give the reader some tidbits of information.
The Fears are very good in this. Whenever one is introduced, they get enough time to show what’s special about them rather than becoming a gimmick (I believe that’s the word). I can’t really pick from them to see which one I like so far, though I think the Eye has caught my attention with the way it’s currently being handled.
I would have liked to see more of the researcher side to the blog before it went into a personal account. It seems that while it does try to lean into that kind of genre, the main character doesn’t get a whole lot done and ends up spending most of their time trying to figure out what Fear is haunting the current person. More of the urban legends would have been interesting to read about, too, though more ambiguity would have been a plus.
Characters:
The Silent Observer: The main character of the blog. She’s kind of a researcher and looking into Fear hauntings that may be taking place around her college campus. She lets you know right off the bat that she doesn’t want to tell her story because it’s not important, and that she knows she’s more than likely going to die. This tells me that 1.) She might be suicidal, especially if she’s investigating the Fears on her own free will, and 2.) She doesn’t have a lot of self-esteem if she doesn’t consider her story worth telling.
It’s really interesting to see this character go through the blog. She acts like how you’d think a normal person would, but over time I can tell she becomes increasingly stressed out. People die (or disappear) and Silent reacts like you’d imagine; at first vowing to keep a better eye on people, and when she doesn’t she starts to feel guilty about it and slips up. All of this is probably resulting in why the Eye’s now after her (feeding off her guilt, I imagine?). In other words, very good character development. Really liking the character.
Nessa: The girl from the first chapter. I read through “Loch Nessa” and I swear, I can see someone from my school making a blog exactly like it. Very realistic, and I like how it started before the main blog. Did you backdate the posts, or plan this out? Either way, it’s very good and gives a bit more characterization to Nessa. Made me kind of sad when I found out she died.
Neil: Not sure how I feel about him. He doesn’t appear much, but most of the second chapter revolves around the information he gives Silent about his sister, Marianne, getting killed (or DID she?!). I didn’t really feel anything when we later learn that the Quiet must have taken him, so it seemed like he was there just to introduce that plotline. However, I do love the conflict that goes on between him and his parents and the mystery surrounding Marianne. Is she real or did Neil make her up? Did her parents forget her, or is Neil crazy? Very nicely done in that regard.
Tallie: This was another character that I felt existed solely to introduce another plotline. When the end of her story comes, like Neil I didn’t feel anything. I know there were some mentions to her character beforehand, but it didn’t give us a very good glimpse of what she was really like. Perhaps having Silent interact with her more and writing about it would have given Tallie some better characterization.
---
This has been a pretty good blog so far and I’m going to keep an eye on it. It’s a very good story with a well-developed protagonist and I’m anxious to see how this ends. Will the Fears catch Silent, or something else…?
Speaking of mysteries, lets open up some Wild Mass Guessings.
Silent Will Commit Suicide
I think that either the Fears will catch her or she’ll do this due to a combination of loneliness and guilt over what’s happened over the past few months. She has said in a hidden post-ish thing that she hopes she dies, soooo…
The Quiet Will Return
Due to a recent post that references Neil disappearing while Silent watches AND because there wasn’t any kind of real resolution to this plotline, I’m thinking the Quiet is going to return eventually. I’m not sure what will happen from there, though.
The Black Dog Might Show Up
Sudden thought, but perhaps Silent has some buried secrets she doesn’t want to share with us and she’ll get another Fear stalking her. HRMM. I doubt it, but who knows?
The Choir Is Responsible For Andrew’s Death
That… really says it all, I think.
The Fears Are Working Together
This is pretty much said within the blog. I don’t know why they’d do this, though, especially for just one person… Or maybe it’s just a person doesn’t have to be afraid of just one thing, which is very, very good. I like it.
Silent Will Be Swatted Like The Fly She Is
And said swatter will become a Fear of Extermination. DUN-DUN-DUN
Urban Malefic, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
Author: TheSomnambulist
The blog follows a guy called Portnoy Augustus who has been brought to the city for “testing”. Instead of the regular post-by-post account that we normally get, though, Portnoy has a device called a “PsiMe” implanted within his brain that uploads his thoughts to a blog. Inside the city, he is subjected to attacks from various monsters, finding alternate versions of himself, and falling. Lots and lots of falling.
