I'm looking for a reader for my retrofuturistic cyberpunk novel. It takes place in a version of the 1980s where internet technology has advanced much more quickly than it did in our own timeline. It follows a group of teenagers who investigate the origin of an A.I. they discover online. You can think of it as Neuromancer meets Stranger Things.

The story involves the main characters attempting to solve a mystery, and I want to make sure the pieces of the mystery and its development makes sense. I'm also interested in whether the characters are developed enough.

Blurb

It's the 1980s. But in the last couple of decades information technology research has advanced leaps and bounds, bringing the internet and even virtual reality into the homes of Americans. In this world, a young computer hacker, Wes Sevens, finds himself feeling trapped after moving with his mom from the exciting bustle of New York City to the seemingly dull midwest suburbs. While navigating high school and finding new friends, Wes comes across what appears to be an artificial intelligence, technology that's beyond anything he's seen before. While investigating its origins, Wes will uncover secrets that question the very nature of cyberspace.

Hey everybody,

I've completed work on the first book in my series and would love to hear some feedback! You might enjoy this story if you're interested in exploring a unique universe that isn't based on any preexisting works with a special emphasis on hard-hitting prose.

In terms of feedback I'm most interested in basic typos or errors, but all feedback is welcome! Please, feel free to share what you like, what you don't like, what confuses you, etc. If you want to say it, I want to hear it.

Last thing, if you end up putting it down and walking away from it, please feel free to let me know where you lost interest, but if not, that's perfectly ok, too. I understand everybody's got their own things going on so no pressure at all.

If interested, feel free to message me with a Gmail address and I will share the document with you directly (to avoid creating a public link).

Blurb

Crater’s Edge, a fringe colony beyond the westernmost reaches of the Harmonic kingdom, conjured foul images in those unfortunate few who dared ponder it: images of thugs fleeing the justice of lawful lands, images of monsters, of baleful sorceries forbidden lest their darkness avenge itself against the light of brighter realms. It was a town best known for the madmen who lived there, most feared for the one who left.

He wasn’t always mad. Raised on fables of the cradle of damnation and the Bleeding Shores, Ian had learned proper fear of gods. He was a good man, but an outcast. Nobody expected such dreadful things from him back then: the falsities of sight and sound. The murders. But frightful prophecies promised him by shadowed wraiths inspired such awful acts—desperate acts—and how desperate he’s grown.

Trapped in a recurring nightmare made vessel to a second mysterious dreamer and under the guidance of that visiting wraith, Ian must struggle against his own encroaching madness as “Into Night” ignites the epic fantasy “On Flights of Geists” to begin a journey to uncover the lost omens of ancient evils and the dangerous truths buried beneath them.

Content Warnings

• Violence
• Sexual Violence

Preferred Timeline

• month

Short snippet

Squinting at the rides of Carnival, Rouge leaned precipitously—the world corkscrewing like a house of turning mirrors—then took a few stumbling steps toward a farmer’s vending table which he draped drunkenly over. He didn’t need any damned festival to drink. Crock of shit. Children were acting like craterye, rushing about, intoxicated with foreign concoctions, drinks, and smokes. A couple of them, on two separate occasions, had crossed him wrong-ways. At least he thought they did. Beh. Not that he cared. Whether they had or hadn’t, they knew better now.

Rouge, brawler and ex-sundryman with fifty years of experience aching to unfurl into the mouths of the contemptuous, had, in a life long passed, once been feared. Out east. Long ago. He’d earned a name back then—one he deserved. In drunken confessions whispered between rough men in barside lamentations of nighttime terrors, it could be heard where cups stopped and chatter died: the Ghost of Sullengrove.

The moniker came to mean more than the man. It outgrew him, left him behind, but never far enough that he could hope to escape it—if he could even be sure he wanted to. So he coped with it the way he coped with anything: cantankerously. Rouge’s coping wasn’t the sort not to fuck a bit of notoriety into existence. Ill-tempered when he drank and doubly so when he abstained, his old ways yearned for the flavor of respect concocted through the asymmetric exchange of pain which was further, still, encouraged by his expertise. In short, the ride that he’d placed his inhibitions upon was greased and starting to spin.

Link

First 3 Chapters

I'm a relatively new writer, but I'm ambitious. The problem is, I have no real idea whether my work is any good. I haven't had much luck finding people to give me feedback, so I would absolutely love it if I could find someone here willing to help. In exchange, I'd be happy to read your work and provide feedback as well.

