The third title of SuperRead goes to Nafisa Benazir with her story Toxic: Leverage, Love and Crimes for her great combination of drama with a great sense of humor! Support this author by reading and recommending the story if you loved it as much as I did!
Original review
Cora is a
17 year old high school student with quite the complicated background already
for someone so young. Yet in spite of that, she is very independent and has
quite the sense of sarcastic humor. Because of circumstances at her parents’
house, she felt the need to find her own place to live, so she lives on her own
at 17. To pay for the rent, she works as a maid for Lennon, a young millionaire
with a twisted personality to say the least. When Cora doesn’t do as she is
told, this guy sexually abuses her. When she tries to run, he threatens to do
the same to her mom. Cora is trapped in his web. Will she be able to get out of
it?
I laughed
my ass off during some scenes of this story. I love the sense of humor in it
and though it’s rare that I don’t get disturbed by the appearance and
interference of the author in a story, I really didn’t this time around,
because it was just darn hilarious sometimes. The humor does make the story a
bit random at times, though. Which isn’t necessary a bad thing, but I’m not
sure if that’s want you intended this story to end up like. The background
story of the main character is rather strong and detailed and though she is
tough, she does carry the load of it with her, which is visible in episode 7
when she finally seems to let her feelings flow a bit by crying at the thought
of losing more people in her life. There are some things that I was wondering about
while reading the story, though. Let’s skip the mystery theatre from the
beginning, though, since I understood a lot of people already commented on the
first episode. Aside from that what I was confused about was episode 6: Cora
was about to go to class after having had breakfast with Dominic, then sees two
of her old friends from Russia, goes to the school cafeteria, where it suddenly
appears to be night (one of the girls Cora tried to dis said good night to her)
and Cora and her friends go to her place to eat (dinner then, I guess?). Other
than that, the sudden change in attitude of Lennon is kind of…mystifying to say
the least. Is he really bipolar?
**Author’s note on episode 6: Cora skipped her
lesson to be with her friends. The ‘good night’ in episode 6 was corrected.**
The
directing used in the story is pretty awesome. I love the creative use of
overlays especially in episode 7 with the hospital scene. Though that part
could still use some editing, since there still is a little part of the original
arm visible on the screen. But it’s well thought of (I haven’t had the need to
use this technique yet, but I was thinking about using it for future episodes
of my stories a while back too, lol. Still not quite there yet, though 😉).
Nevertheless,
I really enjoyed reading this savvy story. It’s random at times, but that makes
it more fun and enjoyable. I mean: why so serious, huh? Want to have a great
laugh in between dramatic events too? Read Toxic: Leverage, Love & Crime on
Episode and don’t forget to recommend it if you liked it!
Final Rankings
Originality
Third place. Comment: I know it’s a romantic drama, but really, it fits
the comedy genre very well too. I love the slightly ironic and sarcastic jokes
made in this story and seriously laughed my ass off at some of them. Choices
also have clear consequences in this story, though sometimes they’re just there
for the author to mess with you (which is pretty funny sometimes, but I’d
advise not to overdo it: it can also be rather annoying if a reader keeps
facing choices which don’t really give the reader a choice except saying ‘yes’
to a question in a bunch of different ways).
Directing
First place. Comment: I’m still loving the overlays of the seventh
episode a lot. But aside from those amazing tricks, I also just like the way
sounds, zooms, pauses and movements are well-implemented, logical and smooth.
Creativity
First place. Comment: The way this story is told is very creative,
switching between humorous storytelling and a more serious style. The use of
the bodypart-overlays in episode 7 was rather creative as well. And though not
eyeing as professional as Designers Runway’s coverart, I also like the coverart
of this story a lot.
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