Sunday, August 19, 2012

Mister Malus Reviews: A Fly On The Wall

This reflects only my individual opinions and should not be taken as fact. I do not ask you to agree or disagree with me, and I definitely encourage you to form your own opinions about the blog.

A Fly on the Wall


Author: AmeliaTanaka Status: Ongoing Fear(s): Plague Doctor; the Quiet; Cold Boy; the Choir; the Eye; Will probably have a few more
Plot:


It started as a way of telling the stories of those haunted by the Fears and went downhill from there (in-universe, I mean).

The Silent Observer is a “researcher” who begins looking around for some of the Fears that might be active around the college she attends. She looks for signs of their appearance, investigates the urban legends that might involve some Fears, and watches for any peculiar actions, especially with those having to do with her schoolmates.

So, it’s a matter of luck that right off the bat she finds a person who might be stalked by a certain doctor…

This has been a very enjoyable read so far. The pacing is pretty good for a realistic-type blog like this one, though some of the posts mentioning that there’s nothing going on can be kind of dull. They’re short enough to where it’s easy enough to get past them and occasionally they’ll give the reader some tidbits of information.

The Fears are very good in this. Whenever one is introduced, they get enough time to show what’s special about them rather than becoming a gimmick (I believe that’s the word). I can’t really pick from them to see which one I like so far, though I think the Eye has caught my attention with the way it’s currently being handled.

I would have liked to see more of the researcher side to the blog before it went into a personal account. It seems that while it does try to lean into that kind of genre, the main character doesn’t get a whole lot done and ends up spending most of their time trying to figure out what Fear is haunting the current person. More of the urban legends would have been interesting to read about, too, though more ambiguity would have been a plus.

Characters:


The Silent Observer: The main character of the blog. She’s kind of a researcher and looking into Fear hauntings that may be taking place around her college campus. She lets you know right off the bat that she doesn’t want to tell her story because it’s not important, and that she knows she’s more than likely going to die. This tells me that 1.) She might be suicidal, especially if she’s investigating the Fears on her own free will, and 2.) She doesn’t have a lot of self-esteem if she doesn’t consider her story worth telling.

It’s really interesting to see this character go through the blog. She acts like how you’d think a normal person would, but over time I can tell she becomes increasingly stressed out. People die (or disappear) and Silent reacts like you’d imagine; at first vowing to keep a better eye on people, and when she doesn’t she starts to feel guilty about it and slips up. All of this is probably resulting in why the Eye’s now after her (feeding off her guilt, I imagine?). In other words, very good character development. Really liking the character.

Nessa: The girl from the first chapter. I read through “Loch Nessa” and I swear, I can see someone from my school making a blog exactly like it. Very realistic, and I like how it started before the main blog. Did you backdate the posts, or plan this out? Either way, it’s very good and gives a bit more characterization to Nessa. Made me kind of sad when I found out she died.

Neil: Not sure how I feel about him. He doesn’t appear much, but most of the second chapter revolves around the information he gives Silent about his sister, Marianne, getting killed (or DID she?!). I didn’t really feel anything when we later learn that the Quiet must have taken him, so it seemed like he was there just to introduce that plotline. However, I do love the conflict that goes on between him and his parents and the mystery surrounding Marianne. Is she real or did Neil make her up? Did her parents forget her, or is Neil crazy? Very nicely done in that regard.

Tallie: This was another character that I felt existed solely to introduce another plotline. When the end of her story comes, like Neil I didn’t feel anything. I know there were some mentions to her character beforehand, but it didn’t give us a very good glimpse of what she was really like. Perhaps having Silent interact with her more and writing about it would have given Tallie some better characterization.

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This has been a pretty good blog so far and I’m going to keep an eye on it. It’s a very good story with a well-developed protagonist and I’m anxious to see how this ends. Will the Fears catch Silent, or something else…?

Speaking of mysteries, lets open up some Wild Mass Guessings.

Silent Will Commit Suicide

I think that either the Fears will catch her or she’ll do this due to a combination of loneliness and guilt over what’s happened over the past few months. She has said in a hidden post-ish thing that she hopes she dies, soooo…

The Quiet Will Return

Due to a recent post that references Neil disappearing while Silent watches AND because there wasn’t any kind of real resolution to this plotline, I’m thinking the Quiet is going to return eventually. I’m not sure what will happen from there, though.

The Black Dog Might Show Up

Sudden thought, but perhaps Silent has some buried secrets she doesn’t want to share with us and she’ll get another Fear stalking her. HRMM. I doubt it, but who knows?

The Choir Is Responsible For Andrew’s Death

That… really says it all, I think.

The Fears Are Working Together

This is pretty much said within the blog. I don’t know why they’d do this, though, especially for just one person… Or maybe it’s just a person doesn’t have to be afraid of just one thing, which is very, very good. I like it.

Silent Will Be Swatted Like The Fly She Is

And said swatter will become a Fear of Extermination. DUN-DUN-DUN.

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