Subject: Celestial Reviews 135 - Nov 16 (1/2) From: celeste801@aol.com Date: 1996/11/16 Message-Id: <19961116183600.NAA17871@ladder01.news.aol.com> Sender: news@aol.com Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Celestial Reviews 135 - Nov 16, 1996 (1/2) Note: One of the author's asked me when the deadline is for making my list of Top 100 stories of 1996. The answer is that any story that I review for the first time in 1996 is eligible for that list. The story could have been written in, say, 1994; but if I reviewed it for the first time in a 1996 issue of CR, then it's eligible. Stories that were previously reviewed (in 1995) are NOT eligible, unless they have been revised and this revision is called to my attention. I cannot promise to review everyone's stories; but I do try to review any stories that are e-mailed directly to me or called to my attention. Right now I have a backlog; but if you sent me a story more than a month ago, you might want to assume that something went wrong and send me a reminder. - Celeste "Jolly Lott" by Uther Pendragon (humor) 10, 8, 7 "Above & Beyond Call of Duty" by J. Boswell (stripper sex) 10, 8, 8 "A is for Aphrodisiac" by Dulcinea (hot but gentle sex) 10, 10, 10 "Girls of Delta Theta Phi" by Ann Douglas (ff romance) 9, 10, 10 "Snow Cave" by P.D. Michael (cold threesome) 10, 9, 9 "Thursday, 10:45" by Mark Aster (medical examination) 10, 10, 10 "Livinia" by Friar Dave (complex romance) 9.5, 10, 10 "Something to Talk About" by OddManOut (anal sex) 10, 8, 8 "A Word for Annie's Fuck Hole" by M M Twassel (sexual fantasies & innuendo) 10, 8, 8 "Making the Sale" by Mary Anne Mohanraj (D&s) 10, 9, 9 * "The Passing of Seasons" by Linda B (emerging adolescence & hot ff sex) * "Interview2" by Deirdre (oral sex) 10, 8, 8 * "Julie" by Deirdre (anal sex) 9, 5, 4 * "Key" by Deirdre (voyeurism & submission) 10, 8, 7 * "Lake" by Deirdre (bondage & ff sex) 10, 9, 9 * "Landlady" by Deirdre (sex slavery) 10, 9, 8 * "Lawyer" by Deirdre (ff sex) 10, 9, 9 * "Lunch" by Deirdre (sex slavery) 10, 8, 7 * "Mall" by Deirdre (ff anal sex) 10, 10, 10 * "Merge" by Deirdre (sex slaves) 10, 9, 9 * "Model" by Deirdre (mostly anal sex) 10, 8, 7 * "Mom" by Deirdre (masturbation education) 10, 9, 9 * "Month" by Deirdre (Surprise!) 10, 10, 10 * "Motel" by Deirdre (infidelity) 10, 8, 8 * "Mouth" by Deirdre (oral sex) 10, 8, 7 * "Move" by Deirdre (weird sex) 10, 8, 7 * "Movie" by Deirdre (spouse watching, anal sex, etc.) 10, 9, 9 * Repost of a previous review (because the story has recently been reposted). "Jolly Lott" by Uther Pendragon (). The author wrote a tale about a pirate sexually exploiting his winsome captive. Then he replaced all the dirty words with clean words - specifically, with the names of prominent American politicians who are very clean because they have spoken out against pornography. Ratings for "Jolly Lott" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 "Above & Beyond Call of Duty" by J. Boswell. Susan needs a few bucks to make ends meet, and so she joins up with a strip-o-gram service. She really gets into it, and she earns big tips by going above and beyond the call of duty when she mingles with the guests at the parties after she strips and delivers her birthday message or whatever. It's a simple story, but sometimes simple is simply good enough. Ratings for "Above & Beyond Call of Duty" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 "A is for Aphrodisiac" by Dulcinea (dulcinea@aol.com). Dulcinea is great at telling simple stories about the simple aspects of lovemaking. Other authors - notably Uther Pendragon - do an equally good job of taking these little details and combining them into more complete plots. Pendragon's stories are like a love affair; Dulcinea's are like a quickie. There's room for both in my world. The main focus of this story is the man using the scent of his precum as an aphrodisiac to awaken his wife for a quickie in the morning . This combines with the surrounding flirtations and innuendoes to make a very nice story. Ratings for "A is for Aphrodisiac" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Girls of Delta Theta Phi" by Ann Douglas (annd55@nyc.pipeline.com). When Courtney comes home to visit her mother, she brings her friend Nicole with her. Nicole is 30 years younger than Cynthia, who is four years shy of being three times the age of her daughter, who is ten years younger than Nicole. If you cannot apply simple algebra to determine the exact ages of all three women, stop reading this story right now and do your math homework! Cynthia is a bright, self-confident woman who is not upset to discover that her daughter is a lesbian. Nor is she upset by the fact that Nicole is a black woman with whom her daughter is having recreational sex. As a matter of fact, she is so non-upset that she eventually develops a romantic interest of her own in Nicole. Actually, it's more complex than that; this story contains a story within the story. This is an excellent plot that concludes with some hot sex. Ann writes wonderful stories. She often fails to get perfect ratings, because the stories contain proofreading blunders. Among numerous more traditional errors in the present story I found this gem: "...the two of them had stood up late into the night celebrating." They _stayed_ up late into the night - unless they were doing it standing up - which would be a possibility in a different story. The last time I heard stood used this way was in a quote by either Yogi Berra or Dizzy Dean: "I shoulda stood in bed!" It came right before, "He should slud." I suspect that Ann inserts