Miguel

There are two insights I feel my modest experience with reading self-published novels allow me to express:

One - that writing is, quite honestly, really hard;

Two - that, for better or worse, a substantial number of self-published authors seem to inhabit an echo chamber, saturated with manufactured praise. The reasons for this artificial perception stem from the distinct gap between posted reviews, ratings, and the quality of the work itself. While one could easily hide behind the defence of personal opinions and preferences, my experience reveals that even books filled with grammatical and syntactical errors, plot holes within a few pages, and a significant amount of appalling sentence structures and/or repetition (in one case, I counted no fewer than six instances of “She said” on a single page) still achieve average ratings above four stars based on reciprocal reviews. In fact, the sheer volume of exchanged five-star reviews among self-published authors, although perhaps strategically sound in the quest for increased readership, renders the entire review system innocuous at best.

Rockstar Ending is not that.

I received my copy of Rockstar Ending at the end of last month. It boasts a beautifully illustrated, vibrant cover featuring a female-looking android reminiscent of David Bowie's Aladdin Sane phase. As an early insight, the theme of Music will be an elegant backdrop through the entire book, with blissful references to Bowie, Velvet Underground, Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zeppelin, and others. Exploring Tim Doyle's artwork, the cover illustrator (https://www.timdoyle.com/), has been part of the enjoyment.

However, the most impressive aspect lies within the story itself. I felt compelled to express my deep admiration for the author, through Twitter, after reading a couple of chapters such was my appreciation. Nicola's writing style is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood or Alice Sheldon, yet wholly original. It's evident that Nicola is well-read, and her prose is simultaneously simple and beautiful, unpretentious yet effective in conveying what I perceive as her greatest strength: crafting intricate, relatable characters with a depth that is remarkably difficult to convey. She achieves this with an economical use of language and an expansive range of expression that is rare, not only among self-published novels but in authorship in general.

My personal delight in the novel intensified as the story approached its climax. It becomes evident that Nicola has masterfully spent much of the novel laying the groundwork for a purposeful and interwoven narrative. The delicate construction of the plotlines is as gentle in its setup as it is ruthless in its execution. Although the initial premise of the novel hints at a singular narrative thread, Nicola skillfully maps out a grand design where she strategically places elements across a board where only she knows the connecting strings before unveiling a masterful, intense revelation of the underlying plot pieces. She accomplishes this with expert control of pacing and seamless shifts between introspective and exhilarating moments.

Self-published or not, Rockstar Ending is, unapologetically, a very good novel.