Inescapable Escapism

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Grace desires an escape. Anywhere to avoid the hardships that threaten to smother her. Equipped with her imagination, Grace creates other worlds to slip into whenever needed. Places where her home life is soon replaced with hunting for treasure, becoming a spy and endless adventures. But, when her dreams start to evolve and encroach on reality, Grace must fight to discover what's real and what is not.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2023
Author: AlexaLee

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 505
Views: 146,894

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

volcanicMoleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is not the first story of Alex's I've read. And it's not the first I've enjoyed reading either.
Grace is trapped in two worlds, her original works where she is at the mercy of her family and the Sterling world.
I really enjoy the way Alex manages to switch between the two worlds and makes it clear as to which one she's talking about. Especially in the later chapters where... Sorry but I don't want to spoil it for you but I hope you agree with me when you get that far!
EmEsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The title of my review says it all. This is an incredibly unique story that deviates from the general progression fantasy found on this site. The writing is beautiful and the story haunting in the undercurrent of sadness that flows through each and every sentence.
It's very engaging and will require a little time to get into but it is truly a beautiful tale of hardship and Grace's means of coping with said difficulty. It's sad and enlightening at the same time and you may find yourself relating to her at odd moments in the story.
Give it a try.
JR CastleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Daydreaming is something of a universal experience, so it's a bit surprising that I haven't really run into this idea before; what if daydreaming, but for real? I can therefore somehow recommend this story to anyone who enjoys both realist drama and fantastical action/adventure.
Story
Our protagonist, Grace, escapes her monotonous and often straightforwardly unpleasant reality by imagining herself in different worlds, surrounded by different people, doing much more interesting things. At first, it's a nice escape. Then, well, plot happens.
We have an interesting instance here where the A and B plots are simultaneously disconnected and intricately weaved together. In one, Grace lives out her normal school life and deals with a truly unfortunate home situation, while in the other, she's learning to be a genuine criminal treasure hunter under the tutilage of a caring father figure. The contrasts are clear, as Grace is clearly aware, and it's the problems of the former that incentivize her to seek out the fantasy of the latter.
I would say that it does take a little too long for the plot to really kick in, though. The beginning chapters read like slice-of-life, which isn't necessarily a problem, and the subtle foreshadowing throughout keeps things moving. But once I got to the point where it seems like the actual central conflict is coming forth, it immediately made me wish it had stepped in a bit sooner, and even now makes me look forward for when the story really steps all the way in and stays there.
Style
The first-person perspective is well done. In particular, I'd really praise the moments of transition between worlds. When the same character shifts from one reality to another as easily as this one does, I can see how writing those moments of fluid presence would get tough, and the language communicates the process very effectively. I was never confused about where Grace was, who she was surrounded by, what her circumstances were, etc. It sounds like a small thing,
Ser Patrick PentRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really need to expand my reading list. This is the kind of story I definitely want to see more of on the Road. As a beginner writer myself, Alexa Lee almost makes me feel ashamed of my level of incompetence, and I'll try to explain why.
Style: I love minimalist prose! But IE (Inescapable Escapism) does so in a way that isn't quite sparse. It gets the point across as succintly as possible, yet somehow manages to always delve deep into Grace's thoughts when the situation demands it. In essence, it is beautiful, and one of the best written stories I have read. You can see bits of this in the places where Grace narrates scenes from two different worlds at the same time, and honestly, if there was a 6 star rating, this section deserves it.
Story: Probably the only section I have any complaints about. There is a shadow of unease lurking somewhere in the story (no spoilers!), and it works in perfect juxtaposition with the cheery warmth Grace's adventures evoke. But I needed more of it. The story is well-paced, and something is always happening in every scene, but I would have loved for it to feature more frequent helpings of adrenaline. This is purely subjective, however, (well, duh) and I am sure many are happy with the pacing as is. Nevertheless, if anything should be improved on in the story, this is where the focus is.
Grammar: Excellent. Nothing else needs to be said.
Character: Grace is awesome. Few authors on RR have managed to create characters as fully fleshed out as Grace, and Alexa Lee is one of them. Honestly, Grace feels like a living, breathing person. I get frustrated when she gets frustrated, and I smile when she does too. Mitch is also pretty awesome. I love that he isn't one-dimensional, and I'm hoping we get to see more of the other characters as the story develops.
In All: There's a pretty fun character study tucked away in this soothing tale of a girl escaping her problems by way of her "vivid" imagination. Where do the lines between dreams and reali
cowllumiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is told in first person, past tense.
As of writing this review, I've read up 'til the end of the fifth chapter, and I'm going to give it a follow as soon as I'm done typing up this review! However, please keep my lack of progress in mind as I write this.
The general premise is that the main character seems to be able to daydream so hard that her daydreams become reality. Poof! So far, she can't taste anything in her daydreams, but it's unclear yet whether she can feel pain. She does seem to be able to feel the breeze, which leads me to believe she might be able to! Oh no!
The grammar and spelling is top-notch for something self-edited. I'm finding more typos than actual errors; it's nicely polished!
For me, this story's strong point is how well the character's voice comes across, and how well the author writes trauma. A particular example is how the main character slowly goes from 'my life isn't that bad' to 'my parents aren't giving me the love and attention I need' throughout the first few chapters.
When you're living the situation, it's often hard for you to accept how bad it is or was until you're out of it.
May the MC actually dream her way out of her situation. Onward and upward!
Benjamin ConnorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Hot, Damn.
Chapter 0ne, all it took. May come back and do a more Advanced review once I've read more. But here's to you Alexa Lee. You got real close to breaking my heart in the first chapter alone, and that, That honestly makes me jealous. I will admit to that.
You've clearly been doing this a long time, but if this is your opener, I can't wait to see how you end it, and I clearly have more to learn about writing.
I'll swing back around later and see what I can find then. But for now, I'm happy putting this up for the time being.
TealiciousTeaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
A quality work, psychological contemporary story drifts into 'fantasy'. I recommend it!
A plain style that drifts into a richer use of adjectives was appropriate for the story.
The heavy usage of internal narration lends a weighty introspective aspect. There is a significant amount of telling to flesh out the family dynamics and relationships. Descriptive usage of sensory information like "stink of cigarette smoke…" to give the reader a feel for how oppressive her home life is…
Minimal, but consistent and effective usage of adjectives. I think there is a difference between the amount used in 'reality' versus the 'dreams', with extra being added to the latter. A contrast to highlight the vividness and attractiveness of the fantasy.
There is perhaps room for improvement on more varied usage of verbs (but not too much) to pull away from the creeping reporting style where information is told. However, this is a minor food for thought. Selective usage of telling is useful, uncomplicated and far easier to write for longer running fiction.
The story so far is psychological, which is perhaps a given from someone who specialises in Psychology. I'll spoil nothing but to say it is well done.
The grammar is on point, from what I can tell (without doing an in-depth, line by line check).
Characters, of course, will have to develop but at the first glance, we learn enough about our main and her mother: their mental issues, life problems and daily habits. We also learn details about her dad through their dialogue and thoughts about him. It is strange but interesting to know someone via their impact on others, then from their immediate presence. It is well done.
MoonlightGardensRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It’s well-written, at least, and overall not a bad story. There’s some parts with long or confusing sentences, but they’re not too frequent. The opening slowly introduces important characters, but by my stopping point hasn't quite gotten to the action yet. Some portions I can’t help but wonder “Is this really going to be important later? And if it isn’t, why am I reading about it?” or if it could’ve been shown in a more interesting way. The mix of fantasy and reality is an interesting concept and the author switches between the two well. I’d recommend this story to anyone looking for something to read as it’s bound to be the start of a great adventure.
WhiteGringoRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
It felt like I was just waiting for something to happen. This is more of a series of short stories connected to a sort of meta-verse reality. You could pull any of them out and have a perfectly servicable story about Grace as a treasure hunter or Grace as a spy, or remove all that and its a YA story about a young teenager with a crappy homelife. I guess I was just looking for something different. Story was well written though and I enjoyed what I had read
Ozack 91Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
This review will most likely be updated latter as the plot seems to be taking its sweet time.
Ok where to begin?
The story is ok, the method of story telling is of a somewhat better quality than what you usually see on royal road. However besides that I don't see what the fuss is all about.
As far as I am concerned, this story is just one in a million. It's a good story with a distinct message which most stories written nowadays seem to forget. But with all this the story just seems like one a mother will cook up. It's not particularly entertaining, it was certainly not immersive for me and there is no significant drive to continue reading. That eagerness that you get, the insatiable curiosity that of what might happen next that a story should evoke is completely absent.
In essence it's a better time burner than most as you leave with something gained but besides that? I don't see this book as something I'll actively look forward to reading.