these grammatical innovations in order to keep horny English teachers from getting too aroused by the sexual content of her stories. Ratings for "Girls of Delta Theta Phi" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Snow Cave" by P.D. Michael (pdmm@gold.interlog.com). Maude has been abandoned by her husband in a blizzard. She and two men have burrowed into a snow cave, where it is necessary to cuddle together to keep warm. Of course, it also helps to do something that generates a little heat in order to maintain the level of warmth needed to sustain life. The idea of making love with two eager strangers in a cocoon of sleeping bags in a pitch dark cave certainly does have its erotic elements. With any luck there'd be a snow cave for the night. Ratings for "Snow Cave" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 "Thursday, 10:45" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). Maybe I should change doctors! Ratings for "Thursday, 10:45" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Livinia" by Friar Dave. Hubris can be a serious problem. The term refers to "an overweening pride" or over-confidence typically shown by heroes in classical tragedies immediately before their downfall. I haven't used the word "overweening" since I wrote that definition on an exam nearly 20 years ago; but I have had my share of hubris. In the present case, I figured that I knew Friar Dave so well that after I had read in Part 1 about him having passionate sex with a hot Filipino woman with a cute daughter, I figured I had the story pretty well figured out. They would make love in numerous interesting ways; he would become a devoted father figure for the daughter; and Livinia and our hero would get married and live happily ever after. Then at the beginning of Part 2 my mind was jarred to discover that the hero already had a wonderful but open relationship with another beautiful woman who sometimes liked the same ladies that the hero liked. That's hubris for you. The opposite of hubris is Socratic humility; and it will be more useful in the present situation. I know nothing except that I know nothing about this story, and I had better get back to it. It sounds both hot and interesting. Surprises abound in this story. Soon we learn that Livinia was essentially a sex slave in the Philippines, but through some good luck she managed to get away with her daughter to the United States. We also discover that Livinia has a confused sister with some lesbian proclivities, and that Livinia is one of those proclivities. In addition to teaching English I have done a lot of work with sexually abused women. The main difference between Livinia and most of the woman who have been through similar experiences is that she is still alive and even adaptively functional at the age of 30. The story is realistic, sensitive, and sexy. Friar Dave's writing style is not as sharp as it has been in most of his other stories, but maybe he got wrapped up in the plot too. I found this to be a most enjoyable story. Ratings for "Livinia" Athena (technical quality): 9.5 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 "Something to Talk About" by OddManOut (nobody@REPLAY.COM). The man and woman have very little in common. However, at the end of their date they neck, and even though she doesn't talk a lot, he eventually sticks his cock into her ass. She likes it a lot, and it gives them something to talk about. It's a simple story that could have used a little more action, but it was well written. Ratings for "Something to Talk About" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 "A Word for Annie's Fuck Hole" by M.M. Twassel (mmtwassel@aol.com). This story is full of sexy innuendo, but I'm not sure what really happens. The narrator had been in love with Annie, but she dumped him and he married her college roommate Laura. No it is five years later and Annie is divorced and is visiting Laura. While Annie takes his diary to her room and reads his most intimate thoughts, Laura cuddles up with her husband and says things like, ""What do you think it would feel like falling asleep inside of Annie? and Do you wonder whether she ever cries when she fucks, or if she laughs, or what sex words she uses?" The story ends with Laura asking the narrator "if he has thought of a name for Annie's fuck-hole yet. That question originally arose in the narrator's dream. I have no idea how she knew the question even existed in his mind. Loose ends like that confused me as I read the erotic vignettes in this story. Ratings for "A Word for Annie's Fuck Hole" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 "Making the Sale" by Mary Anne Mohanraj (moh2@midway.uchicago.edu). Some jobs have less intrinsic motivation than others. Teachers, of course, have a wonderful life. We get to interact with eager learners, intelligent colleagues, and skillful administrators who are determined to make our work as easy and effective as possible. Some people are less fortunate. I have always felt sorry for toll-booth operators, who must stand in those isolation booths for hours on end, doing nothing but occasionally giving change to the uncaring motorists whose only goal is to get away from them. And then there are the poor wretches who sell shoes. In general, these are usually highly educated, emotionally stable people who have been laid off by NASA or who couldn't quite hack it as a school crossing guard. They grovel on their knees to give pleasure to often insipid or downright nasty people who seek self-aggrandizement through the satisfaction of a foot fetish. This is the story of