I just started reading this story and I'm blown away.  It's certainly the darkest sim storie I've ever read.  Your writing is superb.  I found myself getting anxious for Raven, as I was reading, worried that she would end up dead.  I enjoy the character of Junior, and the whole byplay between him and his father trying to out manipulate each other.  I also love the character of Ronnie, the gangster with a heart of gold.

This is the kind of story that I would never pick up either in book form or movie form. I don't like violence, and the ‘mean street’ scene and lifestyle does not speak to me.  However your story was sufficiently compelling to draw me in and hold me to the end.

You said you appreciate constructive criticism, so here is mine.  There are a few occasions when your story becomes more like an essay on social inequalities or a history lesson.  I do agree with your opinion, (and learned a little more history), however I find it detracts from the way the story flows.  It even sounds a little preachy at times.  Your story would be more powerful if you managed to integrate the points you are trying to make, in the story itself (maybe as background to some of the characters).  I know you did this for a few characters, namely the rapist/pedophile/hitman.  But that part didn't work for me.     He was too evil to elicit sympathy because his grandmother resented him and didn’t get help for his speech impediment.  And the bit about how social services couldn't be bothered to help him with his problem turned into a bit of a rant and was distracting.  Especially since the reader could not really feel sympathy for him.

You did that previously with Crazy-8's background.  Explained a little about what made him tick.  That was better, more integrated with the story. It didn't feel like you were moving away from the story into something like.

Not only he is hot, but he produces the most gorgeous offspring.

Here he is maried to Brandi.  They are poor but happy.



Here are his children Billie and Buddy.

HA!  if you haven't seen HystericalParoxysm stuff yet it's time you ed-u-cate yourself

The mesh is here. Check out her other hair as well

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=152570

Oh my. Oh my.  I am EXTREMELY picky about male sims and I must delete 99% of the ones I download.  

I find they look good on a pic, but when you try them out, you find the facial structure has been overtweaked so they have distorted faces and tend to not breed well.

If all you want are "flavor" sims to look pretty in your neighbourhood that's fine, but if you want them as potential mates, it doesn't work.

Anyway, all this to say that this one is a definite keeper.

I LOVE THAT BEARD.  Where did you find it?  I looked at Xandher's stuff over at TSR but it wasn't there.  I know it's part of the download, but I wonder if there are more types and more color.  It's sooo distinguished and well done.

Anyway bravo.  I'm off to look at more of your simmies.

Refreshingly different

I don't know what Maxis was thinking when they made the option to talk to plant so slow and tedious.  People who talk to their plants don't have hours of conversation with them.  Maybe it's not meant to be something you do to all the plants?  But I have a rather large garden and I like to have my vegetables perfect, instead of ho hum, so I talk to all my plants before harvest.  But the last time I did that, in order to harvest my garden before it died, I had to actually cheat (something I have NEVER done before) and use maxmotive and keep my poor sim talking and harvesting all through the night.

So this is going to be awesome!

You can find the hack here :

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1231.0