Our nineteenth story for our Community Book Club was reviewed by four people, and all the scores will be an average. The book was…
The Infected, by Caitoriri (@Caitoriri)
It’s a Horror and here’s the link.
About: A bad boy, a cheerleader, a dumb jock, a nerd and you: five very different high schoolers who must work together to survive the zombie apocalypse.
This story was recommended by @Emmaatsky!
First Impression (Cover/title/summary)
Rating: 4
One reader loved the ‘fight to survive’ part of The Infected’s summary. It really boosts the whole first impression. They admire the high-school twist added to the story, as well.
The cover itself is pretty cool looking, and another reader liked the art used for it. The summary, however, didn’t do justice to the actual story. The summary kind of makes it sound like a cliche, but this story is much more than that and it’s actually really worth your time. They do like the title though, it’s original. It’s not like the title is “Zombie Apocalypse”, no, it seems like there was some thought put into it.
Personally, the summary doesn’t entice this reader because zombies are overrated. However, from an objective point of view, the covers look very clean and the summary is very interesting. Though the summary does remind this reader of “The Breakfast Club” tagline somewhat, but that is a very popular film, so that’s understandable.
The story (Content and Flow)
Rating: 4.5
This story is incredibly well-written and there is almost never a dull moment. Everything included has its purpose, and nothing seems to be there for no reason. The events were always entertaining, and once an episode was started it was hard to put it down. The use of timed choices, spot directing, zooms and choices which matter is just amazing! You can easily tell how much effort really went into The Infected. Her use of overlays is really remarkable.
However, if one reader wasn’t giving the story a chance for the book club, then they probably would have given up. Not because the story wasn’t really amazing, because it was, it’s only that this reader doesn’t like high school stories and the beginning was nothing but. In saying that, the story was great and only got better once making it past episode one. The only real negative for this reader was that they felt the episodes were too long for them.
Characters
Rating: 4.47
They were like every other high school character, except that they develop over the course of 13 chapters. Also, the main character isn’t the usual superficial girl, which is nice to see.
The protagonists were pretty diverse, and the readers found that a pleasant surprise. There was a Spanish one and she was named Estefania, which was great that she had a Spanish name and not something basic. There was also a black character, and the readers were so happy with her portrayal. Often, the author will dance over the issue of racism with black characters (or just add them solely for diversity), but this author didn’t. The black character, Tamira, actually talked to the MC about the issue with some police and black people, and you could see how terrified she was around police since she’s had that experience. The only issue one reader had with the characters is that they all (except for Estefania) seem to not be upset by the fact that all their friends and family is probably dead.
Visually (The directing)
Rating: 4.88
Magnificent. Not a fault could be found. Loved the directing; the veins, bites, everything.
It was a really well-directed story. Overlays and spot directing were on point, pretty much all the coding was on point. The directing is really good, especially when they’re getting attacked by zombies.
Language (Grammar)
Rating: 4.93
Perfect! This grammar pedant is completely happy.
One reader’s advice: "At one point, Tamara was saying something about a hyperbole. And since she was talking to Karim, she would have most likely pronounced it correctly. (Hy-per-bali) Karim then would not have taken it as ‘Hyperbowl’. This was the only mistake I noticed, though.
Choices
Rating: 4.75
This was one of those stories in which you could tell every choice you made counted. There was an ample amount of timed choices, and although you couldn’t die and be permanently dead, you wouldn’t get a survival point and those impact the story too. Your choices can even determine if someone lives or dies.
On the other side of things, there were really great choices but there weren’t all that many per episode. However, the ones that were there, did impact the story.
7-8 was the average number of episodes read by the four reviewers.
Fantastic story! This story will stay in the readers’ favourites and they will excitedly anticipate the upcoming episodes. Truly one of the best user stories and a great amount of diversity in this story. … To quote one reader “I love it, it’s not actually my genre but I can’t wait to read more and I love the directing.”
Final Book Club score is … 4.59
Start a discussion below of this book if you want to! (wink)
Now for next week’s book, get voting because we only have 20 hours left.