one such peddler. Of course, there are some ups as well as downs to this kind of work. For example, Bob has little trouble inhaling the aroma of the sexy redhead's pussy while he slides the shoe onto her foot and imagines what else could happen. Then she follows him into the storage area, grabs his crotch, and says, ""I want you. It's been hours since I've gotten laid, and if I don't get to fuck someone soon I'm going to explode. I need that huge hard cock of yours! My pussy is dripping for you, salesman." It's amazing what a hard-working guy sometimes has to do to make a simple sale. Ratings for "Making the Sale" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character):9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 * "The Passing of Seasons" by Linda B (an274617@anon.penet.fi). I try to wait until all the parts of serialized stories have been posted before I post my review. I have seen seven parts of this story, and the seventh says it will be continued; but I am going to go ahead and post my review now, since I haven't seen an eighth part yet and don't think there is one. This is an exceptionally well written, sensitive story about the intimate relationship between two young girls. It's almost like a good Judy Blume story - except, of course, that teenagers read Judy Blume, whereas they would never think of reading stories on a.s.s., which are prohibited to them. In fact, I think it is possible that Linda B may actually be Judy Blume, prematurely reincarnated and living in that literary commune in a Waldenesque setting near Sulfur Springs. {Incidentally, if you think Judy Blume writes only for kids, you should read her "Smart Women," which is probably available in your local public library.} This author is intimately attuned to the emotions likely to be felt and expressed by teenagers trying to establish their sexual identities. I myself am a happy heterosexual, but I recall feeling many of these same emotions (if not the same activities) that Jenny and Sarah express in this story. (I have no intention of revisiting my discussion of whether practically all adolescent women experience these emotions. They do; but I have promised not to make an issue of that theory.) This is a really good story. This story is also being archived at "http://www.cybercity.hko.net/toronto/wjm/archive/". Thus far only chapter one is available at the web-site. The author has an interesting disclaimer, which reads in part: "If you are a teenager, we as adults don't think that you should read this, even though you are sexually mature and probably have much more sexual desire than we do. We are merely jealous of your sexual virility. Please leave us alone to *fantasize* about being your age once again. I'm sorry but you'll have to wait until you're at least 18 before you can have your own fantasies. Preferably you should wait until you're at least 30 or older, that way you can really have something to fantasize about: your very own teenaged years!" Ratings for "The Passing of Seasons" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Interview2" by Deirdre. In the last issue of Celestial Reviews I reviewed Deirdre's "Interview" and then boldly predicted what "Interview2" would be about. I was wrong. Actually, Deirdre simply repeats the previous story with a male inserted into the previously female role. It's a really interesting twist. I recommend that you read "Interview" before reading "Interview2." Ratings for "Interview2" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 (Continued in 2/2) Subject: Celestial Reviews 135 - Nov 16 (2/2) From: celeste801@aol.com Date: 1996/11/16 Message-Id: <19961116184000.NAA17959@ladder01.news.aol.com> Sender: news@aol.com Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Celestial Reviews 135 - Nov 16, 1996 (2/2) (Continued from 1/2) * "Julie" by Deirdre. This story never really gets off the ground. Julie's life is in a rut, and her friend takes her to visit a guy who will do different things with her - like fuck her in the ass. Deirdre has written a lot of stories that are better than this one. Ratings for "Julie" Athena (technical quality): 9 Venus (plot & character): 5 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 4 * "Key" by Deirdre. A woman is upset because she and her husband are not getting along, and she knows he still has in his possession sexy pictures of her. She recovers them and turns them over to her friend for safekeeping; but the control has simply passed from her husband to her friend. Ratings for "Key" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Lake" by Deirdre. Mom is visiting her daughter at college when the child casually lets it slip out that her roommate is, of all things, a lesbian! Mom doesn't like this idea one bit. But Casey says not to worry - the roommate doesn't like college kids, just older women. Now where do you think this story is going? Well, that's what I thought too; but I was wrong! Ratings for "Lake" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 * "Landlady" by Deirdre. I'm going to try to predict Deirdre's plots again today. In this one a woman will go to pay her rent, but will find the landlady in tears over the fact that she suspects the landlord of being unfaithful. The woman will comfort the landlady by having sex with her. After a few weeks of intimacy, the woman and the landlady will realize they are deeply in love; and they will decide to tell their spouses about their new relationship. When they go upstairs to break the news to their spouses, they will find the woman's husband wearing a mask and swinging a small whip while