Woodpecker

Author: Mandrikai_Yoshi
Reviewer: -sylver

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SYNOPSIS

Woodpecker says the end of the world is coming, there's a dead body on a bed, an empty field in Somerset is somehow connected to a secret government project, and Samantha Brock is the only one that can discover the truth of what is happening and stop it, but then that isn't really the point.

In the days following the death of her mother, Samantha (Sam) Brock goes walking in the woods. She is visited by a woodpecker who, speaking in her mother's voice, prophesises the end of the world. She tells Sam that she must discover the truth behind what is happening and prevent it.

The impending "death of everything" acts as a backdrop to the personal grief experienced by the central character, and the three minor characters of the novel. Each is mourning in their own way, and each is unknowingly important to unlocking the secret of what is causing the sky to turn green and snow to fall in June.

Ben Erwin is Sam's recently ex-husband and a journalist chasing a story about a mysterious government project, Stuart Levitsky is a prime number obsessed mathematics prodigy, and DCI John Geering is a detective investigating the discovery of a dead body in a forensically clean flat in London. With the help of Woodpecker, who appears several times to deliver important information to Sam, their stories cross and finally collide. As the emerald-coloured apocalypse approaches they are catapulted towards a dramatic ending with equally dramatic conclusions.

I hope you like the story and find time to vote and comment - love hearing your thoughts.

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1. TITLE

Review: The title is honestly very straight to the point. The prologue establishes that a woodpecker is important to the plot, and its importance does remain consistent especially when you read the end of chapter ten. Makes me think Project Starling has something to do with birds. Theory: the woodpecker is an escaped project. Overall I like the title but it probably isn't exactly an eyecatcher unless you're obsessing over birds. It's just a normal title.

2. COVER

Review: The cover is very pretty. I think you should make the title's text slightly bigger so it fills up the cover's space more, but other than that it's a very good vector-like cover. The font chosen compliments the image very nicely. Absolutely love it. Its relevance to the story is debatable. It's a good cover but doesn't exactly give off your scifi-thriller aspect.

3. BLURB

Review: I do love the concept of your story. It's giving thriller vibes, and conspiracies are always interesting to try to unravel. I do think you dumped a lot of information in your summary. The way you introduced each of the characters in your summary was a bit thrown together. I think it would've been better if you just introduced them in separate paragraphs then it would've been a bit more acceptable aesthetic wise. Six Of Crows is a good example of that.

4. PLOT

Review: The prologue was very pleasant and descriptive. Really liked the sensory details you used, and how the perspective was from the woodpecker. Loved that you managed to establish the type of relationship Sam and her mother had with one another in the first chapter before the mother was declared dead. It added to both of their characterizations.

Chapter four piqued my interest because of the mystery aspect. Absolutely enjoy the character Barrie. He has amazing energy and works really well with John. When it was stated that Ben had an affair it honestly blew my mind. I wasn't expecting that. Got my jaw dropping. But Ben is a human so when he got knocked out I was hoping nothing bad happened to him because of his knowledge for Project Starling. He may not be a wholly good man but he's still a decent person.

Part of me feels for Sam. She lost her mother and then is overwhelmed with the presence of a woodpecker who sounds like her mom so she isn't sure if she's going crazy or not, and she's also tasked with saving the world and not knowing where to start. It's a bit much for anyone to handle. I wonder what's going to happen if Ben eventually tells her that he was unfaithful. I think she deserves to know.

Not going to lie, the Nucleon aspect confused me, and I guess it was meant to be confusing. There's no way to find out who actually owns the organization Joshua works for so a theory could be that the project Joshua wants Stuart to work in could actually be government run. Interesting to contemplate. Chapter seven, that one character punching a dog is so out of pocket. I felt bad Stuart had to see that because it seemed to trigger something for him. I get to chapter nine and read the letter that Barrie found and I'm concerned that Stuart is the one who died because they both play games with one another. If he's dead, respectfully I'm throwing your book away. He's a good character.

Overall plot was great, had excellent pacing and details. No concerns with anything plot wise.

5. CHARACTERS

Review: The Woodpecker is still a mystery to me. Its purpose seems to be to motivate Sam to figure out what the central conflict is and to save the world. I'm hoping they're actually a real being and not just her imagination. They seem to be since John also saw a woodpecker.

