Solarite

Information

Status

Hiatus

Year

2021

Author

MarytheGorgon

• Chapter Twenty Three
  Apr 9, 2022
• Character Guide [CONTAINS SPOILERS]
  Mar 16, 2022
• Chapter Twenty Two
  Feb 4, 2022
• Chapter Twenty One
  Dec 18, 2021
• Solarite: Book One - Vol 1 Summary
  Nov 4, 2021
• Author Reflection: The Sexual Assault Scene In Ch19
  Oct 31, 2021
• Chapter Twenty
  Oct 31, 2021
• Chapter Nineteen
  Aug 29, 2021
• Chapter Eighteen
  Jul 20, 2021
• Chapter Seventeen
  May 31, 2021
• Chapter Sixteen
  May 18, 2021
• Chapter Fifteen
  May 6, 2021
• Chapter Fourteen
  May 1, 2021
• Chapter Thirteen
  Apr 25, 2021
• Chapter Twelve
  Apr 23, 2021
• Interlude
  Feb 8, 2022
• Chapter Eleven
  Apr 19, 2021
• Interlude: The Author's Reflection
  Apr 18, 2021
• Chapter Ten
  Apr 17, 2021
• Chapter Nine
  Apr 16, 2021

Reviews

Community Reviews(6)

• CookieCrumbleRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  If I hadn't been boggled with my schedule I'd read it until the end.
  But sadly I am, so here we are -- stopping at this milestone; a half-arc of what would happen.
  Solarite was a classic urban fantasy. Set in Everwood, we were following the story of Lea; who until the chapter 6 was some kind of mystical, newborn snakefolk. But while the casual reader might think that the revelation that the mundane world was not what it seemed as the central point of the plot, what actually moved, and I mean moved the story was the characters. It was brilliant really. How few placed words here and there could depict the emotional state of Lea and her family. Even by now, even when we just told from her perspective, I could feel within my heart the girl's anxiety and she trying her best. Her twin sisters; tired of it all, we have our own lives, but we also want to care -- a contradiction. Her mother; feeling of inadequacies, love and ready to do everything, but also a ...surrender. The fact that she gave up some aspect of household duties like a mirror of practicality. And of course the younger brothers who due to their age were still innocent.
  Story wise it was a slow burn; style wise it was multi POV. But don't let that deter you, prospective readers, every characters had a distinct voice that was properly settled by the author's one. It was a continuous stream, giving mirror of expositions but still hold the mystery of what would be to the heart. There was almost no tell, only people living their life and the secret unfolding.
  Grammar was perfect beside several formatting problem (two enter between paragraph instead of one, and few of the indentation splitted the apostrophe (') with the succeeding words)
  In conclusion this story is underrated and if not for my schedule, I'd spend a day to binge the whole thing.
  ***
  Disclaimer: This review was created as part of the swap with the reviewer story (Tales of an Unlikely Wizard) in accordance with the Royalroad Rules regarding Review Sw
• CShadrockzRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Overall: The storyline is pleasant but with a dash of spookiness. It's right up my alley. The writer sets scenes well but a little more clarity is needed in certain parts since the scene setting interrupts the narration at points but it doesn't take away from the story at all, only a note. The spook level about what's going on to the main character and the world around her, including another character is intriguing and keeps the page turning.
  My favorite part is the Black Mamba side bars. Would love if more of those were weaved in.
  Style: I like this type of writing style. The narration has too much telling vs showing but I'm sure in future revisions, that will change more into a prose that lets the reader fill in blanks instead of the writer telling the reader what those blanks are. The slice of life writing style settles in well with the story but the POV switches can be jarring but that migh tbe the point of them.
  Grammar: Seems good to me. A few misspellings here and there but nothing that takes away from the story.
  Story: The story is good and the plot is overall, engaging. A few chapters fall flat but that's because the first few chapters deliver a storyline with punch so when the chapters don't move the plot as much or develop the characters as much as the previous one, it can be underwhelming. However, the writer has a wonderful stoyline developed and I think it's going to slowly turn into a wonderfully creepy fantasy.
  Character: The main character and the secondary character are developed well. They have their own voices, distinct and rounded. Would love to see even more fleshing out of their voices just because I like that personally but the writer has done a great job with them. The side characters are flat and don't serve a lot of purpose in the plot so would like to see them be more purposeful or used more upfront however I understand, to set the scene and tell us about the main character. There's a balance to it and the writer is on the right track.
• YAK EdgeRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Solarite tells the story of Lea, a 17-years old girl with mental issues living her life in a seemingly paradisaical suburbia somewhere in the US. And like with any other paradise (or suburbia for that matter), there are some snakes. So far, the story, besides setting up the characters and mystery, has done mainly two things: showing us Lea's everyday life in a town that is too idyllic to be true, and chronicling her struggles with her anxiety and other mental issues, and how it strains the relationships with others.
  The latter is done extremely well. Lea is a fascinating and charming, but also rather flawed character. Her struggles feel quite real. What also needs to be praised is the discrepancy between Lea's perception of the world thanks to her issues (especially her family) and the actual reality.
  The former part on the other hand, feels like too much. Establishing Lea's everyday life is important, but some scenes could be cut without the story losing much.
  Lea as stated is an interesting character. The side characters so far are lacking and mostly defined by their relationship with Lea. There is one other character who can stand on her own, but Momo's pov was sadly only half as interesting as Lea's.
  Grammar-wise, there's nothing to say here. It's good and does its job.
  The biggest issue was the style. Reading the story on my notebook actually hurt my eyes thanks to the font. I would really recommend that author would choose a bigger one. Besides that, the story is written in a distant style as if an omniscient narrator is simply narrating Lea's life. That is imo wasted potential as it creates a barrier between Lea and the reader, even though the inner life of Lea is of utmost importance, and she should be interesting enough to immerse into her (I'm not saying to change from third to first person, just to be clear).
