2005 Author Reviews for
Ghettoelleth

Ghettoelleth is a very complete writer. Whatever plot bunny or story she writes: you better buckle up and prepare for a wild ride. You most certainly will enjoy it! Especially when she writes romance, she knows how to describe romantic situations from both male and female perspective often in great detail. Ghettoelleth?s narrative is beautiful and with confidence, she writes her story in a compelling manner, keeping firm control over her plotlines (well sometimes exploring a subplot can be tempting as well, but she knows when to stop). Every single line in her dialogue are true gems, they often bring out the emotions that accompanies it. I love the way she writes her canon elves, especially the darker ones, but her Glorfindel feels for me *the* Glorfindel and how he is supposed to be written. Whenever you have a question about this character: Ghettoelleth knows this character and the canon facts around him extremely well. Her original characters are developed with care and love, she knows them very well and is in complete command of them, well that is, when her characters allow her to. It feels like she knows them personally and it shows in the natural way of Ghettoelleth?s storytelling. Overall, I am looking forward to more stories written with her special talent. For me she has been a pleasant discovery and I know many like and appreciate her works as well. Keep on writing and spoiling us with your great stories Ghettoelleth!

If I had half of the eloquent writing skills that Ghettoelleth did, I might be able to do her justice in this review. However, I do not. Therefore, I will just do my best to express some key elements of her writing that make her an incredible writer. Her characterization of both original characters and canon characters is amazing. The original characters are complete with rich and multi-layered three-dimensional personalities. Whether you are supposed to love them or hate them, they are never fully perfect ? either perfectly bad or perfectly good in their personality, which is true to real life to me. Her characters are neither Gary Stu nor Mary Sue yet you do not feel as she is writing them to force you to feel one way or another about them. They just are what they are and you form your own opinions about them. Her canon characters are similar. Even in her stories that have not been nominated she has taken some characters that are evil or bad in the Silmarillion and has allowed you to see what could have caused them to be the way they were even if you still think they were ?bad guys?. Her heroes are flawed yet you still think of them as the hero without question. Whether she is writing a character that is well known in the books or little known and portrayed a million ways in the fan fiction world, she has made that character uniquely hers in her writing style. Glorfindel has been taken to a whole new level by her writing. As loved a character as he always was, I have only seen one other writer write him to the level of me saying ? ?Yes, that is what Tolkien would want us to feel and think about him.? Her Glorfindel is so outstanding that I struggle writing my own Glorfindel because he is a ?Ghetto Glorfindel Wanna-Be?. And she has written an AU Caranthir so sexy and deep, no one can touch him. It?s a good thing no one I know writes him because she would blow them away. Even her AU Maeglin is sexy and sympathetic. Its amazing and I just pray that she does not decide to start writing the characters I write cause I would have to curl up in a ball and cry when she wrote circles around me! Thankfully she has not written those characters and I am thinking of paying her to keep that up. Hehe As far as her writing style goes, she is fluid and graceful in Circle of Hands to the point where you feel totally immersed in her world. You feel what her characters feel. You see what they see, the way they see it. The story just draws you in so much that when you come to the end of the chapter you are heartbroken that it?s over. I have laughed and cried many times and sometimes I have even laughed until I cried. Her command of the English language is incredible. She does not throw out useless five-dollar words to impress but she does not write like a high school student. Her details and descriptions are very visual yet they are not overdone to the point of boredom. Some writers, even professional ones, go off on a descriptive passage and by the time they are done describing it, I have to go back and read what they were talking about before the description. That does not happen with Ghetto but she does not glaze over details either. Last thing I would like to say is this writer researches every Tolkien text, website, forum thread, etc to make sure her facts are correct. I remember one time she told me she spent half the day researching something and I was amazed because it was something so small in her story, it took up less than a paragraph overall. She is not one of these that writes it and says it is that way because she said so. But she also does not go to the canon extreme in her AU story. She wants to make sure that Tolkien never said discussed it before she makes it up or that he never said it was impossible before she writes it happening, she just clarifies that she is not breaking canon. Overall, Ghetto is an excellent writer and I think she should write original fiction. After she finishes all of her current stories, of course.

Ghettoelleth's story ably demonstrates her skill as a writer; her prose has a distinctly lyrical quality without being forced or overly high-brow. She can create both scenes and characters that are believable, and depicts emotions so vividly that at times her prose is very difficult to read, in the best possible way. Following her character's lives and loves is like stepping into Middle-earth yourself. She also has an extraordinary ability to maintain an intriguing and unexpected story, full of twists and surprises. Reading her work, I have the feeling that every word is significant of something and will all add up to a beautifully resolved story in the end.