Reedsy Discovery Review

Reedsy Overview

Reedsy’s a great platform for an author publishing independently wishing to use world-class professionals in their respective field of work. They have a marketplace for editors, designers, public relators, marketers, translators, and website builders. I’ve used their platform to find editing, design/formatting and publicity services twice, and found the platform intuitive and easy to use.

Reedsy Discovery was a new find for me after I re-published Once Bad Intentions. This is a marketplace specifically for book lovers like @kerrygetsliterary, who reviewed my book and gave me the lowest start rating I’ve received thus far, 3 star! Not ideal, however her profile was one of an avid reader who appreciates a varied range of book genres and styles of writing, so thought it was worth sharing what I learnt.

What I learnt

1) Perception of violence – It’s very difficult for some to see past the violence in assessing characters and their moral compass. For example Stephanie’s parents are highlighted for their abusive traits, acts of violence, and the impact those behaviours had on Stephanie and her siblings. Of course these behaviours were abhorrent and had a negative impact on our protagonist, Stephanie’s, life. They were a subset of their overarching behaviours though, as her father was also a provider and protector. A man of grit, principles and an honour that he would proudly die for. Her mother a devout Christian and utiliser of all the tools she has in her box to guide and direct her children, even if those tools surmounts to violence. So is it possible to see positive traits even if imbedded in negative traits?

2) Finding Your Inner Child’s Voice – Cheering on Stephanie gets easier for some, once she’s more adjusted, more aligned to civilised treatment of others. Cheering on Stephanie is an immediate affiliation for others who alongside the victim in the villain, see a loyal friend, a free and independent thinker navigating treacherous waters without a compass. All she had was an inner child’s voice competing with the chatter in her brain manifested from external factors she could not control as a preteen and teen. Although she becomes better skilled at accessing her inner child’s voice, and that for me is what’s worth celebrating, as some adults, irrespective of the neat and tidy pathway they have to exploring life, never get get to truly hear their inner voice throughout their entire life.

3) Music creates the scene – Throughout Once Bad Intentions there are musical references of its time and culture. Working-class black 90s London. A mouthful, I know, but it was that particular time working-class black Londoners from Caribbean descent were listening to Dancehall artists like Bounty Killer, Buju Bantun, and Shabba Ranks alongside hip-hop artists like Salt n Pepper, Biggie Smalls, Bone Thugs in Harmony as a means of cultural allegiance. When writing scenes like Stephanie, family and friends are bogling (a dancehall dance in the 90s) in her bedroom to Shabba Ranks’, Wicked Inna Bed, I can hear the vocals and drumbeats reverberating in my ears! So Kerry’s curiosity to imagine how my book would read alongside those tracks playing is exactly how I wrote it, with those songs playing, energising the scene the way it energised me as a child.

You can find the full Reedsy Discovery review here: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/once-bad-intentions-monique-campbell#review

And see Kerry, my reviewer, profile page here: https://reedsy.com/discovery/user/kerrygetsliterary