Feedback:
English is my second language, so expect some grammar mistakes. What I'm really interested in is what you think of the story and the characters, and any other thoughts you're willing to share.

Blurb.
In 2062 the men with no senses spoke to God.

Maruta

The third world war left nothing behind. The land is poison, the sky is ash, and the people who remain have become something the old world wouldn't recognise. Man became ruthless, no longer caring for empathy, no longer caring for cruelty. They would survive at any cost. The diseased became fodder, the lesser fortunate ate their kin to survive, sustaining on the rotting flesh, the little it would sustain them. The rich hoarded the last of supplies, spewing their waste onto the poor. Some people survived the wastes desperately clinging on to life, or what was left of it. But in the bleakness there were still some men who tried to save the earth from disease and rot. And in their eyes, only through forced evolution could humans adapt, all other hope had abandoned them. A division of the most cunning and intelligent humans simply called ENDURE. The minds of these men were no doubt great, humanity's last defence against extinction. But, cruelty and intelligence often walk hand in hand, like lovers in life and death.

How far would you go to be the saviour?

Content warning 18+. Gore, and dark themes.

Write a comment or send me a dm, if interested.

Hi guys,

This is my first post, I've had this idea for a long time. I'm definitely not a professional writer, just a reader who has always wanted to create a story with a complex world.

Please be advised: I make no claims about being a great storyteller. If you decide to help me out by reviewing these first two chapters, read at your own risk! I am not responsible for any lost hours.

Based on TRAPPIST-1 - The "Goldilocks" Zone.

Synopse:

The Union is holding its breath. A controversial treaty is supposed to finally bridge the gap with an estranged neighboring world, but the system is already fracturing. Native populations and descendants of planetary colonists share the same planets, but they rarely share the same truths, and the quiet tensions between them are hard to ignore.

Then, the fragile peace process shatters. During a critical assembly at the House of Voices, a prominent politician and a historian are poisoned in plain sight.

From there, the story fractures. There is no single path through this book, and no narrator to hand you the answers. Instead, it is built from a series of interconnected lives. Each chapter drops you into the perspective of a different character. Some were in the room when the poison took hold; others are worlds away, dealing with their own struggles, completely unaware of how the fallout will upend their lives.

Some characters only appear once. Others circle back when you least expect it. Events overlap, echo, and contradict each other. A fragment of history that one person accepts as absolute fact, another might ignore or completely reshape.

There is no one to tell you what matters and what is true. You have to pay attention. It is up to you to cross-reference their perspectives, catch the inconsistencies, and step into the role of an observer piecing together a reality much bigger than any single character can see.

The truth is there, but you aren't going to be told what it is. You have to discover it.I've had this idea for a long time. I'm definitely not a professional writer, just a reader who has always wanted to create a story with a complex world.

Please be advised: I make no claims about being a great storyteller. If you decide to help me out by reviewing these first two chapters, read at your own risk! I am not responsible for any lost hours.

Based on TRAPPIST-1 - The "Goldilocks" Zone.

Synopse:

The Union is holding its breath. A controversial treaty is supposed to finally bridge the gap with an estranged neighboring world, but the system is already fracturing. Native populations and descendants of planetary colonists share the same planets, but they rarely share the same truths, and the quiet tensions between them are hard to ignore.

Then, the fragile peace process shatters. During a critical assembly at the House of Voices, a prominent politician and a historian are poisoned in plain sight.

From there, the story fractures. There is no single path through this book, and no narrator to hand you the answers. Instead, it is built from a series of interconnected lives. Each chapter drops you into the perspective of a different character. Some were in the room when the poison took hold; others are worlds away, dealing with their own struggles, completely unaware of how the fallout will upend their lives.

Some characters only appear once. Others circle back when you least expect it. Events overlap, echo, and contradict each other. A fragment of history that one person accepts as absolute fact, another might ignore or completely reshape.

There is no one to tell you what matters and what is true. You have to pay attention. It is up to you to cross-reference their perspectives, catch the inconsistencies, and step into the role of an observer piecing together a reality much bigger than any single character can see.

The truth is there, but you aren't going to be told what it is. You have to discover it.
Synopse:

The Union is holding its breath. A controversial treaty is supposed to finally bridge the gap with an estranged neighboring world, but the system is already fracturing. Native populations and descendants of planetary colonists share the same planets, but they rarely share the same truths, and the quiet tensions between them are hard to ignore.

