Congrats to you too my love!! I am so happy for you <3333
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I Feel It Coming
So Iāve been reading this well before the shelf. I was really happy to see @Apes get featured because I feel like sheās always on forums helping people, so itās nice for her to be recognized. Sheās only spent the whole duration of the new forums giving everyone directing help, so yeah, well deserved!
As for her actual story, would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to see just some really cool directing scenes. When I first read it, I was so excited about the phone/web page thing because Iād never seen anything like it beforeā¦ then I remember thinking that when tappable overlays came out that it would be perfect for the phone/web page thing. My favourite scene to date is the balloon prank. Itās only small, but I was amazed!!!
Glorious Mess
Only read the first episode. For the most part I found it kinda sad and low-key relatable, but I did think that the drug-taking montage kinda dragged on a bit too much.
VICIOUS
Only read the first episode, but this one also had super amazing directing. Would defs recommend to action-lovers
The Exchange
Again, Iāve only read the first episode. I like the premise of the story - an exchange student coming to Americaā¦ Not too fussed on the romance with one of the bad boys that I suspect is going to happen, but there were some good funny moments in it anyway.
Saving Amelia
Have been enjoying ghost stories a lot lately, so was looking forward to this one. I was happy to see that there were some of the more less popular genres being represented too.
Actual story? From episode 1 you could be fooled into thinking it was just another girl-starts-new-school story up until the very end of episode one where lady ghost appears. I thought it was a good way to set up the story and a nice cliff hanger to end the first episode on too.
Children of the Damned
Advanced directing, wow! I honestly just want to talk about the first splash because I though it looked so cool.
I reckon Iāve made some wrong choices in this already because it felt like the story you had to pay attention in and my dog was distracting me. I really hope I didnāt miss anything too important though.
Actual shelf itself
I loved the Hidden Gems shelf the first time it was done, and donāt get me wrong, after reading at least the first episode of each story, I agree they all deserve to be there, but something @ShanniiWrites said on the Sept Picks shelf has stuck out to me.
Shouldnāt all of the shelves be hidden gems from undiscovered authors? Itās become so blatantly obvious that we want to see unknown stories on the shelf each week.
Just look at the way this shelf has only been up two/three days and yet thereās more comments here than there is on the Voces Latinx shelf thread, which, keep in mind, has been out for a month and has twice as many stories to talk about! (Iām aware a lot of the comments on here are to congratulate the authors, but I still want to argue that that proves my point)
We clearly like seeing people who deserve the exposure featured. So thatās actually why Iām a little disappointed that this is the third hidden gems shelf (correct me if Iām wrong), when by now Episode should have changed all the shelves to be featuring hidden gems anyway, no matter what the theme is.
Interesting Facts
ALL the stories featured this week are in INK.
MOST stories offered limited CC, though it was actually encouraged to keep the MC how the author envisioned them for those ones anyway.
HALF of the stories didnāt have a single choice in episode oneā¦ aside from the CC.
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Thank you Episode for this great honor and congrats to the other authors as well. 
Thank you so much for your sweet feedback, guys. You have my word that I will continue āChildren Of The Damnedā and am eager to do so. 
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Thank you so much @amberose 
I agree that aside from the theme shelf a Hidden Gems should be a permanent weekly shelf, with stories changing over every week! I wish to see more stories with fewer reads getting featured
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Yeah, that would also be nice 
And donāt thank me, lol, you deserve it!
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The reason why I donāt comment often about weekly shelves is exactly what you mentioned: I donāt see what is the appeal in featuring stories that are already in the top 10 of the trending section. We can see them already, why do they need a spot on a shelf? There are who knows how many thousands of stories on the app, and yet they couldnāt find anything else?
I think we have to show Episode that we support small authors and we want to discover hidden gems, and we can only do this by reading the lesser known stories over the popular ones with millions of reads, regardless the shelf theme.
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I completely agree. I find myself stuck for stories to read and I donāt actually go on the genre shelves anymore haha so I would appreciate rather than the same author being featured again and again a refreshing change would be great.
Small authors lack that leverage of having arguably a readymade group of fans for an upcoming story, a lot of graft is needed in order for a story to grow and can be a source of frustration for authors as well.
I am glad that Episode has made this shelf and hereās to hoping this is not a one off or a fluke 
I have tons of hidden gems in mind and I just need an opportunity to nominate them lol as there are some stories whose homes are the hidden gems shelf.
I absolutely love this Hidden Gems shelf and congratulations to all of you who featured!!! It is always heartwarming to see how far you have come!
Loved the interesting fact as well that there is limited CC and stories are primarily INK!
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Thank you so much!!!
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Wow, I got back to the forums today, didnāt expect so many replies haha.
Congrats @Apes @kw.episode @casella.epi & all the other authors who got featured!
Also, @amberose, I totally agree with your point! Episode needs to help small authors who deserve more reads more than it already does.
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Congrats to you too love! :3
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