he sodomizes the landlord. What really happened: one woman shares an apartment with another. The landlady takes the woman shopping and encourages her to buy some sexy clothing. When they get home, the landlady asks her to put on a brief striptease act. Shortly thereafter the woman discovers that the landlord and landlady have made her roommate into a sex slave and that they seem to have similar designs on herself. I wasn't even close, was I? Ratings for " Landlady " Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Lawyer" by Deirdre. This plot should be easy to predict; so I'll do both a general and a specific prediction. The general prediction (which I confidently know will be correct) is that a person of one gender will visit a lawyer of the other gender to seek a divorce from a person of the same gender as the lawyer. The lawyer will either simply seduce the client or turn the client into a sex slave who will be loaned or rented out to wealthier clients. (Of course, this plot assumes that lawyers have gender.) More specifically, a female client will be seeking a divorce from her husband, whom she accuses of being abusive because he wants to whip her and have anal sex with her. The lawyer will help the woman gain the divorce, but he will also use mind control tactics to make the woman lust for whippings and anal sex. The woman will join the lawyer's stable of sex slaves, whom the lawyer rents to wealthy clients. The first client the woman services will be her husband. Needless to say, I wasn't even close. This is a story about simple ff sex with a woman who happens to be a lawyer. It was a good story, but I think even Deirdre would like mine better. Ratings for " Lawyer" (Deirdre's version) Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 Ratings for " Lawyer" (My version) Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Lunch" by Deirdre. After my previous two experiences, I have resigned from trying to predict Deirdre's plots. After all, I have begun to suspect that she is using my guesses as plots for subsequent stories. Lunch. I mean this one could involve sex *at* lunch or sex *for* lunch, and I refuse to get into a mental tither over a preposition. What actually happens is that a salesman asks to see the Boss without an appointment. The Boss goes out with this guy for lunch, then calls back saying she'll be late, then later, then that she'll take the day off, then the next day off, then the next two weeks.... If this were an ordinary Sherwood Anderson story we would not know what to think, but since this is a Deirdre story we suspect sex at the roots of this unusual tardiness. You'll have to read the story to find out more. Ratings for " Lunch " Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Mall" by Deirdre. Two female friends are having drinks at the mall. "Wouldn't you like to lick that ass?" says one, as a hot babe in a bikini walks past. Gulp, says the other. This story is really hard to summarize. It's short. Read it yourself. It will hold your attention. It certainly did hold mine. Ratings for "Mall" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Merge" by Deirdre. I'm going to try another *in vivo* review. This approach is fun, and it's also a good way to read a story. If you have reading problems, you should try this yourself: always make predictions and confirm or reject them while you are reading the story. Even if they don't realize they are doing so, good readers use this approach automatically. One of the reasons good grammar and effective writing styles (like Deirdre's) are important is because these factors enable readers to make and test their predictions without being distracted by extraneous garbage like run-on sentences. I learned this information in a graduate course on teaching reading to adolescents; and I have found it to be true. So if you need an excuse to read these stories, tell people you're developing your reading skills by making and testing hypotheses while reading fictional textual material. The same approach works with textbooks and business reports. After reading the first few lines I have concluded that the title refers to a business merger: companies will merge, and employees are worried about being laid off. I have no idea how sex will fit into this story yet; but since the initial focus is that no one will be laid off, I'm going to assume that they'll all be kept as sex slaves. (French artists have blue periods. Deirdre wrote all these stories within the last two months, and I think she's in a comparable period - a sex-slave motif seems to be dominant right now. It's as good a guess as any.) Several paragraphs later, our protagonist is attending a meeting with seven other women. I still don't know whether Henderson (the new owner of the company) is a man or a woman. I'll read on. Wait a minute! People are walking around nude at the meeting! Did I miss something? I just checked; and up till now I've had no evidence that people were naked. This was an interesting surprise. Now Tamera (our protagonist) is going naked into the next room, where a bunch a people dressed in suits are checking out her external sexual machinery. This is a drastic change from what I thought I was reading, but my theory of sex slaves isn't looking bad at all. Some sort of selection process is taking place, and Tamera is rejected because it takes too long for her vagina to become properly lubricated. But her mouth seems to function effectively when it is joined to the test apparatus. Sex slaves is sounding good. To make a long story short - sex slaves it was! You'll have to read the story