Then, the fragile peace process shatters. During a critical assembly at the House of Voices, a prominent politician and a historian are poisoned in plain sight.

From there, the story fractures. There is no single path through this book, and no narrator to hand you the answers. Instead, it is built from a series of interconnected lives. Each chapter drops you into the perspective of a different character. Some were in the room when the poison took hold; others are worlds away, dealing with their own struggles, completely unaware of how the fallout will upend their lives.

Some characters only appear once. Others circle back when you least expect it. Events overlap, echo, and contradict each other. A fragment of history that one person accepts as absolute fact, another might ignore or completely reshape.

There is no one to tell you what matters and what is true. You have to pay attention. It is up to you to cross-reference their perspectives, catch the inconsistencies, and step into the role of an observer piecing together a reality much bigger than any single character can see.

The truth is there, but you aren't going to be told what it is. You have to discover it.

Looking for light to moderate beta reading of this book. Interested in pacing feedback and questions I don't answer well. Happy to do a swap with people with similar tags.

Synopsis:

Em Dubois, 35, likes to think of herself as rational. Embarrassing breakups, unstable employment, existential dread? All survivable with enough compartmentalization and panicked decision-making.

That is, until she’s pulled into the orbit of Vael and Serith, two ancient godlike entities hiding behind human smiles. Their deeply codependent relationship has shaped humanity through violence, manipulation, and fear for millennia. Em soon finds herself caught in the center of a slow-burn MMF/why-choose relationship none of them expected.

For readers who enjoy queer character-driven romance, MMF/why-choose dynamics, found family, morally messy relationships, and happily-ever-afters earned the hard way.

Tags

• Dark romantasy
• Power imbalance
• Why choose
• Morally gray characters
• Slow-burn tension
• Angst
• Found family
• Friends to lovers
• MMW pairing/throuple
• MW romance
• MM romance
• Polyamory/ENM
• Queer representation
• Ancient beings/Immortality
• Complex characters
• Identity
• Touch her and die

Excerpt:

She opens the bedroom door to two flinching figures, the one who's not Liam diving under the covers. Her stomach sinks. Unfortunately, conclusion jumping would’ve been a perfectly fine form of exercise here.

There's an annoying ringing in her ears.

“Em!” he gasps. “What are you doing here?” He tugs at the blanket again like he's ashamed of his nipples. It's too late; she's seen them.

“I… This is my bedroom.” She shrugs, gesturing around lamely.

I’m looking for a full beta read of my novel (I’ve already had two alpha readers) to provide me with detailed reader reactions, plus of course as much feedback as possible on any weak points that stand out. I have links to five short questionnaires scattered throughout the novel, and would also like a summary of findings after finishing the book.

I’m absolutely willing to critique swap, and suggest we exchange the first 10K-15K words of our works first to ensure that we’re compatible. Blurb, content warnings, and excerpt follow.

How much can one person stand to lose in war?

Conflict rages across the stars. Only Ground Corps prevents human settlers from being overrun by the Cetans at every turn.

In one of these many battles, Lance Corporal Tabor “Tab” Novak fights with such gallantry he is selected into the elite HAMMER powered armor unit. Yet, here he finds he no longer surpasses his peers, but struggles to keep up with Ground Corps’ finest – which spurs him to greater successes.

However, HAMMER demands much from its members: physical, mental, and emotional. Humanity is threatened everywhere, and Tab is first to fight, enduring loss after loss both in and out of combat. In doing so, he risks his health, his relationship with his family, his morals, and the love of his life, all in the pursuit of valor.

How much will he choose to sacrifice on the altar of victory? 

Soft Target is the first novel in a series featuring the page-turning action of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War cycle and Marko Kloos’ Frontlines books tempered with the sensibilities of David Drake’s stories and the moral complexity of John Haldeman’s The Forever War.

Content Warnings: Wartime graphic violence, language, consensual adult sexual situations

Brief Excerpt:

The stench: the alien Squibs living in their ramshackle domos, atmo reeking because they need traces of sulfur, their so-called food cooking out in the open, tendrils of prismatic smoke coating noses and lungs, the pungent residue of SSX explosions, the chemical snaps of accelerator bullets, the ozone flashes of rail-assisted rounds, the goddamned murky stagnant water, and the burning, oh God, the burning of who knows what trash and biomatter in the squat little fires spread among whatever dryish ground can be found on this mudhole. Thank Christ my visor lid’s down and intact.

