Congratulations to the winners!

There will be three placement winners and one honorable mentions, so four overall winners. Due to frequent backouts, many categories have had and will have only one honorable mention. My apologies for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know, though I am not tolerating disrespect or hate.

Please read your review all the way through before asking questions since I sometimes take a while to explain, so your question may be answered by the time I finish up the review.

Next: I am working on best world and best trope.

Now that the contest is more than halfway complete, I am no longer allowing backouts.

These reviews may be shorter than average since grammar/spelling is more objective, so these reviews will be faster and more to the point.

Five categories left!

3rd Place

Canvas of Deception by EclipseNoir123

Review:

Let's start with the spelling. Throughout the narrative, the spelling is overall great and does a good job immersing readers in the narrative, so you're off to a strong start with solid spelling and no typos that were distracting or too noticeable that it took away from the text.

Moving into the general grammar, it's overall very good and does a good job keeping the reader immersed throughout their read. Dialogue tags are done correctly, punctuation is overall good aside from occasional editing errors I'll mention later, subject-verb agreement is done well, etc. The grammar is mostly really, really good, and I only have minor critiques, so good job! I'll leave the criticisms below.

This is a really small thing and not a big deal, but I suggest spelling out numbers between at least 1-9 if not 1-99. This is because when you use numbers like 9 or 12, it can look a lot less natural than nine or twelve. Spelling them out blends in more with the text and helps it flow better, if that makes sense.

There are occasional editing errors that aren't a big deal, like you'll have missing punctuation here and there.

I knew if I stayed with her any longer, I would do something I'd regret so I cleaned and clothed her and carried her back to her room (chap 15).

What I'd suggest: I knew if I stayed with her any longer, I would do something I'd regret, so I cleaned and clothed her and carried her back to her room.

Another example: I smiled walking towards him "Hey Ryan!" (chap 15)

What I'd suggest: I smiled, walking towards him. "Hey Ryan!"

So just a few occasional editing errors. Nothing too major or worth dwelling on too much, but still worth bringing to your attention.

The last thing I'll mention is I would suggest not using actions (smiled, laughed, etc.) as dialogue tags due to the very nature of what dialogue tags are. They tag dialogue, not people, so sometimes when you use things like "he smiled" as a tag, it can come off as the words themselves doing the smiling due to how tags are modifying said words. That's why most authors recommend sticking to the speaking verbs, like said, asked, whispered, shouted, etc. since they're less likely to create any awkward moments, and that's why I personally recommend avoiding them, especially since there are so many alternatives. For example, here are two alternatives where you can still keep the action:

He smiled. "Dialogue."

"Dialogue," he said with a smile.

So those are a couple ways to include the action but not use it as a tag. I hope that makes sense.

Overall, the grammar/spelling is very good throughout the entire narrative and is consistently done well. Other than very minor errors, I thought the grammar was great!

2nd Place

It's You by Jahools

Review:

I like to begin with spelling and then move into the rest of the review. The spelling throughout the narrative is very good and perfectly keeps the reader immersed. I didn't notice any typos, so if there were any, they were minor enough to go unnoticed by me. I think that's the most important part: not being noticeable. Typos and grammar errors happen to everyone, though I think it's nice when they're minor enough to go unnoticed, keeping the immersion up. So if there were any spelling errors, they went unnoticed by me.

Moving into the general grammar, it's great. Dialogue tags are done correctly, punctuation is good, capitalization is good, even the texting segments are good. Everything looks and feels great and keeps the immersion high, so I don't have much to say about it. When the grammar/spelling is good, there isn't much to say other than good job with it. I only have one critique I'll leave below.

Be careful with occasional excess words, like this from the very beginning: She was trilingual, in fact, speaking her native English as well as French, too. I didn't feel the "too" was needed since you already have "as well as," and based on context, we know French is the third in the trilingual part of her. "As well as" pretty much means "too," so it's almost like saying too twice. You might not even need the "in fact" since I notice you use in fact a few times throughout (and a second time right after the first time that I'm mentioning here). So maybe you could even shorten it to: She was trilingual, speaking her native English as well as French.

Otherwise, the grammar/spelling is very good throughout the entire story. Overall, the spelling/grammar does a great job keeping the reader grounded in what's going on. In a world where the majority of stories on Wattpad have many, many grammar errors, this story is very refreshing and has only nitpicks at best when it comes to the grammar, so you did a good job with this, and I wasn't surprised by this since your grammar/spelling has always been awesome.

