Guns and Roses by aBitGrim

Genre: Action, BNHA/MHA, Comedy, OC insert

Chapter Length: 10 Reviewed, 27 chapters

Schedule: Every Monday

Quote: "You all have a little bit of 'I want to save the world in you'. Thats why youre here, at UA. I want you to know that its ok to only save one person, and its ok of that person is you. Help me help you be your own hero. Thats all I ask from each of you." -Prof. Q

What readers think:

"An unusual side of the cannon story... I'm already interested!" T-Generation2378

"the story is incredible so far! It's unique from others I've read because of the fanfic's protagonist being in the support course. The right amount of teenager insinct has been added to Rose from her snooty attitude. Q is a loveable character who has a hilarious personality found in many other characters that are adored across the world." T-Generation2378

"We love a true queen doin her best" by -AngelMaria-

When Rose applied for U.A., she had hopes and dreams of becoming a Pro Hero. Her results even seemed promising being that she made it into the top five. Despite all that, she didn't make it into 1-A. Why? Because her Quirk, Weapon, and her love for machinery, is better suited for for the Support Department. Will she be able to prove to everyone she has what it takes to be a hero, or will she learn that being in Hero Support really isn't that bad.

Warning: this author did give me the clear to give out spoilers. While I don't touch up on many, there are a few spoilers that are in the latter part of the 10 chapters I've read, so beware.

Okay, so I want to make it clear that the only reason I'm reviewing 10 out of 27 chapters isn't because of time or lack of interest. It's because I have collected so much notes of things I really enjoyed and things to be improved upon. This story covers a lot of untouched topics and is so unique that if I kept going, this review would probably take three days to finish reading (yes, reading as in, you all reading this. On my end, it'd probably take much longer to write).

So, let's start about the one part of the book that stands out the most: the plot. As you can all tell from my summary of what the book is about, Guns and Roses is not your typical BNHA story. It still takes place during the same time as BNHA, but instead of concentrating on those characters, this author decided to concentrate on the heroes who made it into another department. I really enjoyed this take of the story as it was so unique and different, and honestly, we need more books like this on Wattpad that are fanfiction, but not the same fanfic we see everywhere.

Despite uniqueness, one thing that I'm always worried about when reading any fanfic is the characters. It's so easy for them to seem flat or not be true to their cannon selves. That's not the case here. Mie Hatsume is a character shown a lot in the story, and as crazy as she is in the series, she is just as crazy and lovable here. The OC's are no different that if I were to not be a fan of the show and read this, I would've assumed they were all cannon characters. Professor Q, for instance, is probably the most eccentric character there could be, and honestly, he makes for the perfect teacher.

Speaking about characters, I do love the amount of diversity in the story. It is one thing I'm personally trying to expand on in my own stories as you don't see much representation in fanfiction. The main character is Cuban and has two prosthetics: one arm and one leg. First off, this is the first story I've ever seen have a character with a prosthetic, and it makes me so happy that she doesn't seemed bothered by them because—from what I can understand—people who have a prosthetic see them as actual limbs, using them with ease. Sure, there are probably times where they have troubles with them (as seen when Rose and Mei first meet, and Mei helps Rose with readjusting her arm), but for the most part, it's not something that is that big of a deal to Rose, and I just adore how realistic it comes across.

Rose and Mei are just one example of how well the relationships between characters go. For those two, you can tell they are really close friends due to their love for machinery, weapons, tools that help with that, and basically everything in between. The relationships in this story are just so fun to watch. Another good relationship is between Rose and Professor Q. Sure, do I think it's a bit fast how Professor Q welcomes Rose into his home and basically adopts her? Yes, but as said in the genre, this book is a comedy, and the book does make fun of the countless stories that do it (RIP the fourth wall in that section) that I don't actually mind it that much.

While the story is doing exceptionally well in terms of storyline, characters, and just overall enjoyability, there still some things that needs worked on, mostly when it comes to formatting and grammar. This is something I believe every story needs some sort of work on and can improve upon, but that doesn't mean it should be left unsaid.

The biggest issue I have with formatting is something that doesn't come up often. Some chapters are perfect in the sense that I don't see this, while others, I'll see happen a lot. This issue is making sure paragraphs are separated from each other. There are times where a paragraph is entered once, so there's no space between the two paragraphs at all. Since the majority of paragraphs have a nice space between them, all paragraphs should (plus, it looks a lot cleaner and is easier to follow). In addition to this issue, there are times where I've seen quotation marks end in a paragraph that should be in the next paragraph.