We’re deployed on Erato IV, a mucky, wet, slimy swamp of a planet. Again, I’m stunned: how can there be so many fires on such a wet shitpile? And what sin did the Muse of, I want to venture, erotic poetry commit to earn the punishment of having this hellhole of a joint settlement détente planet named after her? (I can never remember which Muse is which, except Terpsichore: dance and chorus.) Green and brown land and murky water and sumpy mud and mire and marsh stretches as far as the eye can see. That’s until you reach the dingy plascrete blocks ringing the settlements, whether human or Squib, the ramshackle fencing that bounds the pastures (and whatever can graze here, I don’t want to eat), or the few solid roads that usually double as the demarc lines crisscrossing the dreary terrain, sectioning off the settlement zones of the two races.

Intel has gotten word a large weapons cache is hidden within the messy, muddy Squib village in front of us. Now, the weird thing about their settlements? They’re quiet. Sure, they’ve got their flitters and machines and whatever, kids scream and play, but the adults, they’re usually communicating telepathically and/or pheromonically. (And the latter adds yet another delightful top note to the cavalcade of scents.) So, there’s minimal talking, and when you do hear it, it’s in that pulpy blip-dool-poolp language of theirs. You don’t know whether the old farts are gabbing about Squib dominoes or how they are getting ready to duck because the insurgents have a bomb ready to blow your ass to hell.

Blurb:

This is a dark fantasy medieval setting with some horror. The story takes place twenty-five years after the apocalyptic event known as the shatter. It follows the journey of a peasant woman, Mariot; a knight, Lamond; and a huntsman, Cuilén, as they travel through the Arboreal Highlands of Gallea.

The Knight Lamond has come to the city of Ben Càrn seeking cowards to become knights and journey through the forest to fort Dunbatter.

This is a journey of survival. Entities, demons, and worse things prowl the woods. If they can survive that, then they must contend with each other. No one survives the end times without blood on their hands.

Decisions I made:

The setting and creatures are based on celtic and european mythology and history.

To not use ‘he thought, she looked, he smelled, etc.,’ as much as possible. If it says it stinks, then we know that’s because the pov character can smell the bad smell.

Internal thought is not italicised. This is because it should always be clear whose pov things are in. One pov per chapter for the most part.

The story is told in third person past tense from the pov of the character with emotional beats filtered through their perspective.

Dialogue is present tense and internal thought which is essentially internal dialogue is also in present tense.

Things to check for:

Sentences that are bad or confusing.

Words of phrases that seem to be repeated overly much.

Anything anachronistic to the setting including dialogue.

Grammar mistakes.

Spelling mistakes – I aimed for UK English throughout.

An inappropriate amount of emotional beats that may make the scene melodramatic. 

I am available to critique swap

I’m looking for beta readers for my literary relationship novella, Are You Happy? — a nostalgic, emotionally reflective story about first love, ambition, memory, and the versions of ourselves we leave behind.

Set against the backdrop of early-2000s DIY music culture, touring bands, diners at 2 a.m., burned CDs, long drives across New England, and the fragile intensity of young adulthood, the novel follows Matt and Julie through a four-year relationship that shapes the rest of their lives long after it ends.

Told through an intimate first-person voice, the story moves between youth and adulthood, exploring regret, emotional avoidance, growing older, and what it means to carry someone with you for decades. It’s written in a cinematic, memoir-like style and will likely appeal to readers who enjoy emotionally driven literary fiction and relationship-centered stories like 500 Days of Summer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Please DM me for a copy.

Hello, this is a draft of the first fantasy novel I'm writing, as well as my first post on this subreddit.

Fren, an outsider to the world, is on a journey to join a hunter's guild. On his way to the capital, he is joined by an eccentric and kind priest named Grey. Together, they must navigate a town overrun by the undead, deal with a bandit crisis alongside a mysterious eyepatched archer, and face the high stakes of a brutal guild qualification course.

I have will DM a link to a 3,600-word sample (an interlude and the first two chapters) so you can get a feel for the prose, dialogue, and pacing before committing to the full 36k manuscript.

