The Blade Itself
Scaffold example. Structure is real, words are not. Replace everything below with your own take, and set your own
ratingandverdictin the frontmatter above.
The short version
[Two to four paragraphs, spoiler-free. What the book is trying to do and whether it does it. Specific. “The prose dragged through act two” beats “some pacing issues”.]
What worked
[Name things. Scenes, lines, choices.]
What did not
[Publish this section even when the answer is “very little”. A reviewer who dislikes nothing recommends nothing.]
Spoilers from here
[Anything that would ruin it. Keeping this collapsed is what makes the page useful to people who have not read the book yet — which is most of your search traffic.]
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Tell me I'm wrong
Disagreements are the interesting part. Two ways to have one, both of which reach me directly:
No comment box, on purpose — it would mean either a tracking script or asking you to make an account. Neither is worth it. Find me on Bluesky instead.