May 8th, 2016 at 08:16pm
The layout for this is really simple, but elegant. I believe that it suits the story you are intending to portray here. As for your summary, I do think it's a tad wordy. It gives a little too much background on the characters that could be given in the story itself, but it does reel in the reader nonetheless, so it does its job!
Chapter One:
There is a huuuuuuge information dump right at the beginning, which is a little bit of a turn-off. There's just so much to read in big paragraphs without a lot of action going on that it's hard to stay focused. I'd recommend (at least in the future) spreading some of the information out as it becomes relevant to the story instead of putting it all in at once.
I do really like the little idiosyncrasies that you give to your characters. It really helps bring them to life! I'd recommend against too many small day-to-day details unless they are necessary, but they are fun to read, nonetheless. It really helps give your characters depth.
Also, you might want to check your paragraph spacing and re-read and edit because there are a few grammar mistakes as well.
Overall, though, this is a pretty good start to this story! Job well done!
The summary was quite a dump of information. While informative, I believe half of what you said could've been stated later on in the story or perhaps be given in a prologue of sorts. Long, informative summaries like this sometimes turn people off from the story itself. That's just me, though.
Chapter One
I feel like the comment about the narrator's father's voice was a tad unnecessary. It was just a completely random tidbit that didn't have a single thing to really do with the story.
Alright, so I'm about halfway done with this chapter, but I keep having to pause. There's so much information, and it's really difficult to keep up. Some of the things in this chapter could've been stated later on. Honestly, I like what you're doing with this, it's definitely a different take, but there's so much information that I have to take in.
I do like how the reader is introduced briefly to the Malfoys.
As I said, this is quite the information dump for a first chapter and it was really hard to get through all at once. I had to stop a few times because of it. There are also mistakes throughout the chapter, but nothing too bad. Still, I would suggest going through and looking over things.
I honestly do think you've got a great plot thought out, and I wish you the best of luck!