The Otherworld: Review of the Best 2023 Romantic Novel by Abbie Emmons

Hello everyone. I know, I know. I have been very inconsistent, so let’s bring back consistent reader writer Shivangi, who is obsessed with books. As you can tell, I haven’t been reading a lot but recently I read one book as passionately as the old Shivangi used to read books.

Today, I’ll be recommending you The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons which was one of the best romantic novels of 2023 to read but before I begin, let’s talk about Abbie for a second. Abbie is the only YouTube Writer that I would recommend watching, honestly speaking. The way I write my own stories and how I teach writing to you guys is very similar to the writing techniques Abbie teaches on her YouTube platform. We both use psychology and brain science for storytelling and creating a plot structure. We both like using movie and book examples to study the art of storytelling. I love watching her writing videos especially on days when I feel like I’m going through a bad writing rut because we have such similar ideas when it comes to writing. So, when I got the opportunity to read and review her book, I couldn’t let the opportunity go.

About the book: The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons: #1 in Best Romantic Books to Read

Let’s start with the basic blurb. The Otherworld is about a girl called Orca who lives on an island with her father and their pet dog, Lucius. Although her father has warned her about the mainland or the “Otherworld’ as some dangerous dystopian place where nothing and no one can be trusted, Orca still longs to see what is out there. Just as she had wished, on one fateful night, she finds a cellular phone washed to the shore of her island. At first, she does not understand what it is but then finds the number of someone called “Spiderman” on the speed dial. When she calls back, she discovers that it’s the phone number of someone from the mainland.

Meanwhile, there is Jack who is convinced that his elder brother is still out there somewhere, alive, and is adamant to prove everyone wrong. Just then as fate would have it, his phone rings and it’s none other than his older brother calling him, who everyone presumes to be dead. When he picks up, a girl named Orca claims that she found this phone on her island and upon further questioning is willing to look for Jack’s older brother- Adam.

And so, the plot of the Otherworld ensues, keeping the readers on their toes to see whether Adam is even alive? Will Orca get to see the “Otherworld” as she wishes to? If yes, would Orca stay in Otherworld and leave her father alone on the island or would she spend the rest of her life on the island all alone?

Now, let’s get into the review.

My Review for The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons: #1 in Best Romantic Books to Read

The story starts with a childhood flashback so it took me a couple of minutes to actually get interested in the story and care about the characters, and also it could be because I was in the middle of a reading rut then. Starting off, you could see the influence of the Tangled movie on this story. Abbie has mentioned many times that she loves the Tangled movie and while there are many similarities at the beginning of the story, towards the end the story sort of shifts, and trust me, you should be counting on that.

I guess, the storytelling was pretty on point, and why not? Abbie is a storytelling expert after all. The whole plot was laid out perfectly in a way that made me want to keep reading which, mind you, was a big deal for me given that at the time I wasn’t really feeling interested in reading anything because of the slump. Many parts of the story also had me giggling and thinking about the book even when I was not reading it. If you want to read a new romance, Otherworld should be your pick as Otherworld by Abbie Emmons is one of the best romantic novels to read.

However, I felt a few things could have been done better. For instance, the characters at one point became very one-dimensional. Like, Orca was just this naive girl who didn’t know anything, and how Jack was this spoilt kid who would just wreck madness everywhere he went.

Another thing…well, this is more of a personal observation. Some might not agree with my opinion here but I felt that the ending of the book was pretty predictable in my opinion. I don’t want to spoil too much but I felt like Orca didn’t really learn anything from her journey, and like there was no character transformation. Orca was still the same, with the same circumstances. That’s all. It was like nothing really changed and I don’t know about others but I like stories that change the character at least a little bit.

My Writing takeaway from The Otherworld: #1 in Best Romantic Books to Read

I guess what Abbie is known for and has done pretty well in this book is creating tension in the book that keeps the reader turning pages by focusing on the character’s internal conflict and then using the unpredictability of that to move the story forward.

However, I feel like if the characters were a little bit more well-rounded and weren’t just defined by their one trait the plot would have gotten thicker. For instance, I feel like Orca could have been someone who wasn’t just always the naive girl who didn’t know the ways of the otherworld but also had the smartness, independent thinking, and quickwittedness that came from years of living alone on the island that Jack and Adam may not have even though they are well-read and have been raised in the mainland.

Another way this book could have been a 5 out 5 stars for me was if Orca and the other two characters had transformed by the end of the book in some way, even if not in a life-altering way. A good story, as I have observed many times before and that even Abbie claims in her videos, always ends up changing the character in one way or the other. I didn’t see any character development which didn’t just make the story very predictable but also made me feel like, “okay, so what was the point of the story then?”

Conclusion for The Otherworld: #1 in Best Romantic Books to Read

Overall, I really liked the story and I would definitely highly recommend it all of my readers. I think this book deserves a 4 out of 5 stars just because the ending of the book sort of didn’t sit well with me. Otherwise, everything else was a proper 10 out of 10.

Thank you, Abbie and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read one of the best romantic novels of 2023 to read in return for an honest review.