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295 Public Reviews Given
295 Total Reviews Given
Review Style
Still discovering it. I prefer to review only works that touch me in some way, or from writers I know want honest feedback to help improve their work, and I'm actually in a position to give it.
I'm good at...
Spotting grammar and mechanical errors... from a career as an English teacher. That said, there are those here who school me on intricacies I've never learnt about the language. Also better at reviewing stories than poetry, although it is exhausting to pick through a mistake-filled piece. I think I can give a fairly decent review on short stories, but I'm nowhere near the level of the best ones here.
Favorite Genres
Scifi, fantasy.
Least Favorite Genres
Non-fiction. Personal. Comedy.
Favorite Item Types
Static items & book entries containing stories and poems.
Least Favorite Item Types
None.
I will not review...
Haven't been asked to review something I regretted yet.
Public Reviews
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126
126
Review of THE HOME  
Review by Azrael Tseng
Rated: 18+ | (4.0)
Hi Wilcox,

thank you for reviewing my contest entry for Dialogue 500, and loving it! Haha. Every writer gets a boost when someone likes their work.

And I like yours! This is what I like about 'The Home':

i) Your use of the 1st-person perspective is matched perfectly by the ruminations and observations of your protagonist. The tone is delivered well through utterances like 'Hell!', as well as sentence fragments, that capture the feel of being in someone's head. (No one thinks in perfectly grammatical complete sentences, right?)

ii) There is a really good balance of description (of the surroundings, not just sights, but all five senses evoked), realistic dialogue, and sudden supernatural events that occur.

iii) The stylistic ending which references the beginning, suggesting a cycle. There's a lot conveyed here beyond the words themselves. You have nuance and atmosphere done well.

Here are certain parts that I found rough, and might make your work even better if reworked a little:

i) The inexplicable switches from present tense to past tense that occur throughout. The shift is particularly jarring between the 3rd and 4th paragraphs but only because that's where it first occurs. I know some writers do this for specific stylistic purposes, but when the shifts occur so often and randomly, I can't quite figure if the old man is relating a story that happened to him, or going through the events now with the reader.

ii) The first supernatural scene is halfway there to being scream/gasp-worthy in a movie theater. The suddenness is there, there is some sense of the unnerving sound of the voice, but maybe because I'm jaded from watching too many horror movies, but I'm not jumping, nor is my heart frozen with fear. For me, it needs just a little bit more, but that's just my two cents.

Thank you for an enjoyable read!
127
127
Review of So When  
Review by Azrael Tseng
Rated: E | (4.0)
I was impressed by the flow and resonance of this poem. The subtle contrast in the first line kind of reminded me of The Matrix, where we think we're free (and from some perspectives we do enjoy certain freedoms) but we're ultimately still trapped by our lifetime.
The personification of Time in line 6 also stands out for me. I liked how you showed its nonchalance towards our efforts to count it, mark it, or otherwise exert some measure of control or influence over it ('mocked by the tic and the toc').
Line 9 too resonated with me, especially since I expressed a similar view about how the present becomes the past constantly in this monologue
 Color Me Gonzo  (GC)
The Life & Rant of Hunter S. Thompson.
#2109961 by Azrael Tseng
just a few days ago (not quite as poetically expressed as yours, and it's not a cheap ploy to get you to read one of my writings. Just in case you felt inclined to).
There's nothing I'd change about this poem - I like it just the way it is.
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