Note: Wattpad has been known to be glitchy in this department, so you have to be extra careful when creating new paragraphs. Don't let Wattpad be the blame because if you catch it, you should always edit it to fix the problem.

While there aren't any misspellings that I've caught, I have seen a few grammar errors. This usually happens more in the beginning of the story than the end, so my solution would be to take a day to go back and do a heavy edit on those chapters. The most common grammar errors I've caught were double punctuation (not in the sense that an interrobang needs to be used, but in the sense that there are two exclamation points or two question marks. One is enough to make the point), missing commas where they're needed (commas are tricky, but something to work towards), and emphasizing certain words. The emphasizing only happens once so far, but there's an instance where Rose goes "love love love", and the way I read that is that the first two loves are the same, with the emphasis on the last one. Now, I'll admit, what I'm suggesting may not be technically right, but I think could get the point across, is that if you were to italicize the second one, and then bold and italicize the last (which, bolding to me is not my favorite thing to do in writing, but I could see getting the point across with this quote) it could really hit the emphasis on the words and how they should be read.

But the good news is that the grammar of this story does improve, and I'm happy to see that Rose's thoughts are italicize to show that even more.

Something that's a bit trickier to fix in this story that is a constant throughout all ten chapters that I've read is tense. It flips back and forth from past and present tense. Most of the times, the words are in past, which, in my opinion, is easier to write. Be careful when writing. Editing is really the only way to help this as I personally think tense changes are the hardest thing in writing.

Yeah...lot's of grammar stuff, but English is super hard! There are always new rules that pop up out of nowhere because it changes (think the oxford comma...in my opinion, it saves lives, but it's been accepted to be taken out because overtime, some people thought it was unnecessary). The best way to help this is through editing.

Throughout the story, it flips between chapter for the story and a miscellaneous thing (whether it be artwork with a character's bio or a tag). This is very disruptive for those reading it for the first time rather than those who are caught up and are just waiting for an update. The best thing a writer can do for this isn't to take it out, but to put these miscellaneous things at the end of the book. If you think about how stories are written, they usually have extras in the back of a book. By doing this, if a character were to come up that is new, and a reader would want to learn more about them, when they go through the chapters, they will still see that it's there, and may flip to it.

As for tags...I'd personally just make a book full of tags. They have nothing to do with the storyline, and I have found in books that include the tags in them, the tags become more of a nuisance than anything. Don't get me wrong. I love a good tag, but creating a book for these personal miscellaneous things gives the book a more professional feel.

In addition to that more professional feel, to make it easier to follow, I'd suggest moving the number of the chapter before the chapter title. This is simply because titles can become too long that it cuts off the number. I'm happy they are included though because I find numbers easier to follow than titles, but that's just my personal preference.

Again, these are all technical things, which is something every story has. Working on these things little by little can help improve a story, and I can tell it is getting better the more I read. The downside is that readers won't know that if they only read the first few chapters of it though, which is why editing is a writer's best friend.

Despite that, I was still hooked the moment I read chapter one. It starts out with the line, "How do I tell a well-structured story when life is in absolute chaos??" Honestly, what a mood! I get that can feel like any story, but seeing a character feel like that from the start just made me want more. I really wished this was how the book started instead of the prologue because I wanted—no, I needed to read more to see what this character thought absolute chaos was.

There were lots of amazing quotes sprinkled through this entire book. Books that are quote worthy are always entertaining. I'm not just talking about the quote listed above by the author. Multiple times throughout the first ten chapters, something is said that just resonated with me. Some were moments of truth (like, the fact about teachers not feeling like they are enough. As someone who comes from a family of teachers, this is undoubtfully true that I'll spare the rant). Others were profound moments as to what a hero really is.

It makes the book seem pretty serious when I talk about that, but as I have said before, there is humor sprinkled in every chapter, like Rose's comical side comments. They don't take away from the serious moments as they'll stop when it is necessary, but there's a good balance between the humor, serious moments, and just mood in general.

With this storyline being as great as it is shows that there is a lot of talent this writer possess, but there's still things to improve upon. As I mentioned before, there are bios with characters drawn in them, and I absolutely love the drawings to them. It really shows how unique these characters look and can give me a bit better of a visual. Now, don't let that be a crutch later on to stop detailed descriptions of what a character looks like (details are always an important to include in a story), but I honestly enjoyed looking at the beautiful artwork.

