Driftwood High Theater Club

There are certainly ups and downs to this story. I'll say my favorite thing was the narrator's voice. Little quips and thoughts poured into the story kept it interesting. The characters, however, weren't very fleshed out. I found myself losing track of who's who as another name would speak without much meaningful description or characterization attached.

There was a bit of humor here, and some nightmarish triggering of High school politics. I was fairly certain that Nadia was blowing the teacher in the closet to get her play considered. And I had to chuckle at the absurdity of (SPOILERS) people watching a play while they know students are being held prisoner in a barricaded closet. (/SPOILERS)

There are many nonsensical death endings, but some of them are quite humorous (SPOILERS):

One ending I got smacked in the face with an umbrella and the story ended. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for me to lose the storygame based on the choice I made, but it was extremely unexpected. Another time I got pushed down the stairs and killed for saying "I told you so" to an emo. Since "(I was) dead, (I didn't) get to experience" my wonderful funeral. I also died by having a pen thrown at my eye because I made fun of a guy for having his parents take him to school. (/SPOILERS)

But the best ending involved throwing your shoe at an audience member like what happened to George Bush that one time. Good stuff. Reminds me of when my friend took off his shoe and ran around a pep rally slapping freshmen in the back of the head with it.

This is fairly whimsical and has some humor scattered about. I'd say if you like stories about High school drama, read it.

This strikes me as being a pretty good YA story, very appropriate to the "School" category. The set-up is very plausible, the writing is very good, and the main conclusion is kind of humorous.

The opening pages are well done, with a lot of believable banter among the idle students, and a few initial options that don't really branch anywhere but keep the reader engaged. The characters are drawn well enough, although possibly there are more students introduced on the first page than the story really needs.

And the basic premise -- the drama teacher who appears to be OK'ing the pet student's play without any buy-in from the club -- is actually very much a real-life scenario. I wish I could say these types of small-scale political scandals improve once you graduate, but ironically I had to address a comparable situation in real life in between taking some time to read this story.

The comparison of the two plays is quite effective, and the final performance of the avant-garde play was really funny.

Any issue I have comes with the branching structure, and the fact that there really isn't any substantial branching. The quick-death endings -- a CYS staple though they may be -- work to undermine the otherwise excellent storytelling.

As I said, the central problem in this story -- i.e., the protag's feeling of alienation in the way she perceives the club's next play was chosen in an unfair way -- is quite good. It suggests several ways in which Julie might chat with the other students and figure out a resolution.

But only one branch is developed, and this requires Julie to engage in some of the shadiest possible methods to get her way. And the decision isn't even posed as such to the reader! It just comes about by dodging the quick-deaths that frame it.

This branch does have its place, but the conclusion it reaches isn't terribly satisfying, even if it is funny. So I think this story is good, but there are missed opportunities here.