Reviews For Writers by redick. Most reviews are for readers. These are For Writers looking for commentary on technique. Lauren Yero's Under This Forgetful Sky [Book] I saw the title and snatched it up with hesitation. Had I looked at the cover art, I would have passed on it thinking it was a mushy love story. The art doesn't fit and misleads. It kinda is a love story but not mushy soapy. It's a complicated love story for the characters. They're from completely different backgrounds and ideologies. Yero does a wonderful job of making this a tense relationship. The personalities conflict throughout. This isn't a will-they-or-won't-they but more of what's-going-to-happen-next. You don't really notice they're falling in love. The story progresses by alternating between the characters. Each First Person. Each with a delightful voice. Paz (girl) has more bitting gritty tone and complex sentence structure. Rumi (boy) more simplistic and laid back tone. There is no overlapping in time, it's a complete gear shift so the reader doesn't get bored. Sometimes overlapping and seeing things again from a different point-of-view works. It was unnecessary in this case. It's a "young" adult but there are no punches pulled and the themes are adult. Life, love, death. This isn't a "coming of age" story. It's a "you're young but you're in the shit so grow up" story. Fellows in the genre would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner. Maybe Ender's Game and Lord of the Flies Set in a post-apocalyptic future, somewhere. It turns out to be Chile but I had no clue where until the author's notes, which came at the end. I think a short author's notes in the beginning is better. The story behind the story, the impetus, can go at the end. A blurb that frames up the story can go up front. I think The King in Yellow's intro is a good example of how to do this. The Spanish was a problem for me. I think the French in The Bone Hacker is a better way to do it. Have the translation be presented inline or via response of characters. Just a minor point it wasn't too bad. One can have the same argument of A Clockwork Orange vs Dune on slang and lexicon. I had to watch the movie to figure out what Burgess was talking about. I breezed through Dune. Returning to setting. There is remarkably little description on the environment. Brilliantly done. Just a brief note of rumble or ruins. Everything was the character's thoughts, feelings and dialog. Great way to focus on the character instead of the place. Besides I built the whole world in my head. It was desert and flat, which Chile ain't. It is a move that works. Let the reader do the work and don't push imagery into their head.