That's all I really got to say about the first ten chapters. I still plan on reading more of this story because of how entertaining it was, but if I had to keep reading and writing a review, well, it'd take forever to read and write.

Because of how much I enjoyed reading Guns and Roses, I'm so excited that Grim has agreed to talk more about their story.

JunieWeathers: What inspired you to write this story.

aBitGrim: Well it started out as a bnha roleplay, my first rp on wattpad with an OC if I'm not mistaking, with a girl who was and still is to this day, the best rper I've met. I loved the story so much and it got me so inspired to write it all out to a point where I just got tired of waiting for each of us to reply and went it writing the whole story myself with a few changes. I owe her credit for a lot of my story because I honestly wouldn't have been able to make it without her sticking around from my very first experience writing.

Junie: That's really neat! What kind of challenges do you face when writing this story, and how do you overcome them?

Grim: Probably the biggest challenge comes from my main characters being in the "background" that is the support course. The cannon anime and manga don't have very many characters in those classes, which means I had to use some old OCs to be Rose's classmates. I also don't have a real plot already done for the first part, if that makes sense. Most OC inserts in this fandoms use the same arcs to start out with the first day tests, then hero training, and then the USJ attack. Well I can't use that because I don't even bring in 1A until about half way through. So, writing a new plot and new characters while also trying to be interesting to the audience and not lose that My Hero Academia energy that readers want is what I would consider my biggest challenge. Though I do my best to write new and creative stories and characters that hopefully overcome that in the end.

Junie: I can see where that can be a challenge, but I have to say, you do bring a lot of creativity to your story. It's one of the things I like most about Guns and Roses. Speaking of which, what's your favorite part about writing this story?

Grim: Oh goodness, just one? Honestly there is so much about writing that makes me happy, which can be a favorite part on its own. I just absolutely love writing all my original characters and seeing the support they receive. I think of my own characters as my kiddos, and it just warms my heart to see the love people give out to them all! To be honest, I was a little worried about adding in so many characters in top of the cannon My Hero ones, but seeing the comments and feedback I get for them, it just melts those worries away. I really can't thank my readers enough for the support given to all my lovely kiddos.

Junie: Finding a favorite in writing a story can be hard when you enjoy it so much, but you do come up with some pretty creative characters that are very entertaining to read. If you had to pick one, which character is your favorite to write about and why?

Grim: Oh my stars, don't make me choose!!

Ahh ok, so as much as I adore Prof. Q and how fun it is to write his POV, I would have to say Rose. It makes me so happy when I get to write about her heritage and culture from her family because I get to talk about something not many fanfiction writers in the fandom mention, and I get to see a new side of quirk culture and how it's used, and I get to write some Latinx representation which is always a plus! I love her own story and motivations that separate her from her peers, and seeing her grow and change throughout the story is one of my favorite parts. I love her attitude and views on the hero life and I think it's something that has a big impact on the story as a whole. She certainly isn't done developing and has a lot of growth to get through, but writing and seeing that growth is why Rose is my favorite character to write about.

Junie: Rose is definitely an enjoyable character with an interesting background. I can see where she can be fun to write about. Speaking of Rose, I can't help but to notice that the title is called Guns and Roses. Is there any reason why you've picked that particular name as the book title?

Grim: Yeah, actually! Well firstly, it's meant to hint at how the main protagonist's name is Rose and she is a huge fan of building weapons, specifically all sorts of guns. That's one of her biggest conflicts because she loves to invent but believes she shouldn't be in the support course. I am also a big fan of classic rock, and I figured that having a title people could recognize and easily remember would help at catching the readers' attention at the start.

Junie: I had a feeling about that. That's really neat to learn about though. Is there anything else you'd like to share about your book?

Grim:I am glad you asked because yes there is: Guns And Roses has recently hit its second incentive of 5,000 views in the past month from when I started the incentives. I am so grateful to everyone who's read my book, it means the absolute world to me thank you guys! We still have two more incentives to go, and I honestly think it's possible after seeing so much growth in the past couple weeks. The Q&A is still open to anyone who wants to submit a question to any of the bnha characters, my ocs, or even me, and I can't wait to see us hit another big milestone in views.

Junie: Well, that is no small feat! Congratulations on reaching such a huge milestone, and good luck with all your writings!