Mephisto
 

Aaaah, more like this. I very much enjoyed.

that was immensely weird, however immensely entertaining.

*judgment

I wish I had more to say in return for your crit, but this was well-written and entertaining. Personally, I would change some of the line breaks up a bit, as each line in itself contains a different action and makes the read almost monotonous and repetitive if not for your excellent imagery. The last stanza was gold.

I enjoyed reading this very much - the piece is very calculated and very well-crafted (I couldn't find anything that stood-out in a wrong manner when I read this.) Your punctuation and word-choice were spot-on. I do agree with rd93 about the monotonous narration, but that didn't add or take anything away from the piece.

With this line: "The doves spread their wings wide and bowed low", I felt that you should have added a reason for why the Doves bowed as well, because as it is it reads a little bit haphazardly.

I will review your previous piece as well because I still owe you some.

:cheers:

this is probably the best thing i have ever read from you. with that in mind more full crit in next post which will mostly just point to places that do not match up with the rest in voice, content, or that just plain tripped me up when i was reading through this.

let me know if you have any questions zackk, i really think you got something here.

:cheers:

*updated*

sorry for triple post.

Unfortunately I can't say much that hasn't already been said. To echo everyone else, it was a strange and entertaining read. I know I'm nitpicking here but it felt a little bit too much like "then this happened, and this happened, and etc...". The last stanza was great and just seemed to roll of the tongue nicely especially with the last line.

I'd have to agree with #1 Synth on a lot of the more technical aspects of the piece, he did a good job on ironing out the bits that could make it even better. There are lines in this that are just beautifully morbid that seem to tie everything together. The portions where the doves and the raven speak half in chirps and half in words are a nice touch. Upon a second and third read I'd have to say that I enjoyed more and more your word choice than I did the first time. The imagery besides the girl being mutilated the whole time, seemed rather plain at first but definitely more noticeable and powerful the more invested I became. Overall I did like it and its obscurity, sorry I couldn't give a better critique but like I said, everyone else here is pretty spot on. Thanks for your review of mine too, it was very in depth and helpful!

a lot of what synth said. i really liked the imagery, save for one little piece: the doves "dancing" across the room. i guess i'd prefer a more avian word. flew and flight are overused at this point, but i'm sure you could come up with others. also, you call the doves "beasts". what i think would really bring a heavy significance to that is if you called the raven something dissimilar - elegant, beautiful, lovely, et cetera. i certainly don't associate beasts with doves, and that kind of stood out to me as off, barring their transformation later.

finally, two little errors - one by one should be moved to after doves, and you can take the of away from off of.

but i liked this.

tl;dr

juuuust kidding, I'm already intrigued by the title and the first stanza (what a great opening!), but I will have to save this crit for when I'm more awake.

I WILL get back to it though.

I think the introduction was the strongest part of the piece, so visceral and violent I could really picture this gruesome image.

"The fourth bird burst forth" is a bit of a tongue-twister, it's an awkward combination of sounds that I would recommend changing.

I think the onomatopeia, tip-terp is a bit too humorous for the rather dark tone of this piece. also, I don't think it's even neccessary. we know they're birds, you don't need to show them actually chirping.

wasn't a big fan of the exclamation point at the end of the line, "and her mouth ripped open!" but that might just be personal preference, though I think it might have the same effect as the afore-mentioned onomatopeia above.

I almost wanted you to end it on the second to last stanza, it really brought back the violence of the beginning in a nice circle.

all in all, dramatic, dark and just the right touch of the macabre. I appreciate your subject matter.

Sorry for not doing this sooner, been a bit busy. Anyway, that first stanza was incredible. There's not much I can say really that hasn't been said. The violent, unpredictable imagery. Classiness that the birds gave off (bowing even after the gruesome event) They were also the only character that gave an indication of speech and I enjoyed the fact that you didn't use the doves for any of the generic uses of it like peace etc, they were just monstrous. Favorite stanza is the last, it seemed to sum up the piece really well. That's all I can say about this piece, nothing I would change here but the bit in bold didn't feel right for some reason.

Edited.

Thank you all for taking the time to read. It was very hard for me to edit this originally (I wrote it all in one sitting with this vision dancing through my head), I just couldn't find any ways to say it differently because it was such a clear vision in my head.

If you would like me to re-pay you, please get me a link. Also, any thoughts on the edit would be lovely. I'd like to get this one to a finished state.

:cheers:

From reading the version Dylan quoted in his post, I really think this was tastefully edited. Daemonica comes to mind, if you remember that dude. This scene is beautiful and terrifying and mysterious all at once, and that's all I have to really say about it. For two minutes, it captured me completely. I'm sorry I don't have anything useful to say, I just like it too much. I'll give you more constructive feedback when you post something that allows me to do so.

:cheers:

I loved it. One of your most consistently well written pieces and very interesting. I entered the world pretty fully, and maybe that's why I'm having trouble letting go of the void rising to the sky because that feels cataclysmic beyond the girl's story--like it might be trying to be too big at that point, and I have no idea what the void rising to the sky means. But I can't say I don't like it. It does make me have to "suspend disbelief" in a very conscious way and that makes me less enthused about where I'm left off, so maybe there's space for either a bigger ending (a broad stroke isn't something to fear here) or a smaller one. I think you are caught strung between the apocalypse, the bird going on and doing more dark, if cleansing, things (which could also be apocalyptic), and the bird disappearing quietly. If you picked one, or didn't imply any of them at all, I think it would be stronger. I hope that makes sense.

Regardless,