1st Place

ZENITH NEXUS by ushijimasmeatrider

Review:

I like to start with spelling and then work my way into grammar since spelling is easier to judge. To begin with that, the spelling throughout the narrative is overall very good. I did not notice any spelling errors throughout, so if there were any, they were minor enough to go unnoticed. Spelling and grammar mistakes happen to everyone, so it's no big deal, though I did not notice any spelling errors here, which I think is the most important part (when it's unnoticeable even if it's there). So, overall, good job with the spelling!

Moving into the grammar, it's great throughout the book. The tense stays consistent, the dialogue tags are formatted correctly (which is one of the most common errors I see), the punctuation is solid, etc. When the grammar is good, there's not much to say about it other than you did good with it, so great job!

The only minor critique I have is there are occasional editing errors where there are small but inconsistent mistakes. What I mean by that is you may make small mistakes here and there, like a capitalization mistake, but it's not a consistent mistake. For example, from chapter 8, a little under halfway through the text, you spell Yuta as yuta. Like I said, no big deal and nothing that's going to break immersion, though still worth mentioning. Other than those minor editing errors, the grammar/spelling was solid.

Overall, the grammar/spelling is solid throughout the entire novel, lacking errors and creating immersion for the audience. It's consistently good, which is the most important thing. It starts good and ends good. In many novels, it's the opposite where I'll see the grammar start okay, but then it'll get far stronger as time goes on, but this book is consistent, which I appreciate. And, to be perfectly honest, it also makes judging significantly easier on me when I have a consistent sample to look at. So, all in all, you did a great job with this!

Honorable Mention

Red Ace by Kikibtsstan

Review:

I like to start with spelling, and then work my way through the other stuff. To begin, the spelling throughout the book is overall good, and there were few typos, and no distracting typos, which is the most important thing, so I have no criticisms for the spelling and thought it was overall great.

The overall grammar is pretty good throughout the narrative. There aren't too many errors, though there are a handful of consistent ones I will mention. Like I said, the spelling is good, dialogue tags are (mostly) done correctly, the spacing is good, etc. The two critiques I have have to do with punctuation and one thing related to dialogue tags. The tags themselves are done correctly, it's more what the tags are that I'll talk about.

However, let's talk about punctuation first. You have a tendency to use commas where you need to either place a semicolon, place a dash, remove the comma and shorten the sentence, and/or split the sentence. I'll provide three examples along with the chapter number below, and also a potential alternative.

Here they are:

"The man in extravagant grey attire stepped out, he inhaled" (chap 1). Alternative: The man in extravagant grey attire stepped out and inhaled. Alternative: As the man in extravagant grey attire stepped out, he inhaled.

"Reid stayed in bed for five hours, he dragged his foot to face the day" (chap 16). Alternative: Reid stayed in bed for five hours; he dragged his foot to face the day.

"A gloomy cloud hovered above his head, he was unmotivated to do anything" (chap 16). Alternative: A gloomy cloud hovered above his head; he was unmotivated to do anything. Alternative: A gloomy cloud hovered above his head—he was unmotivated to do anything.

So those are a few examples. The commas you placed were incorrect, and this is a somewhat frequent error. If you're ever unsure about when to use commas versus when to use semicolons, I suggest using grammar editing software like Grammarly or QuillBot to help identify those spots, though your grammar is still good, so I don't think you need to use them often. I'll include a comma and semicolon chart below as well.

The last thing I'll mention is I'd suggest not using actions (laughed, smiled, winked, etc.) as tags. It's a bit more grammatically sound to stick to the typical speaking words like said, asked, whispered, etc. This is because of what they're called: dialogue tags, not people tags. So when you have a tag like "he laughed," it can come off as the words laughing, not the people, since that's what the tag is supposed to be modifying. So that's why I'd suggest straying away from action tags, if that makes sense.

Overall, the spelling/grammar is good, and you don't have many consistent errors. Punctuation is the main thing, but the grammar is otherwise solid, so good job!

