Mutual Interest
By Spirit Shift
Word Count: ~51600.

So, I started a thread in the Sunset Shimmer group a little while back where people can exchange similar Sunset shimmer stories to review. And I chose Mutual Interest for the first one because the very basic premise is very similar to Dear Diary: Sunset Shimmer's Best Friend in that Sunset is lonely and the rest of the girls need to befriend her and show her the magic of friendship. It also features a lot of friendship, helping others, and Sunset being put through the ringer before things get better.

For this review I will start with the bad, then get to the good, then get to the really good parts of this story without spoilers.

Now, this was one of the authors first fics so starting off the grammar is pretty bad, and there are even some major character/plot issues. But Spirit Shift quickly improves, partially from the help of a series of editors but also through a lot of hard work. By the 4th chapter it becomes an easy read and it stays that way throughout the 50,000+ word count. It's kind of fascinating how the writing improves because I went from constantly being pulled out of the story in the first two chapter to not wanting to put the story down for other 16. In fact, for the rest of the review, wherein I explain how I fell in love with this story, just know that I am not including these comments for the first two chapters.

Spirit Shift manages to get in a few good jokes, even one about Snickers and I don't like Snickers. He also manages to make the reader care about all the non-antagonists. You can really feel Sunset, Rarity, Coco, Rainbow, all the supporting characters, and even a lot of the side and background characters manage to elicit a lot of feelings. This is because the writing style is fairly simple and doesn't waste words with overly long explanations, but it's also because every character manages to sound both unique and natural. All the characters have their own voice and I think I might have to go and read some of Spirit Shifts later stories just because I now expect really good characterization, and probably a lot of grammatical improvements.

The story is long, but it's not words, it's not overly deep, it doesn't try to trick you and has just the right amount of hints and foreshadowing. There are even a few good dream sequences, which tend to be hard to pull off but keeping it simple and doing it well really worked and allowed the author to play with some metaphors that would have been too obscure to work in otherwise.

But the thing that really stands out was the psychology behind the characters. As someone with a degree in psychology I take great offense to even some of the best stories on this site and only about %20 () of the stories I read really pass muster with me when it comes to characterization when you add in psychology. I even overthink my own stories and have a tendency to drive myself crazy. But in this story it's all pretty spot on. All the characters have their own motivations and their own way to go about obtaining their motives. They all have their own personal obstacles to overcome. Everything is explained well. And though there were a few points where I thought Spirit Shift was going to drop the ball he always seems to pull it back and put a smile on my face.

I can honestly say that I laughed, I cried, I scooted to the edge of my seat on occasionally called out curses as I yelled at the characters not to do something that they absolutely had to do because they were true to their character.

I think Spirit Shift has a lot of potential. I think this story is good. I think that if anything the last actual chapter (not the bonus chapters which I didn't read) could have been a bit better but the story really concluded the chapter before and he was just wrapping up loose ends.

I also think the author should re-write the first two chapters, maybe look at the third, but if that happens and he goes over a few edits I could see this story being featured and reviewed highly by reviewers and groups with far more clout than me.

Mutual Interest is a good story. It's just a shame that the beginning is a bit of a slog but there are by and far stories worse than those chapters that have far more views.

Give Mutual Interest a try. By the end you will have some fond memories or wit and woe.

Now, this was one of the authors first fics so starting off the grammar is pretty bad, and there are even some major character/plot issues.

It's true! I was a failure! A lowly pile of manure whose horse words were nothing but the shameful result of lack of proper planning and forethought! Oh what Harmony Charmer must have thought of me back then.

I think that if anything the last actual chapter (not the bonus chapters which I didn't read) could have been a bit better but the story really concluded the chapter before and he was just wrapping up loose ends

Funny thing is that I actually thought the same thing as I was writing the last chapter. It's just that I didn't want the planning and loose ends to go to waste.

All the characters have their own voice and I think I might have to go and read some of Spirit Shifts later stories just because I now expect really good characterization, and probably a lot of grammatical improvements.

Oh no, my worst fear! Raised Expectations! I recommend No Game No Life, and MI's sequal Sunset Helpers And if you prefer story and characterization over grammar then My Kingdom Hearts's story is also a fun read. Read Nothing Else

In all seriousness though, I'm very sorry that I haven't gotten to respond to this sooner. I've been really busy with a pen and sketch pad. I wanted to give you my sincere thanks for this incredibly helpful review and even more helpful advice. I've also read your story and have put together a review for you to read as well. I'll post the full one to the group now and my the truncated/spoiler free one to my blog later. It being the middle of the night and all, no one would see it and check out your story.