Fic Review: The Mansion in the Woods · 5:41pm Jun 22nd, 2019
Okay…. Uh…. So.... Yeah. This was one of those stories that quite honestly, I found very difficult to review. Now. The Mansion in the Woods. Basically, the whole idea was thus. Create a Luigi’s Mansion style story, which in itself wasn’t a bad idea. Sadly… the execution was a bit lacking. Half the time I was struggling to grasp what the heck was going on. Please subsitute heck with a stronger word of your choice. I’m serious, it’s that bad. Somewhere along the way, and I can’t quite pin down where exactly, but the whole thing sorta went off the rails somewhere along the lines.
On one side of the equation -god, my math classes are getting to me, not sure if that’s a good or bad thing yet- you have a story trying to be a horror story. On the other side of things, you have a story trying to be a balls to the wall smart aleck comedy like something out of Total Drama maybe. Needless to say, the two rarely if ever mix. This isn’t one of those parodies. Both were trying to be equally serious in their respective genres. Meaning we don’t get a crack fic as we should have done, and instead, what we get is something that at times almost makes as much sense as End of Evangelion. Which is to say… not very much.
The problem lies in the two authors, and their clashing… well, I hesitate to say egos, so I’ll say clashing visions instead. Yeah, let’s go with that okay? Make no mistake, this is a story by both Vertigo, and King of Madness and it shows. Their two respective styles clash hugely with one another. So, in the end what we get is a Luigi’s Mansion style story trying too hard to be a horror fic, and a horror fic trying too hard to be a comedy. I cannot stress this enough. This entire fic was ruined by the story itself being impossible to decide on what it wanted to be.
Now, how would I suggest this story be made better? A complete rebuild from the ground up, that’s all I would have to say. Vertigo would be better off if he did things his way, and not tried so hard to make his style work directly in King of Madness’ own. I’m not sure who did the comedy, and who did the horror. Because I know Vertigo can do both, as he did plenty of crack fics, but he’s worked with me to deliver some astounding straight up horror. Look. There’s no beating around the bush here. In this current state? This fic… well, it’s an out and out mess.
Really, there’s only one way to rate this piece.
3/10
Ouch it has been a bit since you had this much trouble with a story. Hopefully the next review is for one you enjoyed!