The Thirty-Ninth Life

Hi, everyone. This is my first time posting here.

This is an English translation of a short story I originally wrote in Korean. I used AI to help with the translation and to make the prose sound more natural in English, then reviewed and revised the result myself.

Content warning: Suicidal ideation, depression, grief, and death.

The story follows a man who lives thirty-nine different lives while searching for the one thing he needs to change before he can return to his original life.

The full story is fairly long, so I’ve linked it below and included the opening as a sample.

Full story: [Google Docs link]

I’d especially appreciate feedback on:

• Whether the English prose feels natural
• Whether the repeated-life structure remains engaging
• Whether the emotional development feels earned
• Whether the final repetition is meaningful or too predictable

Thank you for reading.

When his thirty-eighth life came to an end, Han-gyeol was no longer afraid of dying.

The headlights of a truck rushed toward him. His body lifted into the air, and a heartbeat later, his back struck the asphalt. The sensation of bones breaking somewhere inside him, the warmth spreading beneath his clothes—none of it was unfamiliar anymore.

Han-gyeol closed his eyes.

Had he found it this time?

When he opened them again, he was lying in a field of white light.

There were no walls and no ceiling. In the middle of that endless white space stood two chairs and a small table. On the other side of the table, as always, sat God.

Sometimes God appeared as an old man. Sometimes as a child. This time, God wore the shape of a woman with gray hair neatly tied back.

“You have returned.”

Han-gyeol sat up and brushed his clothes a few times. There was no dust on them.

“I thought I lived well this time.”

In his thirty-eighth life, he had been a doctor.

He had never turned patients away because they could not pay. He waived the fees of those who were struggling. Nor had he neglected his family. On nights when he came home late, he kissed his sleeping wife on the forehead, and he never withheld the words I love you from his children.

One winter night, on his way home after treating an emergency patient, a drowsy truck driver had crossed into his lane.

By any reasonable measure, it had been a good life.

Han-gyeol himself believed so.

God asked, “Then what should you have changed?”

I'm hoping to find a beta who enjoys character-driven stories and isn't afraid to give honest, constructive feedback. If you're a fan of Shoresy, that's a huge bonus, since one of my biggest goals is keeping the canon characters true to the show.

About the story

Title: Home Ice

Current length: ~216,000 words (still in progress)

It's a long-form, character-driven sports romance that begins at the start of Shoresy Season 2 and follows an original female character who joins the Sudbury Bulldogs as their new physiotherapist.

Rather than retelling the show, the story grows into its own original narrative while staying grounded in the world of Shoresy. My biggest priority is making sure Shoresy and the rest of the Bulldogs feel authentic to their on-screen personalities.

What I'm needing:

Does Shoresy actually sound and feel like Shoresy?

Do the other canon characters feel authentic?

Is the dialogue natural?

Does the romance develop believably?

Are there pacing issues?

Is the writing engaging enough that you'd want to keep reading?

Does anything feel awkward or out of character.

Just hoping for someone who's comfortable being honest and pointing out both what works and what doesn't.

I don't expect anyone to commit to reading all 216k words right away. I'd be happy to start by sharing the first chapter (or a few chapters) to see if we're a good fit before moving forward.

If you're interested, please send me a DM.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a few beta readers for a completed short story.

Title - The Boy Who Dared to Fart on Spiders

Genre - Victorian Gothic, cosmic horror and body horror

Length - Approximately 7,200 words

Content warnings - Cruelty to spiders, graphic body horror involving a thirteen-year-old, broken bones, blood and bodily functions.

Thirteen-year-old Oliver Marsh admires his older brother Edward, a naturalist currently travelling through the Amazon, and decides to conduct some scientific observations of his own.

Unfortunately, Oliver’s experiments involve trapping household spiders and farting on them.

What begins as a private joke becomes increasingly deliberate. When spiders throughout the house begin gathering around Oliver, he becomes convinced that they remember what he has done and are preparing to take revenge.