Feedback I am looking for:

• Character Dynamics: Do the characters feel distinct and function properly? (e.g., are the comedic moments landing, or do characters risk becoming annoying?)
• Pacing & Exposition: Is the pacing engaging? Is there a good balance between world-building details and active plot progression, or does it feel rushed/clunky?
• Scene Execution: Are the combat scenes interesting and easy to follow? Is the tension effective? Are the payoffs feeling good and deserved?
• Structure: Does the current progression-focused arc structure work well? Is it too different from normal books and novels to feel like a cohesive story?
• Core Concept: Is the overarching story and magic system compelling enough to make you want to finish the story and maybe even read book 2?
• Language Polish: English is my second language. While I am primarily looking for structural feedback, I would appreciate it if you could point out recurring grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, or tense consistency issues.

I am only putting a partial cut of my manuscript so the final guild course arc will not be included since I am currently rewriting it. I am happy to do a critique swap for a manuscript of similar length. Thanks for reading! 😎

Blurb : Anna Kitt’s mundane life vanishes the moment she wakes up to a terrifying reality: any clothing, blanket, or processed fabric she touches dissolves into thin air. Left completely naked and desperate for answers, she turns to her boyfriend, Christopher, who reveals that she has "Awakened" with a bizarre power in a world already transformed by the Crimson Apocalypse—an event that mutated the planet's flora and fauna into bloodthirsty monsters.

While Christopher attempts to sneak her to a specialized clinic, their vehicle is brutally ambushed by a pack of mutated dogs. With Christopher severely injured and their lives on the line, Anna’s survival instinct takes over, triggering the true nature of her condition. Her body isn't just destroying the clothes she touches; it is breaking them down and converting the mass into a roaring reservoir of thermal and kinetic energy. Unleashing this newly discovered power, she incinerates the monsters with a single, devastating blast .

Now classified as a powerful A-Rank Awakened, Anna must navigate a dangerous, apocalyptic landscape where she is completely exposed to the elements. Stripped of her clothes but armed with a literal miniature sun inside her chest, she is forced to realize that this bizarre, embarrassing power is the only thing standing between humanity and the monstrous, walking forests hunting them down. To survive and protect the people she loves, Anna has no choice but to embrace her new reality—even if it means fighting the apocalypse wrapped in nothing but a high-tech bamboo towel.

Hi! I'm working on a webcomic and I’d love to get some people to read the first chapters before I finish the rendering and start posting them publicly. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to post a request for beta reading here, even though this subreddit seems mostly focused on written / text-only content?

It wouldn't have a high word count since it wouldn't be in script format, but in speech bubbles and drawn panels, as I hope beta readers would give me their opinions on clarity, pacing, and overall understanding of the story in its original format.

(Of course, I'd be happy to do the same for someone else’s project in return, in any format!)

Here‘s a quick pitch: In a magical society dominated by men, Saoirse Atsidi, a young female Conjurer, will do whatever it takes to make her family proud by becoming a top student at Draíocht Academy, even if it means being Promised to a boy she hates and killing her mother in the Tionscnamh — a ritual sacrifice designed to awaken her elemental affinity — to gain admittance. Reeling in the aftermath, she struggles to process the horrific consequences of losing her mother at her own hand and her excitement at possessing the element of fire, an affinity not possessed by a female Conjurer in over a century. 

A Few Notes:

• This is NOT a romantasy, enemies-to-lovers, trope heavy story, but some forbidden romance ish b plot
• Leans a bit dark academia since most of the story takes place at a magical academy
• Includes trials
• Includes elemental magic
• Explores themes of misogyny

I’m willing to critique swap with anyone with a similar word count in fantasy/romantasy genre.

Feedback I am looking for: pacing, thoughts on characters, overall satisfaction of the story arc, and clarity of prose, events, world building, and terminology.

Please DM me if you’re interested in reading :) Thanks so much!

Opening two chapters of a literary coming-of-age novel set in East End Glasgow in 1997, centred around football culture, sectarianism, masculinity and queer identity.

Blurb:

In 1990s Glasgow, football is more than a game — it’s family, faith, and the line you don’t cross.

When Jamie Callaghan returns to the East End after five years in Ireland, he finds the city unchanged. The chants are louder. The rivalries deeper. And Ryan Kerr — the Rangers-supporting boy he once fought and kissed — is still here.

What begins as violent rivalry slowly turns into secret meetings in an abandoned hut, forcing both boys to confront something neither of them has the words for.

Old Firm Eyes is a coming-of-age novel about masculinity, sectarianism, and the things boys learn to bury to survive.