The PsiMe device is a great idea and I really like its execution. It did tend to clutter up space with random thoughts, but that’s kind of the premise, isn’t it? Anyway, the way Portnoy’s thoughts kept getting off-track was pretty funny at times and quite true for some people whose minds work that way.
I wish we had seen more of the alternate Portnoys, or at least one who got more screentime. Granted, they played a big part in the end when it’s revealed that the City is making the Portnoys create a “key”, but I think it could have been interesting to see interactions with Story Portnoy and an Alternate Portnoy over the course of a few posts.
The Fears were pretty well done, too, especially the City. Holy crap, the City. Pretty much, the City screws with Portnoy in the weirdest ways imaginable. At one point he’s walking on the sun, and at another he’s on a beach. The Nightlanders and the Rake were good as servants to the City, too, though I wonder why the Rake was there… At first, I didn’t even know it was the Rake. Anyway, the most terrifying Fear for me was probably the Cold Boy. Very good portrayal of Frosty, even if it only appeared for a few posts. I also love the way it was brought into the story.
On the ending, I kind of guessed at it because I read The World Through These Eyeholes, but to think of the City taking over an entire universe is just… Well, terrifying. With the mindscrew it put Portnoy through, I can only imagine what would happen if it was set loose within the world. I also like the idea of Portnoy being able to fight back against the City; it gives one a kind of hope.
Portnoy Augustus: I really, really like him for some reason that I can’t put my thumb on. I think it’s because we really get to see how his character goes through the story because we’re looking directly into his mind. So, nothing is secret… NOTHING. BAHAHAHA.
Ahem. Anyway, he’s just your average kind of guy who gets dragged into the middle of things. It seems kind of bland when I say it like that, but it makes the ending a whole lot better when you realize that this guy is taking on an entire Fear by using its own powers against itself. Portnoy also seems smart, at least in some cases. He’s good at problem-solving, I guess, but it takes him some time to learn the correct method of solving… stuff.
Also, that name… Portnoy. Pretty awesome, I have to say.
The Empty City: Though technically not a person, the Fear still counts as a character because it does its best in manipulating Portnoy throughout the story. It also puts him through a living Hell, and the things Portnoy goes through… Blegh. Needless to say, I was cheering for Portnoy near the end when the City started to get its own power turned on itself.
I think I mentioned this before, but I like the idea of the City trying to… expand. Almost like it’s a corruption, a disease on reality, and it’s trying to infect other universes. I don’t know if this is what Somnam intended, but that’s how I saw the Fear in this story.
I wish there had been more realistic environments that went on to screw with Portnoy, though. It was cool seeing the beach and the moon, but rooms (like the one Portnoy began in, for instance) that have something wrong with them brings the horror aspect in it a lot more, making one think “Oh, crap, what if…?” or something like that. Then again, the fact that the City can take any environment and turn it into a nightmare makes the statement “Nothing is sacred!” come into effect, so…
---
Well, I enjoyed this blog and I’d say it’s worth reading if you’ve got the time. It shouldn’t take you too terribly long to get through this one unless you have issues with one-paragraph blog posts. The concepts are nice, the take on the Empty City was pretty cool (reminded me in some places of the Rabbit Holes in RAPTURE, actually), and I love the way the Cold Boy was portrayed. If you have the time, go ahead and give this blog a try. And Somnam, good job once again.
Urban Malefic
Author: TheSomnambulist
Status: Finished
Fear(s): Quite a few, with the most notable being The Empty City, Nightlanders, the Rake, and the Cold Boy
Plot:
The blog follows a guy called Portnoy Augustus who has been brought to the city for “testing”. Instead of the regular post-by-post account that we normally get, though, Portnoy has a device called a “PsiMe” implanted within his brain that uploads his thoughts to a blog. Inside the city, he is subjected to attacks from various monsters, finding alternate versions of himself, and falling. Lots and lots of falling.
The PsiMe device is a great idea and I really like its execution. It did tend to clutter up space with random thoughts, but that’s kind of the premise, isn’t it? Anyway, the way Portnoy’s thoughts kept getting off-track was pretty funny at times and quite true for some people whose minds work that way.
