My 'Review' for Elude

We make plans in life. We work hard to ensure those plans can work.
Sometimes, life has other plans!

Aster made a decision in Reave. What do you want in life, and what are you willing to do to have it?
She didn’t realize at the time that ‘stepping into another world/life’ wasn’t some far-off moment that would occur later.
She’d already been there. She simply hadn’t known as much. And life isn’t a set moment that stays in place.

The world she’s always lived in is a hard place, an at times brutal one.

Elude is, in essence, about what happens when you step away from where you’ve always been. When you’re faced with decisions you’re not accustomed to having to make. When you have to deal with the repercussions. When the ground shakes at every turn. Not knowing where to turn, if anywhere is safe.

"Sharks in the water, Reapers."
Elude is very much being thrown into water without knowing how to swim. Flailing, in ways. With sharks watching every move made, learning weaknesses, and sensing every drop of blood you spill (even the invisible bits).
It may not be the easiest book. I even at times so badly wished I could step in and say, “No, no! Just... NO.”
But people live their lives, walk their paths, and they (hopefully) find their footing. Sometimes, stepping onto unsteady ground? You can learn far more about life and yourself than you could had you remained on an easy path.
I hope you’ll stick with her while she tries to navigate her unsteadiness (in all the forms it comes). I might not have known at the time of writing how it would all work out, whether it would work out, whether she’d find her footing at all. But I’m so glad I kept writing.

Fun fact: There’s a character in this book who showed their face.
I IMMEDIATELY wrote them out! (No, no. You’re going to cause problems. Don’t want you here!) I started the scene over.
They wrote themselves back in!
It helped me learn a very important lesson about life.
People exist. Things happen. You just have to have some hope that things will work themselves out.
<3