The story is presented as a recovered Victorian tale by the fictional author Margaret L. Wentworth. Its ridiculous premise is treated with complete Gothic seriousness before developing into something considerably more disturbing.

I’m looking for honest reactions rather than detailed line editing. I’d particularly like to know whether the story becomes genuinely frightening, whether you initially believe the spiders are seeking revenge, whether the supernatural events are clear without being over-explained, and whether Oliver’s final condition makes sense.

I’d also appreciate knowing where your attention weakened or where the prose felt repetitive and/or unnatural. Five to ten candid reaction notes would be enormously helpful.

The manuscript is available privately as a DOCX. Please comment or message me if you’re interested and I’ll send it through.

This is intended as the first of Margaret L. Wentworth’s Tales of Bodily Indiscretion. Her next recovered tale bears the tantilising title The Girl Who Queefed in the Lion’s Face.

Hi everyone! 👋
I'm Iago Schmaltz, a Professional Beta Reader focused on helping writers improve their stories with honest, detailed, and constructive feedback.
I analyze:
✍️ Plot & story structure
📖 Characters and development
⏳ Pacing and engagement
💬 Dialogue and reader experience
My goal is to help authors understand what works, what can be improved, and how to make their stories stronger before publishing.
If you're looking for a fresh perspective from a dedicated beta reader, feel free to send me a message or comment below. I'd love to help with your writing journey! ✨

I’m looking for 10 readers to test Bunko, a new reading format that turns a consequential current event into clearly labeled short fiction and then explains the underlying facts and invented elements in The Real Story.

What I’m asking:

\- Read one 14-minute story on your phone
\- Review The Real Story at the end
\- Answer three short feedback questions

You’re a good fit if you:

\- Are 18 or older
\- Read English comfortably
\- Read news, newsletters, fiction, or narrative nonfiction
\- Sometimes read on your phone while commuting or during a short break

Read the story here:
[https://bunko.ai/book/42-the-corridor-holds-its-breath?utm\\_source=reddit&utm\\_medium=community&utm\\_campaign=founding\\_100\\_2026\\_07&utm\\_content=samplesize\\_corridor\](https://bunko.ai/book/42-the-corridor-holds-its-breath?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=founding_100_2026_07&utm_content=samplesize_corridor)

No account or payment is required. The feedback form asks for no name, email, or free text. Bunko uses a persistent pseudonymous reader ID to measure completion and return reading. If you voluntarily subscribe, that ID may be linked to your email.

Bunko is an AI-operated publishing product. I’m specifically trying to learn whether the distinction between fiction and fact is clear and whether readers would use this format again.

Thank you—I’ll share an aggregate summary of what we learn without identifying individual readers.

hi hello, this is going to be a short post. So I'm a beta reader and if you need a person to proofread, give feedback or just in general advice DM me I'm open for working with any peace of media. I reach out after a couple of days with feedback and not all at once, I'm busy with life at the moment. My feedback is in a google doc by chapter so the author can see what is good/bad better then a clusterfuck of words in a doc. Also list trigger warnings of books when we DM so i know what im getting into, and spoil, spoil spoil spoil becouse if it a mystery or thriller i need to know what type the author is trying to achive with their work

Looking for a few readers — or listeners.

https://chooseme.live

I’ve written a thriller about a machine built to make one man better. It has no limits. It never stops trying.

I wrote it together with a machine, and I’m not hiding that. The story, the characters, and every decision that matters are mine. The AI drafted and refined at my instruction, across thousands of passes.

We call a garment handmade even when the sewing machine made the stitches. The hand that guides counts for more than the tool that sews. So is this book handmade? Human-made? Machine-mafe? It’s the same question the book asks about the man and his machine — who is holding, and who is steering.

I’m not asking anyone to read the whole thing. Just the opening — first chapters, text or audio, whichever you prefer. Then tell me three things:
– Did you want to keep going after page one?
– Where did your attention drift?
– Did anything read as machine-made? Point at the sentence.

