Review by TerryLarka
Reposting my review from GW:
I’m always impressed when a writer makes the simplest descriptions so captivating. The first few paragraphs of this story were that. I loved the way you described Jade’s room and the clothes she wore, the prose carrying the imagery and making it so impactful in the process despite being relatively unimportant to the story as a whole. It also did a great job of setting up Jade’s (and eventually Cass’) vibe.
Getting into the actual size stuff, I love Jade and Cass’ dynamic. Guilt-ridden giantesses are always so interesting to me, how their emotional weakness contrasts so heavily with their physical supremacy, and pairing that with an uncaring sadist strengthens both of their characteristics tremendously. A part that really emphasized this was their different reactions to seeing the buildings crumble. Jade saw a tower falling and was reminded of footage of terrorist attacks; Cass viewed the reactiveness like detailed animations in a video game. Not only are those both really evocative visuals thanks to how relatable that imagery is (I’ve played video games and seen news footage of terrorist attacks), but it’s a subtle way of showing how the two women see the world (specifically this tiny world on their coffee table) differently.
The casual domination was the star of the show. Stuff like dropping a pop tart crumb, or merely bumping the table had such a profound impact on the tinies despite being nothing to the punk girls. And Cass tossing the sock was the greatest powerplay of them all. “The softest goddamn apocalypse they could’ve gotten” is the perfect way of putting it. To think something so soft and lightweight could bury people alive, suffocate them, it’s casual interactions like that I find so invigorating with such extreme size diff scenarios. I love how we didn’t get any major destruction in this opening act; no foot stomps flattening blocks or gigantic asses eclipsing the horizon. Because as much as I normally love that stuff (and wouldn’t be opposed to seeing it in the future), you really let the small stuff shine here, and it makes visuals like the little embers from Cass’ blunt setting whole buildings on fire all the more impactful.
The SOS message was such a strong way to end the chapter. Up until this point, the tinies didn’t feel like people. As the girls said, they were more like insects simply reaction to whatever they did to them. But that moment where they are sending a signal for help shows their intelligence, shows their ability to communicate and understand, and it shows that Cass and Jade are extinguishing real lives with their simple curiosity. And that makes Jade’s guilt hit so much harder and Cass all the more a monster for ignoring (or rather, reveling in) their pleas.
Also, that Jesus/Just us line at the end went hard lol.
It sounds like you want to continue this story further, and that sounds good to me. I don’t know what directions you’d want to take it in, whether leaning more towards destruction or having them more actively worship the girls, and I have no idea how you plan to develop Cass and Jade’s characters and their dynamic, there being so many paths you can take them down. My only suggestion (if you’re looking for those, if not feel free to ignore) is that I think it’d be powerful to have a character among the tinies, someone whose perspective we can see through to get the other side of all this destruction and see what the girls look like to the tinies, because I think that would juxtapose really well with how weightless everything looks like from Jade and Cass’ perspective, and that would do wonders in driving Jade’s guilt home if we actually saw their suffering from one of their eyes.
But yeah, awesome story, especially since this sort of scenario isn’t my usual cup of tea. Keep up the good work!
[Repost over] I'm looking forward to future chapters!
First off, thank you for this review, and such an insightful and specific one at that! Your writing, in particular, is superb, so your critical opinion carries a lot of weight for me.
I'm so happy you and some other reviewers enjoyed the character descriptions and the way I set the scene. I think that's been a weakness in my writing style historically, so it's encouraging to hear that I seem to be improving in that area. I can already feel myself evading a lot of the pitfalls I fell into with my debut story, Larger Than Life. I have this community to thank for that. It feels to good going into a new story with a little more experience under my belt.
The fact that so many people appreciate the dynamic between Jade and Cass is very validating as well. Even though I wrote this I totally with the intention of it being a one-off, the more I ruminated on it, I came to the same conclusion as you: there were so many paths forward got these characters. You may be pleased to hear I've considered some of the ideas you've put forth previously, and I'm going to include some of the city's perspective in the next chapter. I'm hesitant to say more as to not give anything significant away, but I think you'll like where I go from here.
Thanks again!