Title: The Chimera by tetradymite
Source: ELGANZA, INC. | AWARDS by TheCieloCommunity
Category: Adventure

Mature: N (blood, death, mild profanity, violence)
LGBTQIAP+: LGA (main characters)
Status: Ongoing
Special note (judging): I had five books in this category, and the other judges (TJDW1989 and bangtanrewinds) had four and one books, respectively.
Result: 98/100

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*****

Rubric:
- Title: 5
- Book cover: 5
- Description (blurb): 5
- Plot & storytelling: 15
- Character development: 10
- Writing style: 10
- Grammar: 10
- Originality & creativity: 10
- Emotional impact: 10
- Pacing & structure: 5
- Accuracy (if non-fiction): 5
- Overall enjoyment & engagement: 10
Total: 100

*****

Total: 98/100

Title: 5/5
A Greek mythological creature, illusory hope, or genetic amalgamation? This word's definitions are as diverse and bizarre as that original creature, and I'm all for the implied mystery and ambiguity.

Cover: 4/5
Plain and simple. Just rows of chimera in relief with the book title in the middle, again feeding into the mystery and ambiguity. My only complaint here is the lack of your name. You're the author. Give yourself some credit! Fitting it into this cover would be tricky, though. Maybe you could move the title up a bit in that middle section to make enough room for you to add your name in a smaller font below it.

Blurb: 5/5
The thing I love the most about the blurb is how it doesn't take itself seriously. There's a subtle, implied humor throughout. My favorite line has to be the one at the end: "Now featuring 55% more plot than originally intended." That's such a great line. The short tagline at the top for the blurb preview is also amazing, and I'm definitely down for a glacial slow burn, although I'll be interested to compare the speed of yours to mine. There's nothing like torturing your readers with a slow burn. But anyway, there are no grammatical errors in this blurb, and I honestly can't find anything I would change about it. Maybe the hook isn't the strongest one out there, but I think the tone you've set is probably appropriate for the story, and it's right for the readers you want reading your book. It sounds like this is a fun work in progress that you're figuring out as you write, which is what I do, so I'm excited to see where this goes.

Plot & storytelling: 15/15
I was expecting a lot less coherency from the impression I got reading the blurb and the cast of characters chapter, which I was okay with, but there's a plot! A meandering plot that isn't in a rush to answer all the questions and would rather take as many detours as possible to savor the sights, but it's a plot, nonetheless. And since that's basically how I write, I love it. Who says you have to plan everything out? Just go with the flow and see where you end up.

I love the little intermittent chapters pulling back to give the chimera's perspective on the goings-on, and I love how there is no one main character. You easily shift the third person to focus on whomever you wish, and you refocus on another character so smoothly. The ambassadors' visit is a great example of this. It's like you had a camera focused on one person in the dining hall, and then you shifted the camera to a person who then left the room, following them to the next room and the next characters, changing focus to a person they spoke with or walked past, and so on, creating a perspective constantly on the move with flawless transitions.

The bits of humor injected throughout are subtle and hilarious. The parts where someone thinks one thing and then says another, much to their chagrin, are so real. Your emphasis on the characters and their relationships makes for a very sweet, heartwarming read, and your poetic descriptions are just fabulous.

And then there's the chimera's world, where nothing makes sense, everything is simpler than it seems, and as long as you don't say your name, you're good. "You built your house over a mine?" "Yes, and it's really helped my sinuses." What? What sort of insanity is this? I said your blurb doesn't take itself seriously, and neither does this story. You dance along the fourth wall, change up the structure, and defy expectations at every turn. Rule of three? Yeah, sure, but how about four? Single bed trope? Nah, let's add an unexpected bed to the room instead of taking one away. This is such a fun read, and I can't say enough how much I love it.