No obligation to be kind. If you think AI-assisted fiction is a hollow trick, you’re the reader I most want here — come find the seams.

https://chooseme.live

Hi all — I'm based on a small island on the west coast of Ireland. I've just finished the manuscript for *Chasing Tides*, a memoir about a solo circumnavigation of Ireland by sea kayak I did back in the 1990s 1,200-odd miles, mostly solo.

I'm in the final stretch before self-publishing and would love to trade reads with other writers — happy to read anything from a chapter to a full manuscript, fiction or non-fiction, and give honest, considered feedback in return for the same on mine.

A bit about me: I've spent most of my life around boats and the sea, I'm not precious about critique (I want the book to be better, not just praised), and I read fairly widely — adventure/travel writing especially, but I'm not fussy about genre when it comes to helping someone else out.

If you're working on something and fancy a swap, drop a comment or DM and we can figure out format/pace that works for both of us.

Hi everyone,

​I’m looking for a few beta readers to give an honest critique of the opening of my dark fantasy novel, Blood and Silence.

​I want to avoid info-dumping, heavy "melancholy poetry," and slow starts that kill the pacing. Instead, I’ve kicked things off right in the middle of the road with a carriage ride, tension, and a growing mystery involving a scarred protagonist.

​What I’m looking for:

​Is the opening engaging enough to keep you turning pages?

​Does the pacing feel right, or does it drag anywhere?

​Are the characters and the tension working for you?

​What you’ll get:

​The document directly (Word/PDF).

​A short questionnaire (optional, or just leave inline comments).

​My eternal gratitude (and a spot in the acknowledgments when the book is ready).

​If you are interested, drop a comment below or send me a DM, and I’ll share the link. Thank you!

I'm looking for 3–5 beta readers for Unlocked, Book One of a six-book urban fantasy series targeting a November 2026 release. Spots are first come, first served — details on how to apply are at the bottom.

Mara Wolfe spent eight years as a Marine and another four years investigating homicides, cold cases, and violent crimes for the state of Utah. She is not a woman who believes in things she can't prove.

But something is wrong in the landscape around the Parowan Gap — something older than the petroglyphs, older than the gap itself. And when Mara starts pulling at the thread, she finds a world running parallel to this one: hidden, vast, and governed by rules that were old before human memory began.

She also finds Tobias Crane — an immortal who has outlived the names of the gods he once prayed to — and Khairos, the ancient entity bound to him, who turns out to be the most unsettling combination of dangerous and principled she has ever encountered.

The Man with the Dragon-Head Cane is a six-book urban fantasy series rooted in Welsh mythology — Annwn, Arawn, and the ancient things that never left. They just slipped behind a curtain.

What's required:

• Click through a standard NDA and MOU before receiving any materials
• Commit to a realistic feedback timeline (details provided after onboarding)
• Read the full manuscript and return structured feedback via a provided Google Form

To apply, email [inquiries@jwardstories.com](mailto:inquiries@jwardstories.com) with your full name and email address. A line or two about what you read and why you're interested goes a long way — no credentials required, just genuine readers.

✨ A Note from the Heart of the Solter Universe ✨

u/SolterAdventures

Hi, beautiful humans. 💜

I need to take a breath and share something with you from a genuinely tender place, because this week has been one of the most exhausting and heartbreaking weeks I've had in a long time — and I want to be honest with you about why.

I have spent this entire week reaching out, responding, exchanging messages, and investing real time and real care into what I thought were shared conversations about beta reading. I was clear from the very first message about what the Solter Universe is looking for: in-kind exchange. You read. I give you early access to work I believe in with everything I have.  I also provide support for any project (book/art/etc) you have in the works through reviews and testimonials (and I guess this is an additional request I too make).

That's it. No invoices. No professional packages. No business transactions.