ALL REVIEWS:

Deja Vu by -saffronjo

Review:

Starting with spelling, the spelling throughout the novel is very good, and I don't think I noticed any typos. If there were any, they were minor enough to go completely unnoticed, which is the most important thing. Of course typos will slip through, it's natural and happens to everyone, but the fact that I didn't notice any shows that if there were any, they were minor at most, and that's what I think is important, so overall, great job with the spelling.

Throughout the narrative, the grammar is overall good. The capitalization is good, I didn't notice any spacing errors, the subject-verb agreement is good, etc. So that means I don't have too much in the way of critiques.

When it comes to critiques, let's start small, then mention the larger things. To start really small, I'd suggest spelling out numbers at least from 1-9, if not 1-99. Sometimes you do, other times you don't, so I'd just suggest a little more consistently. Like sometimes you'll have 7, and other times you'll have seven, so I'd recommend consistently spelling it as seven.

Moving into the larger stuff, there were some odd tags/dialogue structure throughout. Like this: "Look, what I have found!" a head with two pigtails finally emerged, one of the rubber bands were blue and the other one was red. Also: "Here, give me." she took the dandelion... (both examples from chap 1). I would suggest capitalizing both since they're not dialogue tags, they're actions. So: A head with two pigtails finally emerged... and She took the dandelion....

Lastly, there are occasional punctuation errors. For example: Beomgyu walked and walked, until he was standing right in front of Yeonjun's bed (chap 9). No comma is needed there due to the complex sentence structure, so you can remove the comma in front of "until." If you read it out loud first with the pause and then without it, you may notice that it flows stronger without it, too.

Overall, the grammar is good and does a good job immersing the reader into the scene. The grammar in particular is solid, and you overall did a good job with this. I only had a handful of critiques. This was a really tough decision, and this one was runner-up for placing, so I would like to give some votes to your book to appreciate your hard work.

The Group Project by LMFinn

Review:

I like to begin with the thing that's easiest to talk about: spelling. Throughout the story, the spelling is good. The typos are minimal if even present since I didn't notice any, which is good. That means if there are any, they were small enough to go unnoticed, which, in my opinion, is the most important part. Typos are natural and happen to everyone, though the important thing is that they aren't immersion-breaking, and that was not the case here, so you're off to a solid start.

Moving into the grammar itself, it's overall good. There were many things done right, like the spacing, the tense was consistent, there they're and their were done right, etc., so you did a good job with the grammar. I only have three critiques, and one of those three is small.

Starting small, I'd recommend spelling out numbers at least between 1-9, if not 1-99. This is because it looks more natural within the text. If you spell it as 7, it stands out, but as seven, it blends in and flows better within the text, if that makes sense. Most authors recommend spelling out at least 1-9, though I recommend 1-99.

Moving into the larger stuff, there were punctuation errors. For example, from chapter 5: He was about 30 feet away from me still piloting his drone, I tried whistling but he didn't seem to hear me. I had shortened the distance to around 10 feet but the savage was about 7 feet.

What I'd recommend: He was about thirty feet away from me, still piloting his drone. I tried whistling, but he didn't seem to hear me. I had shortened the distance to around ten feet, but the savage was about seven feet [away]. Did you mean to have seven feet away there? It sounds like that's what it was meant to have, so I included it just in case.

However, that aside, I made numerous punctuation changes. You often have a conjunction like and or but without a comma in front of it. You don't always need commas in front of those words, especially for things like compound predicate sentences (i.e.: He went to the store and bought lettuce), though you often do, so I suggest being careful when using conjunctions. If you're ever unsure about comma placement, I'd suggest using Grammarly to identify commas since Grammarly is pretty good with punctuation. It's definitely not the best for creative writing, but it does have punctuation down pretty well, in my experience.

The main error, though, is dialogue tags. Here's an example from chapter 9: "These freaky a/s screens are saying we have powers now, people always go crazy for power." I replied. Also from chapter 9: "That's possible," Jon said, nodding. "but they could just be investigating how diverse these powers could be."

Dialogue tags are inconsistent. Sometimes they're correct, other times they're incorrect. In those two examples, they're incorrect. For the first one, you need a comma instead of a period/full stop. So "...for power," I replied. Whenever you are using a tag, you can end the dialogue with anything other than a period/full stop. On the opposite end, when not using a tag, you can end the dialogue in anything other than a comma. So there were many times you ended dialogue with a period/full stop but were using a tag, like "Hi." he said. It should be: "Hi," he said.

