Breach of Peace: Book Review

I just finished reading Breach of Peace, by Daniel Greene. Greene is a booktuber, and this is his first novel. I went in interested to see how he would implement his critiques in his own writing, especially because he is a first-time author, and because he has a lot of other writing planned down the line. This novella is a mixture of horror, investigative fiction, and fantasy, centered on the killing of a noble family.

Overall (No spoilers)

Overall, I the book was alright, though there were some first time author vibes. I want to specify that I am evaluating this book along the same lines of any other story; I'm not going to rate it according to my expectations of a booktuber book.

I liked the mystery that was built into it. I was interested from the beginning, and I liked seeing the characters piece together the evidence in real time. When the story tied itself to the rebellion, and you started to learn about the Empire, I immediately got the sense of a larger world and a whole lot of potential for a wider story (which, of course, is the point).

I thought the characters were well done. Granted, this is relative to the size of the story; they weren't the most fleshed out or interesting characters that I have read, but there is only so much that you can work with in such a short time. I thought Greene did a good job making the characters interact in a way that made them greater than the sum of their parts. Implicitly or explicitly, Greene understands that having interesting characters is not enough, but that the magic really comes from their interactions with one another.

Chapman was a funny character. I laughed at the "shits" comment, and Chapman's attitude regarding it. His relationship with Samuel was another standout, probably because their dynamics seemed to matter for some of the plot.

The pacing was good. Other than distractions in my real life, there was no reason to put the book down or question if the story was actually going anywhere.

Overall, I thought the prose was okay. I think it was about as good, or maybe a little better than Justin Little's novella. At the same time, I am evaluating this as a normal book, and so I will say that the prose did not stand out, at all, and there were a few clunky sentences here and there. But it wasn't a persistent problem, so I can't say that it is really bad or really good.

There is another thing that occurs to me. In the beginning, a room is described as having clean floors, though it is implied that a man with muddy shoes had crossed into the room. I don't know how this works, or if I missed something.

I remember Khlid's smoking habit, but I wish Greene delved a bit deeper into the psychology of the addiction. This is just a nitpick. I still really enjoyed how he had her basically realize, in retrospect, that she had lit a cigarette, showing just how engrained it was. Maybe a better way of communicating my criticism would be this: she should have thought about them more often later in the novella, even if she didn't successfully have time to light them.

These are just a scattering of thoughts. Because the book was small, this review is quite simple. I think I will leave it here.

Overall, the book was alright with a few first author vibes here and there. I will give it a 5/10.