I never expected the hardest days to be the ones where I wear a skirt

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

When you have every direction possible to choose from, you might end up stuck in the middle…

Meet Zach Brooks, a normal teenager living in a normal town, set to have the summer of a lifetime ...Or he was, until his best friend moved to another state. Left with nothing to do, he spends his time watching movies and trying to keep entertained. Lost in a spiral of film and explicit boredom, he by chance discovers a foreign tv show, brought there by the new exchange student who works at the video store.Little does he know that this bootleg tape will start the summer of a lifetime…Though is this what he wanted?

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Koektrommel

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 19
Views: 23,658

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(6)

RirieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is full of pop culture references galore and so it may be best appreciated by 80s aficionados, but the author provides enough context clues for people who did not live through the 80s (read: me) to comfortably read through.
The first few chapters are slow going and lean heavily on the quirkiness of the characters rather than any real plot development. However, the characters are indeed genuinely quirky and play off each other well enough to make even the shaggy dog subplots an enjoyable read, particularly when much of the humor relies on callbacks and brick jokes.
The author's narration style is the highlight of the story, with every character and their reactions to each other described with unconventional turns of phrase, zeroing in on often-strange details. Zach is presented as a likeable and somewhat bland loser protagonist and as of the current chapter (2.7) the author has thoroughly kept him there, which is refreshing for two reasons: first, the rest of the characters' casual dismissal of him is completely realistic and actually quite funny, and two, it's interesting to see where his character growth (if any) goes.
As mentioned by previous reviewers, both "skirt" and the "secret identity" category tag are yet to come into play, but the story stands as a solid slice-of-life to read in the meantime.
chuzzlecheeseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's still very early days as of this review (as far as I can tell) but from the author's prior story I had high hopes and this did not disappoint!
The pacing may be a little slow for some but I feel that it's going well considering how early it seems to be into the story. The detailing and variety of characters also makes up for this though, as it does very much feel like you are pulled into the world. The slow building helps amplify the sense that you are living the story as the characters are.
The author themselves is great with frequent updates and very consistent in attention to detail and their sheer creativity in the storylines. I'm excited to see where this goes next.
mightykkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Revised review:
I stand by my original review. This is really good writing and this sets this story above the usual RR crowd.
The characters are realized, believable and talk to each other. The dialog is also good and in line with characterization.
As of 3.1 the story is maintaining a slow but steady pace. Things are happening and finally we have the first mention of the skirt.
Original review:
The writing is really good. The narration & conversation flows smoothly. No complaints regarding the grammar either.
It's still early days, but the characters are well designed and believable.
The only complaint is that the pace is a little slow. At 6 chapters in, we get the first hint as to 'Karate' referenced in the chapter titles so far. No indication of the skirt, mentioned in the story title, as yet.
Still - given the quality of the writing, I am rating 4.5 stars and willingly wait for the plot to explain itself.
EtmnRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
First off, I want to say I don't read much of these types of stories. That aside, I think the writing in this is very easy to read although sometimes the flow feels a bit bumpy (don't ask me what I mean by that, it's just how it feels to me). The story is still in its early stages but from the synopsis and the chapters released so far, we can expect a coming of age story with perhaps some romance.
The good points of this story would be the writing, the variety of characters and how the pace is quite consistent (both in terms of its updates and the story progress).
Personally, it can feel a bit too slow for me but that again is probably because I don't read these types of stories much. I like how the author paints a picture of a town full of characters. The way they're introduced also doesn't feel like they just stuck summaries of them in either.
One point that made it a bit hard for me to read was how American the story is. This makes sense due to the setting but many times I felt a bit lost on how to interpret things due to my lack of knowledge. I wouldn't say this is a bad thing at all but it did make the reading process less smooth due to having to look things up. I'm sure those who are more familiar with American culture enjoyed the detail given to it in this story.
Best of luck with writing! As another reviewer mentioned, I look forward to when the 'skirt' shows up as well.
LazygirlnerdRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I am hesistant to write a review at this point as the story is not complete but so far this a good read. There were definitely some slow parts in the beginning which makes sense as it was character development. It seems to capture the feel of the mid 80s quite well. Between this and the previous story the writing is consistent and I am looking forward to how this develops.
koalaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
A slice of life story centered around Zach turning his life from dweeb to weeb an adventure some people might feel awfully familiar with.
the story starts a little clunky, where it tries to put as much setting and character description, with references to the 80s and sometimes unrealistic sounding dialogue. This smoothens out when the story progresses and becomes more plot focused with the setting and characters as the background. While Zach is the embodiment of teen awkwardness, at least Tara, Zachs little sister is badass enough being about that fantasy stuff, which ultimately shows that epic fantasy beats anime.
All in all pretty enjoyable read,