Response to Laurel Kostakis

This story is about a disillusioned young girl who believes she is more popular than the really is. The story is mostly a character sketch about the girl. We learn that she has abandoned her old friends and studious behavior after starting college. Once in college the girl began viewing herself as overly pretty and well loved by everyone. The reality was that everyone for the most part disliked her. The girl changes herself perception after being led on and lied to about a male neighbor joining her for dinner. She calls up her old best friend and starts back towards being her old self.

                I enjoyed the comedic aspect of this story. The writer did a really good job at clueing in the reader to things the main character was oblivious to which kept the story funny throughout.

                The point of view was third person fallowing a main character who was clueless. This was a good choice for the story especially because we were clued in on the main characters thoughts by the little thought bubbles that were frequently given to us.

                This story had good characterization for its main characters. The reader could learn a lot about the main character just by her reactions to the people around her and her observations. The story never straight up told us she was disliked but it was easy to earn that information as the reader. The only problem is the main character is not very likeable.

                The story’s development was slow and steady, adding more and more pressure to the disillusioned girl until she finally broke down and decided to change.

                The pacing of the story was well done because it starts with enough action to keep you interested and then goes through a lot of background exposition that added to the character then back to more action.

                This story lacks imagery and I think the story would be greatly improved if the setting was described in a more poetic manner.

                The dialogue in this story is fairly limited but that works for this story. This story is all about being stuck inside the main characters head so the dialogue is less necessary. The main characters reaction to things is what really makes this story work.

                The story opens with action and ends with a slightly abrupt change of the character. The change is important and it could work well as long as it doesn’t come so abruptly. But other than that it was a fun story.