  All in all, it's not a bad story. The highlight so far is definitely Lea's struggle with her mental issues and how she perceives the world.
• drifter265Royal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  So I thought your pace was good. It was very consistent. I felt everything was given a healthy amount of detail and that nothing was glossed over or went unexplored, which helped me understand the world and get absorbed.
  The plot started out slow, which I understand with trying to build her character and goals and day-to-day life. The card left at the end of chapter 1 was interesting and it was a relief given all that came before it in her day-to-day ordinary life.
  The following chapters followed the same pattern I saw. Lea going through her ordinary life that ended up surprising us with some reveal. I liked that. I felt that everything flowed well and that things definitely came together flawlessly. You really know what you’re doing and I didn’t feel any detail went wasted. Everything had a purpose.
  Onto the critical parts (and I don’t like saying negative things because it suggests changing big parts of what you have already written and can be a drag to even consider when taking criticism and trying to apply it — I think)
  My first thought is that there was lack of foreshadowing. Maybe I missed them if there were any? But I felt the surprises at the end could have been weaved into the plot more (if it did and I missed it, I’m sorry).
  Next, even though it was well written, I felt the ordinary parts of her life were a little over-written. I felt like instead of describing the details of her school, neighborhood, family and her cleaning (or the comic book store in chapter 4, or the therapy session in chapter 2) could have been condensed greatly, like maybe jump straight into what is interesting and unique to only YOUR world not the ORDINARY world. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s a case of showing and not telling and I feel you overused showing and really resisted trying to tell.
  You have great creativity. There was a wonderful blend between ordinary world and the new world (the known and mystery), but it could be better. I don’t think it was perfect. A lot of p
• BeatriceRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  I will not write a synopsis of the story as I feel that the introductory note on this page is already doing a much better job of this than I could.
  I found this story to be quite interesting, when it focused on what made it interesting (to me). As the author states, this is a YA story with slice of life elements mixed in with a supernatural plot and characters which for me were the main point that kept me very engaged. These parts are however kept apart by rather lengthy segments of following Lea, the protagonist, in her daily life: Coming home from school, cleaning up after her siblings, going shopping, attending a therapy session. These episodes are very detailed and written well, your enjoyment of it depends on how you view these kinds of elements.
  I personally found them to be somewhat detrimental to the pacing, as I was left mainly wanting for the supernatural side of things to take over again, though this expectation did lead me to be positively surprised when some of the slice of life in the end was shown to actually intersect with the bigger plot in very meaningful ways, so well done on that.
  With this out of the way, I am going to explain my grades of the work.
  Style: It feels very appropriate to the genre and tone the story wants to tell. Nothing felt too jarring to read, tone was held consistently and was over all very pleasant to read.
  Story: I nudged the story down a little solely out of personal preference, which I want to reiterate here. I very much enjoyed the supernatural/body horror side of things, and not as much the slice of life. If you happen to enjoy slice of life more than me, then you can easily bump this to a 4.5 for yourself. There is also the fact that at the time of writing, only six chapters have been released, so it is hard to make a more determined call on this yet.
  Grammar: I am not a grammar person, I add the grammar score because it is a requirement in order to give an advanced review. I am however not experienced or proficient eno
• Fiona FairRoyal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  This story has the potential to study elements of societal alienation, physical alienation, alienation of self, and transformation. This isn't a happy story. It's supposed to make you think and feel, but currently lacks the polish to reach that full potential.
  Story:
  The story is a teenage slice of life, dealing with feelings of alienation, combined with mystery/horror elements. The protagonist struggles with early health issues that kept her from integrating, being the middle child in a large family, and trying to feel heard among her family and friends. That alienation leaves her alone to handle a growing issue as a mysterious card leads to strange dreams and horrifying body changes.
  There are a lot of little consistency errors (does she live at home when it's not spring break if the bus ride is hours to school both ways? How did sports end up her best subject if she had severe dizziness issues for so long? How is she so popular if she's got social issues?). That broke immersion for me a lot and made it really hard to follow the purpose of the story. Even my summary there felt a bit like a guess as to themes.
  Style:
  There is a good mix of sentence structures and a broad vocabulary. However, the pacing is awkward. I think it's trying to be slow, to show the way the horror elements crept up on a relatively normal family, but then it leapt into a burst of horror stuff and then got slow again. A lot more time is spent on things that don't feel relevant.
  Part of that lack of relevance is that they stylistically talk about the main character rather than embody her. The story starts with "something bad will happen to this person" and distances you as a helpless observer of the action. I think I can see what they were going for with this, but it also felt passive and reduced engagement.
  Grammar:
  The grammar is mostly fine. There aren't many typos and the ones I spotted were minor. However, they left out commas between different clauses in sentences a lot, which reduced cl