Friday, April 14, 2023

On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher

On the Other Side
Slightly Spoilery Review
Originally Posted to GoodReads: April 15, 2017


So, that was On the Other Side. Interesting.

I might not have clung to this book as much as other people seem to have (I've only read a few other reviews and they mostly seem either ecstatic about the book or overly negative), but I did enjoy the read. It was a quicker read than I was expecting, though the beginning did drag. I've never read a book quite like this one. It was definitely interesting.

On the Other Side has, at its heart, a love story that's somewhat timeless so long as you don't mind a few anachronisms or oddly over-bearing parents. This kind of romance story isn't normally my cup of tea but the excitement from Carrie on her YouTube channel was just so infectious, I knew I had to read it. I definitely enjoyed the story, even if the magic I'd been envisioning wasn't there. Not to say there is no magic, there's definitely magic, it's just not as all-encompassing as I'm used to from my magical stories.

I would also like to address, as others have, the writing style of On the Other Side. The big things others have mentioned is the "show, don't tell" aspect of writing. The belief that the author mustn't ever explicitly tell the reader anything. I feel like, in this case, the telling part at the beginning was more necessary than attempting to show the reader how it worked. The understanding of how Evie's afterlife worked was more important than trying to lead the reader by "showing." The book's not really about that part anyway. It's a means to and end and it's fine. I honestly hope Carrie learns to do away with that sort of thing in the future, but I don't have a problem with it in this book. Also, I think it's important to remember that On the Other Side is Carrie's first fiction work. Not everyone pops out a perfect novel first time out.

In Other News

I've finished another OviPets Project: Mothmon. Based on the Digimon of the same name. Mothmon took me 8 months to fully complete.


Mothmon is the first of my Armor Digimon Project, although my Bucchiemon Project was actually the first Armor Digimon I "made" on Ovipets.

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