For the second one, you started off correct with the comma and Jon said after it, but the problem is you have a period/full stop after "nodding" when you're trying to connect the dialogue. So it either needs to be: "That's possible," Jon said, nodding, "but they could..." or "That's possible," John said, nodding. "But they could...". Either one is fine, but if you're trying to connect it, it needs to be a comma and lowercase. If you're trying to split it up, it needs to have a full stop/period and be capitalized. I hope that makes sense.

Overall, the grammar/spelling throughout the narrative is good and does a good job keeping the reader immersed. I didn't notice any typos, and the grammar had many strong points. There were a few errors, mostly the dialogue tags and some punctuation errors, though the grammar was all in all good.

MY ONLY VALENTINE by Theinfinitesea

Review:

I like to start with spelling since it's the easiest thing to cover. The spelling throughout this book is overall okay with only occasional errors, like the February 11th chapter spells forever as for ever. Forever is a compound word, so that means that in this case, it needs to be spelled as forever, not for ever. So, like I said, only occasional spelling errors, but overall good spelling.

As for the grammar, like the spelling, it's overall okay, it could just use some tweaks. Before I get into that, I'll highlight the strengths of the grammar. For starters, the tense is consistently in past tense, which is good. Tense issues are the most common errors I see, so you did a good job with that. The sentences start in interesting ways and don't fall into repetitive patterns, meaning you're experimenting with how you start and end your sentences. That's yet another good thing. So the grammar has many strengths, I just have a few recommendations to help smoothen it a bit more that I'll leave below.

The main issue that got distracting at times was the capitalization being inconsistent. For example, sometimes Jk is spelled as jk, other times it's spelled as JK, and other times it's spelled as Jk, so I'd suggest a bit more consistency with how you're capitalizing it. The same applies to some other lines where the capitalization was incorrect. I'll give a few examples below.

My Dearest kookie...

The day God called me home and took me away from you, Was the day my world had changed, literally!

Yes, The teddy I am sending...

What I'd recommend:

My dearest Kookie...

The day God called me home and took me away from you was the day my world had changed—literally!

Yes, the teddy I am sending...

I tweaked the punctuation for the second one, too, since there were punctuation errors. However, that aside, the main thing is the capitalization, and I tweaked it so the proper words were lowercase and capitalized. I hope that makes sense!

The last thing I'll mention is be careful with putting too many words in sentences. For example:

You have got the arms I want to be wrapped in,

You have got the eyes I want to get lost in,

You have got the smile I can never resist...

In my opinion, I don't think you need "got" in those sentences and can reduce it to "have" to help with flow. If you read those sentences out loud first with the "have got" and then with "have," I think you'll notice it flows far smoother without the "got" and still makes grammatical sense. I hope that makes sense, too.

Overall, the spelling/grammar throughout the story does a solid job keeping the reader invested in what's going on, and I only recommend a few tweaks to help it flow even stronger. I hope all my suggestions were helpful.

Melodies of Love by Amerlin2608

Review:

I like to start with spelling since it's the easiest thing to judge. The spelling throughout the short is overall good aside from occasional errors, like "heard" is spelled as "heart" in the sentence "But then, he heart a snort" about a little over halfway through the chapter. So the spelling is overall good aside from small things like that.

When it comes to the grammar, it's overall okay and works for the short. For example, commas are overall placed pretty well aside from occasional small errors, which is good since I corrected a lot of punctuation mistakes in this category, so you have an advantage there. There are a few other things you do correctly, like formatting introductory clauses, which is another common error I see that you don't have here, which, again, gives you an advantage. So there are quite a few things that are good about the grammar, though I have a few suggestions I'll leave below.

The main error is dialogue. Tags are done incorrectly. For example: "What took you so long?" She asked. And: "Amma prepared it for Janmashtami." He said.

What they should be: "What took you so long?" she asked.

And: "Amma prepared it for Janmashtami," he said.

Dialogue tags are always lowercase unless they are proper nouns, like Kaushik. But he/she should always be lowercase, even when the dialogue ends with ? or !. Along with that, when using a dialogue tag, you can end the dialogue in anything other than a period/full stop, so the period/full stop after Janmashtami was incorrect in the second example. I hope that makes sense.