Character development: 10/10
This entire story is character driven in the best way possible. Learning all the ins and outs of each character and joining them on their paths of self-discovery, ventures into romance, and roads to new friendships is the primary purpose of this story, far and above the plot, which is there just to give the characters something to do. You have 16 characters who get constant attention and are all memorable, distinct from each other, believable, and instantly relatable, and many, many more side characters who are also full-fledged people (or...things?) with unique personalities and attributes. Your physical descriptions weave into the narrative as naturally as breathing, and the romantic relationships are as soft and subtle as the rest of your implications throughout this story, sweet and focused on the emotional ties borne of friendship rather than heightened physical desire. If I could give you a 15 or 20 out of 10, I would. Here. Take your imaginary extra points and show them off to the chimera.

Writing style: 10/10
Your writing is crystal clear and so engaging, as you can obviously tell by all the comments you receive throughout each chapter. You've struck a perfect balance of proper narrative with ventures up and over and around the fourth wall, adding in subtle details like occasional lists of three, contrasts of how much fun Jasper is having while everybody else is dealing with specter attacks, and other little nods to the reader that let us know you're having as much fun writing this as we are reading it. My only slight critique here is with those lists. There's one that doesn't end in a period for the first two items, but does for the third item, and another that has no periods at all, and for a detail-oriented person like me, that's bothersome. But that is clearly nitpicking, because I can find nothing wrong with your writing style otherwise.

Grammar: 9/10
I started by jotting down mistakes whenever I found them, just like I always do, because even when mistakes are rare, there's often a pattern that emerges. But, in keeping with the chimera's ambiguity and shifting, there are no patterns. A verb that should be an -ing here. A missing period there. A run-on sentence where swapping the comma for a semicolon would fix it. The mistakes are extremely rare, less than one per chapter, and they're always different, and it's pretty clear they're all things you overlooked in proofreading. So, I have no pattern, no areas for improvement, because you've got it all covered.

Originality & creativity: 10/10
This is another place where I'd like to give you extra points. How about a 20? 20 out of 10? That seems fair. I have never read descriptions like yours, and the chimera's world gives you room to play with those descriptions while creating characters who (which?) are the stuff of dreams, compounded with dialogue and lore which makes no sense (but totally does), and a bold defiance of all expectations. I never know where you're going next (other than the relationships [yes, I saw the ships coming]), and I don't know where you're going from here, but I know it will be amazing.

Emotional impact: 10/10
Many writers have difficulty forging an emotional connection between the reader and one main character. You've done it with 16. Plus some. Your characters are so real and believable, and you draw the reader into their lives immediately, making empathy a very natural response. I don't have to see myself in a character to feel what they're feeling, or relate to their circumstances to understand them. You nailed this category. Hands down. (Again!)

Pacing & structure: 5/5
There are those who would say this is too slow, but I am not one of them. I don't feel the story dragging at all. Maybe that chapter didn't advance the plot, but it built up the characters more, laying the foundation for further developments, and that's a valuable addition to the storyline, in my opinion.

Also, I said earlier I was interested in comparing the glacial-ness of our slow burn stories, and yours has mine beat in terms of time within the story (two years versus a month), but in terms of chapter count, it'll be close. The first kiss hasn't happened yet in yours (as of chapter 40), but I have a feeling it will come sooner than in mine (chapter 59). But please do not take this as a challenge. I don't want your readers chasing after me for prolonging the wait because you want to get past chapter 59 now. However, if it was already in the cards... 😉

Accuracy (if non-fiction): 5/5
Free points. Yay! 🙂

Overall enjoyment & engagement: 10/10
This is a book I dreaded reading because of the estimated reading time (6+ hours as of me writing this), and I'm also not comfortable reading most LGBTQIAP+ stories, so that made me nervous, but as soon as I actually started reading, I loved it. The time did not matter anymore, and I had to force myself to take breaks so I could accomplish other things. Your character development and creativity are off the charts, and the heartwarming sweetness of all the relationships portrayed, family, friend, and romance, is so refreshing among a literary sea of heady emotions and hot physical attraction. I really can't wait to see where you'll go with the rest of this story.