Happy to DM the Google Doc to anyone interested in reading.

[Blurb]

Elara Vance knows buildings do not collapse without warning. They signal first.

When a mysterious package from the Penthouse arrives at her apartment, Elara discovers that the Sterling–Vance is not merely failing. It is being managed.

Records rewrite themselves. Cameras wake inside dead walls. Access is never denied, only routed. And somewhere inside the building’s hidden systems, someone has decided which lives are structurally expendable.

To expose the truth, Elara must force the city to see what it has been trained to ignore before the load shifts again.

[Content Warning]

Surveillance, psychological tension, coercive control, structural danger/collapse, death/violence.

[Requested Feedback]

This is a late-stage polished draft, so I’m looking for overall reader-experience feedback more than line edits.

Specific questions:

Do you feel invested in Elara and her struggle?

Does the pacing drag anywhere?

Does the middle feel too dense?

Are there any points where you felt confused or tempted to stop reading?

Does Varn feel threatening or persuasive?

Does the system/building logic make sense?

Does the ending feel satisfying?

Would you recommend this to readers of psychological thrillers, techno-thrillers, or literary suspense?

Preferred timeline: 21 days.

[Critique Swap]

I’m not able to commit to a full manuscript swap right now, but I may be open to exchanging first chapters or shorter excerpts.

[Excerpt]

Elara Vance knew buildings did not collapse without warning.

They signaled first.

Not dramatically. Not honestly. Not in ways anyone with authority was required to notice.

A crack in plaster became humidity. A locked stairwell became maintenance. A missing record became migration. By the time a building failed, the failure had usually been renamed several times.

Per community guidelines, please DM me if interested. I can provide the manuscript privately in EPUB. Please do not upload, forward, reproduce, or redistribute the file.

Thank you,

Hi all! This is the third draft of my first novel, and first time posting here.

Muse of Sunrise is a complete sci-fi/superhero novel exploring themes of vengeance, power, and the lengths people will go to atone for their own sins.

>Yuri Song is a bright, young, Korean-American... thief. And now she's fled to Sunrise, a city of advanced technology and larger-than-life heroes, where she wants nothing more than a clean slate. But when her brother is killed in an attack by the supervillain Brimstone, that dream dies with him.
Desperate for revenge, she seeks power under the tutelage of Muse, a Sentinel left broken and disabled by the same attack.
As she hunts for Brimstone, Yuri uncovers corruption festering beneath the city's shining image, from the opulent manors of the Sunrise elite to the underground Deeps where shame and secrets hide. Along the way, she must confront her own demons and decide once and for all who she’s really trying to save.

Would love critiques on pacing, character development, and overall entertainment factor! Ideally a 4-week window (to end of June 2026).

Will send a sample (Prologue and Chapter 1, 3218 words) to confirm interest before full manuscript.

Hey Y'all! I'm getting very close to finishing a first draft and while I have some idea of how it will end I'm kind of desperate for some feedback before I finish. Especially after writing it in a vacuum for so long.

So I'm looking for some readers to vibe check the manuscript so far, see if it's something people enjoy and if I'm on the right track with the story itself. Coupla' notes before the blurb. I'm planning on querying this novel. And I don't really use Google Drive after hearing about its AI usage and instead have a pdf copy I would be sending out to anyone who is interested. I am also open to discussing a swap, though I'm going to be busy the next few weeks and can't promise doing it very speedy.

The Blerb: Transcendental Chaos is an explicit adult novel that begins on Earth pre-apocalypse; taking place, mostly, four years from now. As the end of the Earth begins we find a collection of millennials and a few others being portaled (or isekai'd) into a new planetary system with several occupied planets where other now dead planets have seemingly deposited their survivors into what might be the center of the universe.

While I'm still working on the back-cover description, I don't want to give too much away and I'd like to see what someone interested in these genres might take away going in somewhat cold. I set out writing this, sort of wanting to write a novel that had a quote from John Waters. So if I was to try to sell this novel to you I'd say it's like if John Water's wrote Dune, but that's not totally accurate. Part Horror, part sci-fi fantasy, with a sprinkling of camp and fetish, this is a queer trans and women fronted novel about the author trying to escape the America they currently live in.

Hello!

I am looking for 3-5 beta readers for my psychological thriller, Dead to Me.

It’s meant to be a fast paced thriller and is approximately 34K words.