While on the topic of dialogue, I have another small suggestion. This happens in the narrative: "Haha, I just wanted to talk to you, is all. I missed you." Kaushik said while taking her hands in his. Divya gasped and exclaimed, "We talked to each other in the morning assembly, right? You miss me already?"

I'd suggest splitting this up so it's easier to read, so like this:

"Haha, I just wanted to talk to you, is all. I missed you." Kaushik said while taking her hands in his.

Divya gasped and exclaimed, "We talked to each other in the morning assembly, right? You miss me already?"

It just makes it easier to read and easier on the audience. That's a small thing, but still worth mentioning.

I have just a couple of small recommendations before we wrap up. One, I'd recommend using less exclamation marks in standard description, like Kaushik just turned his face away from her! This happens quite a few times throughout the text, and I'd recommend downsizing on them. The more you use !, the less emphasis and impact it has later on, not to mention ! is normally unnecessary telling over showing, so that's why most authors recommend using ! sparingly.

The second thing is some sentences sounded a bit awkward, like He tried to tell her something but words didn't get built in his mouth. What I'd recommend: He tried to tell her something, but words didn't form in his mouth. I'd recommend reading sentences out loud and/or plugging the text into a TTS generator to have the story read back to you. I personally use text-to-speech to edit, and it's helped me a lot. If you Google TTS generator, I'm sure a bunch of them will pop up. Reading out loud/hearing the words out loud massively helps with hearing if anything sounds awkward in a way that reading in your head can't identify as well, so that's why I recommend it.

Overall, the grammar/spelling throughout the short story is all in all okay, it could just use some tweaks to the dialogue in particular to help make it flow even stronger. I hope all of my suggestions made sense!

Bougainvillea by KanhaiyakiSakhi9112

Review:

I like to begin with spelling since it's the easiest thing to judge. When it comes to the spelling throughout the narrative, it's pretty good. I don't think I noticed any spelling errors, which is good since that means if there were any typos, they were small enough to be unnoticeable, so good job with that!

Moving into the general grammar, I'm very impressed. I've read many of your works before throughout this past almost year I believe, and this is definitely your best in terms of grammar/spelling. You've improved a lot, and I really want to commend you for that since it can be super difficult to improve grammar, especially in such a short period. So really, good job. I don't even have many critiques since you've improved many of the errors I've spoken about in the past, and you're doing a really good job. The tense is consistent, dialogue tags are done correctly aside from one thing I'll mention, capitalization is solid, etc.

As for critiques, there are errors throughout the text when it comes to punctuation. For example, from chapter two: With sudden energy he ran down stairs and came back with same enthusiasm and jumped upon the sofa, to read:

Consider: With sudden energy, he ran downstairs with the same enthusiasm and jumped on the sofa to read.

I think the colon at the end is fine too based on the context, I just switched it to a period/full stop to show the end of the sentence since I'm isolating it here. But anywho, the main thing to notice is the comma tweaks and how I shortened the sentence to make it more natural. However, that's just one alternative, and I encourage you to play around with it.

Another thing is I'd recommend using less dialogue tags, and also not using actions (like gasped, growled, laughed, smiled, etc.) as tags. I'd recommend the 50-30 advice of dialogue for you. It doesn't work for everyone, but it does help with practicing downsizing on tags (since using too many tags can become distracting and take away emotion from the actual dialogue). This advice states that of your dialogue, 50% or less should have tags, and of that 50%, 30% or more should be said or asked. As for actions as tags, since they're called dialogue tags and not people tags, it can come off as awkward when you're using she gasped or something similar as a tag. It can almost come off as the words smiling, gasping, laughing, etc. when you use an action tag, so that's why most authors advise against using them. Here are two alternatives where you can keep the action without making it a tag:

She gasped. "Dialogue."

"Dialogue," she said with a gasp.

So those are two alternatives, but I encourage you to play around with it!

Lastly, you have occasional spacing errors where you space out things unnecessarily. For example, from chapter 5, "Through expulsion, " they guessed.... See the extra space? I normally wouldn't point this out since it's minor, though it does happen quite a few times throughout the five chapters, which is why I'm pointing it out. So the corrected form would be: "Through expulsion," they guessed....

Overall, the spelling/grammar throughout the narrative is good. I didn't notice any typos, meaning if there were any, they were minor. The grammar has improved quite a bit from previous works and is all in all good throughout. Other than a few critiques, I think you did a good job!