Review of Pry, A Novella

Pry, A Novella definitely could be considered the future of literature with respect to those of e-books and gaming. The novella is unlike any book one can pick up and turn the pages as they read. In Pry the experience is based on the user. As the two creators of the Tender Claws company,Gorman and Cannizzaro, say Pry is “a book to watch and a film to touch’ they almost mean these words literally. Instead of flipping through pages consecutively and reading through the story one has to interact with the story to go deeper into it. Whether that interactivity is through opening and closing the characters, James’, eyes either seeing what the character sees or going deeper and deeper into what seems to be his subconscious, or moving your finger over braille on the screen and having the story come to life as though you were really reading through the dots and dimples in the pages themselves on the screen. The story unfolds as you proceed through each chapter interacting differently with the character and the story far from what reading any other spire bound book is like.

For those who enjoy a new experience and are interested in the future of what literature could possibly transform into, Pry, A Novella would be a great start into seeing what the future may hold on the way we read from here on out. Although for those into the more gaming side of the spectrum and not so much on the reading of literature side Pry may just seem like another book to read. Although the interactive novella does pose the integrated diamonds that one seems to gain from going through the story and finding all the information about the character and useful pieces of information that you find through the different paths you can actually go through in each chapter. The interactivity of the novella is not as closely related as today gaming scene as it would be related to that of an actual book. If I had to choose between whether to consider this a book or a game, I would most certainly choose a book over it being considered a game. Whether or not one should read this novella is based entirely on whether or not the reader is a reader or a gamer. Those who do not particularly like to or enjoy reading and would rather be enjoying that of a new video game on the next gen. gaming console would have a much harder time enjoying Pry as much as those who would rather indulge in a new book than a video game.

All in all the novella has a very puzzling story line, reading from chapter one through six with the exceptions of a few chapters that have not been released yet. Although once reading through the chapters for second time one can see a bigger picture forming and that the chapters reveal more a second time around. In the LA Weekly they mention “Pry is greater than the sum of its parts’, this becomes very apparent after the first read through of the chapters available and starting over.

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