It is a full draft and my hope is to get some new perspective before proceeding with line editing.

Story Summary:
After her husband dies in a tragic car accident, Lauren attempts to rebuild her life along with her two children.

Lauren begins to uncover inconsistencies and the truth unravels to something far worse; her husband didn’t die. He disappeared to build a new life.

Grief turns to obsession and then to rage. Lauren decides to destroy his new life and make sure he regrets ever leaving.

Content Warnings:
- Suicidal and homicidal ideation
- Strong language
- Intended for a mature audience.

Timeline: 4-6 weeks.

Critique Swap: No

Feedback I'm Looking For:

I will send you a list of specific questions with the book link.

If you’re interested, please DM me, and I’ll send over the Google Doc link.

Thanks so much for considering

[Blurb]

24 hours.

A desperate father cradles his daughter in blood soaked arms, staring down a racing clock. Cities burn behind him, generations laid to waste, ravaged by an unknown virus. The outback, feral and scorched, sprawls towards the horizon. Toward salvation.

23 hours.

Deep within the halls of a towering mountain compound, a lone survivor fills another syringe. Her lab coat covers a gnarled, pockmarked scar. Another failure lies on her table. Another soul lost.

22 hours.

The screams of the infected grow louder. Closer. He needs to run. Needs to fight, or die trying.

[Content Warning]

Present tense, extreme gore/violence, death, grief, torture, references to self harm/suicidal ideation, implied sexual content (consenting adults, NO rape/sexual coercion).

[Requested Feedback]

This is a late stage draft, so I’m looking for more overall plot and character feedback over line editing and prose.

Do the characters feel real? Are their motivations and actions consistent? Are they relatable?

Are there points where the pacing feels slow, or scenes redundant?

Any points where you were bored?

Do you feel invested in the characters and their struggles?

Are the science segments comprehensible?

Does the plot feel like it naturally progresses, and actions feel connected?

[Critique swap]

I am open to a possible swap around the same word count, though have to limit the number of concurrent manuscripts I’m reading. I prefer post apocalyptic/dystopian/thriller, and sci-fi. No romance (subplots are fine), no young adult, historical fiction, high-fantasty, or political pieces, please. I prefer character-driven stories that stay away from large group politics.

[Excerpt]

The Australian sun reigns from a cloudless sky. Mark barrels between gnarled trees and dense shrubs. His daughter wails from the carrier on his back, the oversized hiking bag slamming against his ribs. Red dust billows in a storm behind them, caught in air that doesn’t breathe and a heat that doesn’t break. Sweat stings his eyes. Dust clogs his lungs. He skids around a collapsed fence, boots skating in the dirt, and nearly topples them both.

The brush cracks behind him, branches snapping under foot, fabric tearing on barbed leaves. Wet, gurgling pants and clacking teeth follow him to the pavement. He doesn't dare look back.

A lone petrol station forms from the mirage ahead, front window smashed and parking lot vacant. A chance to hide. To put steel and space between them and the infected.

Twenty meters.

A shriek, hungry and feral, breaks the stifling heat.

Fifteen.

Footsteps charge after his own. Louder. Closer.

Five.

Per community guidelines, please DM for a sample/Google doc.

Cheers!

Felix

Hey there!

Thank you for taking time to read this post!

This is a co-wrote book that my long time friend and I have been writing.

Mirabella Silvercrest was eleven years old when Illumeran soldiers tore through her town and stole her people in the name of prophecy. Thirteen years later, she has built a quieter life within the capital of Illumera, Aurelith, as a gifted healer alongside her father.

Magic across Prismara is beginning to fail, and children are no longer “losing their grey,”. Their gifts of magic are fading before they fully awaken.

While researching a possible cure in secrecy for this mysterious affliction known as Greylock, Mirabella is summoned to the royal palace to treat the sickened king. What begins as a healer’s duty quickly entangles her in fractured prophecy, dangerous magic, and three men who begin to reveal the guarded life she has carefully built around herself.

Mirabella is caught between loyalty, desire, and the realization that the fate tying her and the three men together may be less conspiratorial than she thought.

Some wounds don't heal cleanly, and gods don't forgive what mortals have done.

The feedback were looking for is as follows.

- Character cohesion and story cohesion overall.
- Any blatant plotholes that we have missed.
- Overall quality.

We would be open to beta swaps! If this interests you please dm and let us know!

-T&C