Genre: supernatural horror

TITLE: The X Game


GENRE: supernatural horror


OVERVIEW


It was a pleasure to read your novel, The X Game. The title itself evokes a sense of play and
mystery-What is the X? And what kind of game is it?


In critiquing your novel, I read it first as a reader, then again as an editor. Although you will find occasional comments inserted in bubbles in the electronic manuscript, the majority of my feedback is summarized here in this critique. I will close this critique with my editorial recommendations and final words.


This has all the elements of a classic horror story. From the beginning, the main character, a leader of a mysterious order, turns off the security system inside the manor, immediately cueing the reader that the protagonist is about to do something clandestine. There is an underground tunnel and secret doors, and rumors of frightful things inside the forest. By the end of the prologue, it is clear from the tropes you use that this is a horror story with Gothic elements, and that from this point on, things are only going to get worse — in a delicious, thrilling way.


You wisely start in the middle of the action and propel the protagonist — and the reader into the unknown, which we know is going to be dangerous. There are encounters — with a mysterious creature and an attack by wolves — that keep the action going and the reader reading — all good.


After Egri is rescued by Jordan (perhaps too conveniently?) and taken to the manor, he is contronted by a stranger — Marlo — who is the one who summoned him in the first place. What Egri does not know, but we readers know, is that Marlo is not a normal human being. In fact, he too is a supernatural creature, possibly a vampire. In other words, the protagonist is not really safe nor is he in an ordinary place, but rather he has entered an extraordinary world, and that as much as he wishes to turn back, it is too late.


Overall, the plot is unfolding naturally — or perhaps I should say, classically. The danger in taking this approach is that a sophisticated reader of horror is not going to find much here that is fresh and new in the way of storytelling. But if it is an ordinary horror story that you are hoping to provide, then i think that is what you have here.


Referance
1) The English literature published in 1998
www.English literatire.com