Breach of Peace

Light spoilers in the third paragraph, but these spoilers aren't necessarily story-specific, more so just small scenes or descriptions.

I don't read many novellas, so it was a nice change of pace to finally get around to reading one from Daniel, whose BookTube videos are engaging and put together nicely, and topped off with a dash of charm and zaniness. The story alone is decent, and the twist in the story is pretty good and just enticing enough to make you want to pick up the next entry. However, while the story concept is strong, the novella is lacking in its overall atmosphere and character development.

I do believe it could've benefitted from a few more chapters and more room for the story to breathe. Due to the novella's size, you hit the ground running in the story, but each character is lacking particular elements that would make them truly relatable/likable. The worldbuilding is minimal, which I can forgive since it will most definitely be expanded on in later stories, but there wasn't much to truly visualize. It seemed like the basics covered were civilians, cops, and religious followers. Again, it can be fine for most people, but for some it may not be enough to keep reading.

There were some weird sections in the story that felt weird, namely a part about cops beating up civilians for an intimidation factor, which can be interpreted as a commentary on today's climate, but felt off-putting and ill-written, as well as a brothel owner slapping one of the male sex workers, who had a quote-unquote “extraordinary erection” before leaving the scene. Both times made me scrunch my face as to why they were included, but that's neither here nor there I suppose.

At the end of the day, I think the novella is a decent start, but not one I felt over the moon for. I'm not entirely against continuing the series, but I'm also not eager to do so.