VINES

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Superhero team VINES has a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

It begins at 2am, and won’t end until Shawn gets over his cold…

Information

Status
Completed
Year
2022
Author
Mad Sadie

Tags

ACTIONSCI-FIPSYCHOLOGICALMULTIPLE LEAD CHARACTERSMYSTERYTIME LOOPSUPER HEROES

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
90
Views
10,539

Chapters(9 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(6)

  • Chaos JesterRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I always love Sadie's stories, but this one honestly takes the cake.
    Mixing great super heoes with a timeloop executed brilliantly, VINES is a mystery full of intrigue from the beginning, leaving readers clicking that next chapter button, eager to find out what's next.
    This is one of those stories I'll keeo coming back to, wondering why it is free to read online.
  • CrowsCrowCrowRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Overall:
    I love the concept of fantastic powers with drawbacks. Just about everyone in the story falls under this catagory, but special mention goes out to Shawn. It is almost OP at first glance but also really rough on him to use and that only hits harder once the fridgehorror really sets in of his ultimate fate.
    Style:
    Great style with the way each loop is set up. The risk for repetition was there but since we get to see the loop through the eyes of other characters it remains fresh and learn more in the process.
    Story:
    Great. I was hooked by the premise and the story never slows down. It knows exactly what tale it is trying to tell and every moment contributes to building the world, setting, situation, or characters.
    If I had any complaints it would be that there are scenes I really would have liked to see take place rather than step into the aftermath of.
    Grammar:
    Solid. Nothing stood out to me as incorrect.
    Character:
    Great characters who all get solid characterization within the first chapter of meeting them and remains consistent or expanded upon. I especially enjoyed Emmy as the youngest woobie on the team but all of them were great.
  • SoVegetableRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This is a short story that really delivers. What I really admire about it is that Shawn feels real. He reacts realistically, which makes the fact that he's in a time loop so interesting.
    He has the power to attain a perfect ending, he can theoretically spend an infinite amount of time to perfectly beat the plan built exclusively to torture him. But he doesn't have the inhuman mental fortitude to do it. He has to take an imperfect ending because he is an imperfect person.
    There was one thought that was brought up that stuck with me. Shawn's greatest fear is growing old and dying, but then being forced to live that last day for eternity due to his power. This is something completely unique that I hadn't even considered until now, and it's horrifying. It really shows that his power is both a blessing and a curse.
  • TienSwitchRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    VINES the story of the titular superhero team that, after a successful battle, returns to their headquarters which explodes and kills them. One of their members is stuck in a time loop, reliving the day over and over again in order to successfully prevent the deaths of the team and figure out the mystery of who's trying to kill them. And man, the events just get more and more unsettling as they unfold....
    The story is quite good, though with some flaws. It's a fairly quick read--I read it over the course of two days--and you'll quickly become engrossed by the mystery.
    Let's go over everything and check out what works in this story and what doesn't.
    STYLE
    I think the style is the weakest part of the story. That's partially because it doesn't play to my personal tastes, but I feel like what I'm saying is pretty justified here in terms of docking whatever points I'm docking.
    Most stuff about the team, their plans, their backstories, and the like are all part of narration. Two characters can be talking and the story stops to explain to us who X character is or what Y character once went through or why this law in the fictional universe exists.
    Personally, I never liked narration-heavy stories. I like to picture the events as a TV show or movie in my head, and stories which stop themselves so the narration can explain what's going on to the audience really stop the flow of everything. Of course, that's just a personal preference, so I wouldn't dock any points for that.
    The issue I really have though is that at some points, especially early on, the story seems rushed and disjointed. Not disjointed, I should say, but there seems to be a quick movement from Point A to Point B where the story seems to expect us to understand specific character quirks and relationships right away and then decides to give us the narrative exposition explaining them about a quarter of the way through. Meanwhile, the opening chapters seem to rush through everything as if they had somewhere to be
  • librarysmilesRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    What’s up, bud?!? I think VINES needs more than an encourage-mint! It's thyme you tried to read a VINES superhero story! Have you rose to the occasion? You grow, reader! Branch out! Search for the root of their problems! Even if it's unbeleafable, I'm still frond of this apeeling story.
  • PlotEmperorRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Relatively short story with very interesting premise. Characters are interesting and feel natural. Story flows really well. I did not notice any grammatical errors. Time loops are very difficult to write yet the author managed to do it. Not once was I bored, never felt like skipping/skimming over parts. I have to say that I enjoyed this story, and I can recommend it. Definitely worth a read.