Baubles and Broomsticks

Baubles and Broomsticks by Morgan O' Friel

Summary: Baubles and Broomsticks is about Mary Stevens, a mutant living with her brothers. Through crazy events, she comes in contact with many different mutants, some good and some bad. She uses her powers to help the authorities track other mutants.

Likes: I wasn’t expecting this to be in script form either and when I do see movie scripts, I’m always turned off because most of the scripts I do happen to come across have nothing but lists of what is going on and unreadable dialogue. And they have an insane amount of things to read. Thankfully, this isn’t that type of story. Even though there are a lot of pages to read, it wasn’t hard to get through because the story and the characters are engaging. I find myself waiting for the next chapter each month and the posting schedule is unique, posting on every full moon. The story is straight to the point and is entertaining because of it. I’m still curious to see where the story is going. I don’t really have any complaints. The story is a little bit campy at times, but does not detract from the story. It reads like a television show, which I believe was the author's intent. It reminds me of Heroes and X-Men combined together and made for primetime television.

Dislikes: I still have no idea what exactly Mary's power is as well as her brothers. Mary's brothers, Greg and Brian, do have powers but they never come into play in the stories. The character sketches are nice and well written, but it doesn't give me any idea of their abilities. The characters don't use their abilities enough for me to remember what they do. I'm not really feeling the dream casting, alot of the characters are played by stock photos which for me, defeats the purpose of the dream casting anyway. Many of the characters seem miscast to me. I don't really see America Ferrera being Mary and many of the principle characters, like I mentioned before, were played by stock photos. At any rate, I don't really imagine the characters as who they are supposed to be, I just imagine them my own way. A part of me wishes that the characters weren't given pictures and instead just descriptions of eye color and hair color. The character sketches are really awesome though, I'm inspired by them and I like the concept.

Overall: I enjoy reading this web serial. I find myself eagerly waiting their updates. I like the idea of posting every full moon, but the lack of updates leaves me a bit restless and impatient. I recommend this serial for anyone who is looking for something different from your average web serial. The script format is really daunting, but the story draws the reader in and doesn't allow for the prose to get overblown with description. It's concise and straight to the point which as a reader, I admire and enjoy.