I wish we had seen more of the alternate Portnoys, or at least one who got more screentime. Granted, they played a big part in the end when it’s revealed that the City is making the Portnoys create a “key”, but I think it could have been interesting to see interactions with Story Portnoy and an Alternate Portnoy over the course of a few posts.
The Fears were pretty well done, too, especially the City. Holy crap, the City. Pretty much, the City screws with Portnoy in the weirdest ways imaginable. At one point he’s walking on the sun, and at another he’s on a beach. The Nightlanders and the Rake were good as servants to the City, too, though I wonder why the Rake was there… At first, I didn’t even know it was the Rake. Anyway, the most terrifying Fear for me was probably the Cold Boy. Very good portrayal of Frosty, even if it only appeared for a few posts. I also love the way it was brought into the story.
On the ending, I kind of guessed at it because I read The World Through These Eyeholes, but to think of the City taking over an entire universe is just… Well, terrifying. With the mindscrew it put Portnoy through, I can only imagine what would happen if it was set loose within the world. I also like the idea of Portnoy being able to fight back against the City; it gives one a kind of hope.
Characters:
Portnoy Augustus: I really, really like him for some reason that I can’t put my thumb on. I think it’s because we really get to see how his character goes through the story because we’re looking directly into his mind. So, nothing is secret… NOTHING. BAHAHAHA.
Ahem. Anyway, he’s just your average kind of guy who gets dragged into the middle of things. It seems kind of bland when I say it like that, but it makes the ending a whole lot better when you realize that this guy is taking on an entire Fear by using its own powers against itself. Portnoy also seems smart, at least in some cases. He’s good at problem-solving, I guess, but it takes him some time to learn the correct method of solving… stuff.
Also, that name… Portnoy. Pretty awesome, I have to say.
The Empty City: Though technically not a person, the Fear still counts as a character because it does its best in manipulating Portnoy throughout the story. It also puts him through a living Hell, and the things Portnoy goes through… Blegh. Needless to say, I was cheering for Portnoy near the end when the City started to get its own power turned on itself.
I think I mentioned this before, but I like the idea of the City trying to… expand. Almost like it’s a corruption, a disease on reality, and it’s trying to infect other universes. I don’t know if this is what Somnam intended, but that’s how I saw the Fear in this story.
I wish there had been more realistic environments that went on to screw with Portnoy, though. It was cool seeing the beach and the moon, but rooms (like the one Portnoy began in, for instance) that have something wrong with them brings the horror aspect in it a lot more, making one think “Oh, crap, what if…?” or something like that. Then again, the fact that the City can take any environment and turn it into a nightmare makes the statement “Nothing is sacred!” come into effect, so…
---
Well, I enjoyed this blog and I’d say it’s worth reading if you’ve got the time. It shouldn’t take you too terribly long to get through this one unless you have issues with one-paragraph blog posts. The concepts are nice, the take on the Empty City was pretty cool (reminded me in some places of the Rabbit Holes in RAPTURE, actually), and I love the way the Cold Boy was portrayed. If you have the time, go ahead and give this blog a try. And Somnam, good job once again.
Terrific, reviewed by Malus
This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.
Author: VisitorStatus: Finished
Another blogella. This one is a bit… odd, but you find out what’s going on after the first few posts. It’s very, very short and because of this I won’t talk about it too much, but I did like it. It’s about a dancer who has trouble with... someone in her life, leading to complications and later finding the Nightlanders.
If you’re looking for a nice, short read, I’d go ahead and take a look at this. Character does have a specific voice, which I like, but characterization of other characters was kind of bland. I do recommend that you try and… look within the blank spaces in order to appreciate the whole story.
Terrific
Author: VisitorStatus: Finished
Fear(s): Nightlanders, Empty City
Another blogella. This one is a bit… odd, but you find out what’s going on after the first few posts. It’s very, very short and because of this I won’t talk about it too much, but I did like it. It’s about a dancer who has trouble with... someone in her life, leading to complications and later finding the Nightlanders.
If you’re looking for a nice, short read, I’d go ahead and take a look at this. Character does have a specific voice, which I like, but characterization of other characters was kind of bland. I do recommend that you try and… look within the blank spaces in order to appreciate the whole story.
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