u/Tai_Pfeiter

Hello, first time posting here, but I'm sure it won't be the last! Spent two years writing this book. No writer's block the whole way through honestly, it just kind of poured out of me. I sent it to 10 friends over a month ago hoping for some feedback, but not a single person even tried. Not looking for sympathy, just being real. My wife keeps telling me to be patient. But I feel like this won't really be a finished book till I get real human feedback. So here I am, hoping to find people who actually like this kind of book and will give it a real read. I'm proud of what I made — just want to know if it was only ever gonna be for me?

Quick rundown — three childhood best friends, Ezra, Sill, and Will, go out for one ordinary Friday night in an alternate America where drugs are legal and basically a religion and politics is a slow-burning war between two parties. By the end of the weekend they've fallen for each other, uncovered a family murder from over a decade ago, and ended up tangled in a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of the government. It's a lot, honestly, but I think I've done a good job of keeping it from being a tangled mess, which is kind of the whole point of posting this. Genre-wise, it's a mashup, alt-history fantasy world + a throuple romance that doesn't stay in the background + a political conspiracy running underneath it all. Not erotica, to be clear — most of the book is world/plot/characters, a handful of chapters get explicit. If American Gods (the alt-history mythology thing) or Zodiac Academy (throuple/spicy) rings a bell, you'll probably already know if this is your thing.

Here's a short bit from the Prologue, no spoilers, just to give you a feel for it:

"Ezra was quiet. He was digesting the movie the way you process a meal that was almost too much — slowly, with the feeling that something inside you had shifted.

'You good, Ez?' Willy asked.

Ezra kept his eyes on the sky. 'I feel like my whole life is leading to something great. That's really all I want. To do something that actually matters.'

Willy nodded. 'Yeah. Me too.'

Sill rolled onto her belly, elbows in the grass, chin in her hands, looking at both of them. 'I want that too. But I want to do it with you guys.' She paused, deciding how honest to be. Then she decided. 'I know we've been kind of friends. But today felt like something different. Like we're supposed to be a team.'

She held out her hand over the center of them, palm down. They both put theirs in without being asked.

'Let's do something great,' Sill said. 'Whatever happens.'"

18+ heads up before you request it: explicit sex in a few chapters (group sex between the leads plus others and some kink), heavy drug use basically as the premise of the whole world, a death early on that isn't graphic, and political stuff that leans pretty close to real US politics.

If you're interested, DM me and I'll send over the doc — keeping the link out of the post itself.

Mainly what I want to know — did it land for you, and where didn't it? Did the world make sense as you went or did you get lost anywhere? Do the characters feel real? Did you ever relate to any characters? Was it clear what the actual conflict was and by when? Any parts that dragged or you found yourself skimming or skipping ahead? And honestly, if there's stuff you'd just cut, tell me, I can take it.

Happy to do a critique swap if you've got something of your own you'd want a read on — otherwise just genuinely looking for honest readers who want to dig into this kind of book. Written feedback's great, but if you'd rather hop on a call and just talk through it, I'd honestly love that too. If what comes back reads like an AI summary of the plot, I'll know, and it's not really what I'm looking for.

Here's to hoping this book is as good as I think it is.