So, my regularly intended posts have been delayed, obviously. I had been reading an Evie Dunmore series, which I still am, but I got stalled part way through. As you’ll read in the upcoming book review(s), I had started reading them out of order, so…I say that I was reading the second in a series and had to take a break, but I actually have already read the third and had been planning on rereading it for the review. However, partway through the official second book, I just had to set it down and step away. The characters in that book, as I’ll explain later, just weren’t enough to entice me to binge through the ending, though I like Dunmore’s characters in general.
All of that out of the way, here’s what I’ve been doing instead. I have joined the addictive world of visual novels and mobile game stories. My most recent obsession has been Witch’s Tale: A Double Life. I was all about this app for the first couple of months after it’s release, however, now that the game (and therefore story progression) has started to slow down, there is a larger sense of the money-grab aspect for the other parts of the app. And, as intriguing as the characters and story line are, there is not enough available to make up for the “hurry up and wait” parts of the game to keep it as a forefront of my time. It is a single story plot with a lot of flaws and some (hopefully ignorant) and misguided viewpoints. While initially enjoyable, I definitely have found my attention waning.
For several years, I have also been reading visual novels on the Choices app by Pixelberry. However, they too are falling down the wellworn path of decreasing quality for the sake of quantity. Ish. They are far from the worst company and app that offers this sort of entertainment, and for someone new to the app, there is a HUGE backlog of stories that can really be enjoyed. I find that when I go to Choices, it’s really to just reread my favorites, that I’ve already unlocked the extra scenes on, and I usually leave only mildly disappointed. It’s still entertaining, but in the way of a familiar story that enjoy with the side of nostalgia.
I have also started exploring other apps that claim similar experiences or are recommended in the Reddit forums, if you deep dive enough when you have nothing else to do (or are avoiding the huge list of things you made for yourself). Among them is the Romance Club (which I highly DO NOT recommend so far). It seems to have just taken the worst parts of the stories from Choices and put them up behind extra paywalls. With worse and terrifying graphics to boot. However, one rough gem, is Chapters. The stories are intriguing, and you don’t need to spend the in-game currency to unlock any scenes, though, it can change the dialogue. A few of their stories have alternate endings based on the decision you have made throughout the book, but primarily, it is filled with singular-plot stories and the decisions only change a few lines of dialogue. The good thing is that this means, if you can avoid the temptation of a good-looking false promise, you really don’t need to spend any money to get the good parts of the stories.
I’ll do a bigger write-up on them later, maybe. But, they do have books by Best Selling Authors, where it’s kind of like reading the abridged version, if you don’t buy the premium choices. So far, it has led me to actually go buy different books when they’ve been on sale. But, that’s likely just do to my reading preferences and not wanting the “stress of decision-making” with entertainment reads. I’ll definitely still stick around Chapters for now and save those premium choices for stories that are exclusive to them and not available online. If you want to check them out, Chapters does have a Friend Invitation Referral system, so download the app and use code pb8zkh1j for some extra in-game rewards.