to get all the details. I enjoyed this weird story even though I was on the track all the way because of my wild guess; a person encountering more surprises might enjoy it even more. Ratings for " Merge " Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 * "Model" by Deirdre. The guy meets an old girlfriend who has started to work with models in the fashion industry. She offers to let the guy meet some supermodels, and to his dismay one of them invites them to her house for a party that evening. Pretty soon the model has the two of them serving as her sex toys. Ratings for " Model" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Mom" by Deirdre. The girl's friend talks her into her first masturbation experience to the tune of some Playgirl pictures in the friend's mother's bedroom. The mother returns home unexpectedly, catches them, and sends her daughter to her room. When she finds out that the girl has never masturbated, she decides she had better teach her to do it right. Pretty soon the girls decide that it would be fun to try to seduce each other's mothers. And that's only the start of it! Ratings for " Mom" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 * "Month" by Deirdre. This is my new all-time favorite Deirdre story. Remember the movie "Indecent Proposal"? Well, Deirdre ups the ante. A supermodel is offered $10 million for a single month of unspecified work. She figures the work must have something to do with sex, and so says she's not interested. When the person persists in making the offer, she tells her manager to call his bluff by making a counter-offer of $50 million. To her amazement, her counter-offer is accepted. The deal is this: she will be flown to an island at a secret location and will stay there for a month, at the end of which she will be returned safely and uninjured to where she started. If she cannot be certified to be safe and uninjured, she will receive $200 million; otherwise she keeps just the $50 million. What the hell? says the supermodel, for that price I can do anything. And besides, what can possibly go wrong? And so she accepts the offer. Can you resist a story like that? Deirdre is at her best in this story: an excellent setup and unpredictable twists in the plot. However, since I carefully applied Deirdre's Law (If something can go wrong, it will go wrong; and it will involve what Senator Exon will consider to be a sexual perversion.), I felt really good about being able to predict about 78% of what happened by the time I was only 63% of the way through the story. Ratings for " Month" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 * "Motel" by Deirdre. Three couples have gotten together at a motel. Some of them want to continue talking, but one man is tired; and so he goes to one of the other rooms to go to bed. Now what perverse things will Deirdre do with this setup? Actually, nothing really perverse - just suggestive. Ratings for " Motel" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8 * "Mouth" by Deirdre. "Wow! You have the perfect mouth for giving blow jobs." Now, this happens to be true of myself; but never has a stranger mentioned this fact upon first meeting me. I'm not sure how I would react; but I decided to read the rest of this story to learn how Deirdre's heroine would handle it. By finding out what she would do, I figured I could plan to do the opposite and thereby avoid becoming the sex slave of my new admirer. After reading the story, I have decided to take the safe way out and say, "Thank you! And a person who looks like you is to be commended for appearing in public." The lady in this story, of course, takes a different course of action. Ratings for " Mouth" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Move" by Deirdre. This is a _Stepford Wives_ story in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson, pursuing the age-old question: "What do men _really_ do when there are no women around?" The first inkling of impending doom occurred shortly after the husband accepted the new job: he was getting cold feet after he first met his future employers, but his wife insisted that he take the job. The second clue came when the wife went for a job interview of her own at the company: the secretary simply said that the boss was busy and persistently tried to kiss the wife. The third clue came when the gang from the Welcome Wagon showed up, and one of them said, "Isn't she pretty? This is going to be great!" If we need one more clue, we can find it when Veronica shows up on the doorstep, starts unbuttoning the wife's blouse, and says, ""You'll do just fine!" With all this going on, it wouldn't surprise me if the men were all gathered together in the Board Room having the husband give them blow jobs! Ratings for " Move " Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 8 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7 * "Movie" by Deirdre. It's easy to tell that this is a Deirdre story. It's entitled "Movie," and there's no movie in it - the two women start to go to a movie but decide not to. What actually happens is that one of the two people who are not going to the movie asks the other one if she would like to have sex with her. The second woman says that's not a turn-on for her; but maybe she would compromise if the first woman would do her a favor. More evidence of Deirdre. Then we find out that the favor involves anal sex with the second woman's husband. Definitely Deirdre. Finally, we find whips, multiple couples, and deception. No question: Deirdre. Ratings for " Movie " Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9