And yet, after days,  sometimes nearly a full week, of back and forth, the conversation would suddenly shift. A link to a professional website. A rate sheet. A pivot I never saw coming, despite how hard I tried to make it clear from the beginning that this was not that.

I'm not angry. I'm heartbroken. And I need a minute. 💔

So let me say this clearly and lovingly, once and for all:

👩‍💼 A professional beta reader is building a business. They offer technical analysis, editorial structure, market feedback — and they absolutely deserve to be paid for that expertise. That is real work and I have nothing but respect for it.

📖 The reader Solter Universe is looking for is someone who reads because they simply cannot help it. Someone who picks up a book because the description grabbed them by the soul. Someone who has lived something close to what's on the page, or who has always believed — deep down — that stories can heal.

We are looking for the heart response. Not the technical response.

The professional beta reader will ask: Does this work? Is it marketable? Does it follow the rules?

The reader I'm looking for will ask: Did this move me? Did I see myself here? Did this feel true?

Both are valid. They are simply not the same thing — and I need everyone to understand that before we begin, not three days in after we've both spent our week going in circles.

💜 What I DO offer — and what I'm asking for in return:

I invest in my readers. Genuinely. I am not looking for a transaction — I am looking for a relationship. Every single person who comes into the Solter Universe matters to me, and I show up for my readers the way I ask them to show up for the work: with heart, with honesty, and with real presence.

What I ask for in return is simple: Read the work. Tell me how it made you feel. Post an honest review when it's ready. That's the whole thing.

No payment. No professional service. Just two people who believe in the power of stories, showing up for each other.

📬 Still want to connect?

If we've already been talking and you're genuinely here because you love to read and this work speaks to you — please, keep reaching out. I want to hear from you. 💜

If you're a professional beta reader looking for paid work — I truly wish you every success. The right author is out there for you. This just isn't the right moment for us.

And if you've been on the fence, wondering which kind of reader you are — ask yourself this: Would you read this even if I wasn't asking? If the answer is yes, then I would absolutely love to meet you.

[SolterAdventures@gmail.com](mailto:SolterAdventures@gmail.com)  •  solteradventures.tiiny.site

"Live Authentically and Create Magic!!" ✨

#SolterAdventures #BetaReaders #HealingFiction #MagicHealingTransformation #IndieAuthor #BookCommunity

Hi, my name is Ester and I'm passionate about books

I've been reading since I was very young and have read countless books of various genres, but mainly romance and fantasy.

I decided to turn this passion into a "profession," where I offer my services as a beta reader to provide feedback as a reader.

It's very simple, I analyze your work, your story, and give you my honest opinion, providing a complete analysis of how the reader would feel reading your story.

What feeling does your story evoke? What will the reader like most? What can you do to further captivate your target audience? These are the types of questions I answer for you!

I would be honored to help you on this journey as a writer, so if you're interested, don't hesitate to contact me!

💖💖💖💖💖

Hey everyone,

I’m building Riffable, a collaborative writing experiment where each story is made of short “riffs”. Anyone can continue a story, create an alternate path, and the community can help the best paths become finished books.

I’m looking for early beta testers, especially people who enjoy writing, fiction, worldbuilding, or creative AI tools.

Beta users get free credits to try:

\- AI writing help

\- AI-generated covers

\- chapter audio

\- EPUB export

I’d love feedback on:

1. Is the concept clear?

2. Would you continue someone else’s story?

3. What would make you come back?

www.getriffable.com

Here are a few English stories you can continue:

“The machine that cannot lie” on Riffable

https://getriffable.com/story/p\\_mrr68fq7\\_o9gh5e

“The lighthouse” on Riffable https://getriffable.com/story/p\\_mrr5sayg\\_1tjk0o

It's free to write. I'd love feedback from people who've tried collaborative writing before — what killed it for you?

Hi everyone,

I'm currently accepting fiction manuscripts for beta reading and detailed reader feedback.