I was wondering if Samantha Brock's relationship with her mother was so bad that she calls her mom Marion or it was because of the tense being used for the story. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Sam after her mother died as I know she was trying to find a proper way to process. So far I like her. She appears like the innocent character that got pulled into everyone else's mess.

It was established in chapter one Ben Erwin and Sam were divorced but friends so was quite curious about what he was like for them to remain friends. Then I hear he's a cheat but she doesn't know and all the fascination vanishes. And it doesn't help that the person he has an affair with also starts with an S. I read further and see he still cares for Sam so I guess that counts for something. But the cheating is what's iffy about him that makes you question him.

Marion Brock is an interesting character. She's definitely a mom. Downplays their child's dark moments, and doesn't share their own dark times but wants her child to tell her everything. I am curious if the woodpecker has her memories or not because it's implied Sam wants the woodpecker to confirm things for her to give her mind peace.

It's immediately established that Stuart Levitsky is great with numbers and highly intelligent. I really like this character. He has an innocent aura to him that gives off the sense that he wants to help, and is also slightly gullible. I like his relationship with Joshua Matheson. It looks like he really needs a good friend. I'm hoping Joshua isn't using him.

From the first few paragraphs of his POV, I liked the sound of John Geering. He comes across as a very down to earth, no bullshit type of person. And if Sam, Stuart, and Ben are all connected like it appears they need someone like him in their group. Chapter nine seems to try to establish him more as average and someone who isn't special but works a lot but I think there's more to him than normalcy. He's very strategic. He may not be as smart as Stuart but he's definitely smart enough to make a difference. I'm curious about what his sickness is.

Helen's perception of John is kind of how I see Barrie Appleby. He's presented as the type of guy who sees the ups and downs of his job, but keeps up a happy facade so it doesn't affect him completely. He's definitely my favorite character.

Helen Geering is the only character that seems one dimensional. As if she's there just to add a little flavor to John's world. I feel bad for Sarah. Didn't know too much about her but no one deserves to lose their life the way she did. Very tragic. I didn't like Mawson at all; he's one of those characters you don't care about if they died in the next chapter. Life keeps going. He seems like he'll be a snake.

6. ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE

Review: I haven't really got any concerns about the story's structure or organization. The plot was consistent for the most part. I just have one thought. What's up with the chapter titles? The multiplication throws me off. I actually tried to do a few so it's making me think certain chapters happened out of order.

7. GRAMMAR/DESCRIPTION

Review: From chapter one in the first paragraph there's "she walks across the living room floor." I think that's a little bit too detailed. A simple ' she walks across the living room' would suffice. The paragraph for describing Marion's arthritis was nicely done. Very gruesome to imagine. While I was reading the paragraphs about Marion's cancer growing I had a 50/50 feeling about it. I think it's a unique approach to describing how someone's cancer suddenly appears, and nicely descriptive. But I also think that it's slightly a filler. I did like the chapter but towards the end it was definitely confirmed to be you changed the tense a lot, or the POV is third person omniscient.

8.WRITING STYLE/FLOW

Review: Your writing is what I feel like I'd read from a published author so props to you. Very detailed barely any errors notable. The flow was on point as well. You could honestly breeze through each chapter after digesting all the information given.

9.CREATIVITY/ORIGINALITY

Review: I haven't exactly read anything like it before so it seems very original in my eyes. I'm curious what turn the plot point about the woodpecker is going to take. What the explanation is going to be about how they're talking to Sam or if she's hallucinating. It's very unique how you take individual people, each with different professions, and have their lives cross paths because of a greater purpose. That purpose being a mystery but evidently important from the moment Project Starling was mentioned.

10.PERSONAL ENJOYMENT

Review: My favorite part about your story was honestly the mystery aspect. Figuring out if it's Stuart dead or not. I'm still curious. I'm a huge reader of thrillers and scifi, but when I first started your story I couldn't stay focused most of the time. Had to reread things because you were very explicitly detailed. As I said before some of it felt a little filler like you're trying to reach a specific word count. Maybe a bit too detailed but that could honestly be narrowed down to personal preference. I like details because I read a lot of stuff with purple prose but not when it's very excessive. I'm not one of those people who have issues with chapter word count but I know Wattpad isn't exactly the place that likes long chapters, throwing that out there as someone with personal experience with that. After I got into the groove of reading the story I did start to enjoy it. It is genuinely a great story and has a unique plotline.