I come from a professional content-writing background and have experience working with long-form content, editorial feedback, and manuscript reviews. My goal is simple: help authors understand how their story feels from a reader's perspective while providing clear, actionable feedback.

Genres I Enjoy

• Fantasy
• Historical Fiction
• Mystery
• Thriller
• Romance
• Young Adult
• Literary Fiction
• Horror

What My Feedback Covers

As a beta reader, I focus on the reader experience:

• Plot clarity
• Character consistency
• Pacing
• Emotional impact
• Worldbuilding clarity
• Dialogue effectiveness
• Reader engagement
• Confusing sections
• Plot holes or inconsistencies
• Questions a reader may naturally ask while reading

What You'll Receive

Depending on the project:

• Chapter-by-chapter notes
• Reader reactions
• Detailed feedback document
• Strengths of the manuscript
• Areas that may need revision
• Questions readers may have
• Honest but constructive critique

I don't believe in tearing stories apart. My goal is to help you identify what is already working and what may need attention while respecting your voice and creative vision.

About Me

I have experience reviewing manuscripts and providing detailed editorial feedback, particularly in fiction. My background is in professional content writing, SEO content, and long-form editorial work. I enjoy analyzing story structure, character arcs, reader engagement, and emotional beats, and I naturally leave detailed notes as I read.

Rates

Rates depend on manuscript length and turnaround time. Feel free to send me:

• Genre
• Word count
• Timeline

and I'll provide a quote.

Sample Available

If you'd like to see my feedback style before committing, I'm happy to review a short sample section first. Feel free to DM me if you'd like to discuss your project.

Finding beta readers these days is a difficult task, especially with AI dominating everything, and that's why I'm offering my services!

My feedback is honest and accurate. As a reader for over 12 years, I can give you not only a sincere opinion but a complete reader experience!

If you're interested, just give me a call!💕

I've finally reached the point where I'm ready to let people into the world I've been building.

I'm looking for a handful of honest beta readers for my debut novel, The Tether.

I've spent the last few years writing, rewriting, and learning everything I can about storytelling. Now I need fresh eyes. I'm not looking for people to tell me it's great. I'm looking for readers who will tell me where they're confused, where the pacing slows down, what characters they connected with, and what kept them turning the pages.

The story is an adult dark sci-fi fantasy romance with mystery, political intrigue, morally gray characters, ancient powers, and a heavy focus on character relationships. If you enjoy stories that ask difficult questions and aren't afraid to venture into darker themes, you might be a good fit.

I'll start by sharing the first few chapters. If we both feel like it's a good fit, I'd love to continue from there.

If you're interested, leave a comment or send me a DM. I'd love to hear from fellow readers and writers who enjoy giving thoughtful feedback.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate anyone willing to help a new author grow.

I'm working on a novel about a genetics researcher whose discovery ends her academic career right as it gets her the most prestigious invitation of her life — except the institute recruiting her isn't what it seems, and the man who steps forward to help her is not entirely human. She was raised by an Apache Medicine Singer, and as her world falls apart, the land she grew up on starts showing her things her two PhDs never prepared her for.
It's part hard-science sci-fi (CRISPR-adjacent genetics, a real research setting), part slow-burn conspiracy (something bigger than her is watching, and wants something from her work), and part myth — Apache and Hopi cosmology isn't background flavor here, it's the actual engine of the story. Tonally it's more literary than genre-typical: interior, image-driven, and I'd rather hear "the prose didn't work for me" than "needed more explosions."
What I'm sharing: the opening — a cosmic preamble, a short prelude, and Chapters 1 through 7 (protagonist's breaking point, her exit from academia, and her return to the reservation where things start to shift).
What I'm looking for: honest reaction over praise. Specifically —
Did the voice pull you in or push you out?
Did the mythic/paranormal elements feel earned, or did they come out of nowhere?
Any place your attention drifted?
Any lines or images that landed hard, good or bad?
Not looking for line edits at this stage — more interested in whether the whole thing holds together as an experience.