Reviews For Growing Closer
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Reviewer: Jim1989 Signed starstarstarstarhalf-star [Report This]
Date: January 20 2024 3:28 PM Title: Chapter 3: What Makes You Happy

Really enjoying the chemistry between Trish and Thomas throughout this story, as well as the continual growth rate as she slowly becomes larger and larger. You have a real knack for character development, especially with how Thomas is able to remain professional despite his underlying sexual angst with regards to Trish's growth. Really good stuff! Looking forward to more.

Reviewer: It Was Me Signed starstarstarstarstar [Report This]
Date: January 15 2024 2:20 AM Title: Chapter 3: What Makes You Happy

I'm absolutely loving this story so far!

First and foremost, though, let me thank you for your short, choppy writing style. It make for so much easier reading, and that's really appreciated.

Man, Thomas is such a likeable character. His struggle between his fetish-y desires and his natural want to help poor Trish makes it feel as though he's a really good guy, It can't be easy to put aside a fantasy that until now was thought to be impossible, but he's able to look past that and see Trish as not only a real person (as opposed to the embodiment of all his sexual desires) but someone who desperately needs the kind of help he can provide.

Of course, seeing firsthand the consequences suffered by a real-life growing woman has helped to keep him focused so far. It's one thing to find Trish and her condition attractive, but it's another thing entirely to see the shame, fear, and frustration said condition is causing her.

However, we've already seen signs of a very interesting dichotomy resulting from this. The more Thomas is able to instill confidence in Trish, the less he's going to be able to weigh down his desires with the despair she's going through. In other words, the better he is at doing his job, the less professional he'll be able to be around her. This is a really fun idea to play with, and it also does a great job of building the anticipation of if/how Thomas is going to either slip up or straight up tell Trish about his conflicted feelings (and obviously how she's going to process and react to this information).

And I'd be remiss if I mentioned Thomas's likeability without calling attention to how funny, clever, charismatic, and ethical he's written to be. That last one might seem an odd choice to describe a psychologist falling in love with his patient, but I particularly enjoyed the way he called out his peers for wanting to keep Trish mentally unhealthy just to assuage their own fears.

While we haven't seen things quite as much from Trish's perspective, but from what we've seen from her, both in those brief spots where she takes over the narrative and through Thomas's eyes, it's really easy to pull for her. It's really sad to me that she has been conditioned to think that men should be taller than women, especially when we're reminded that Trish was a taller girl even before her condition materialized. It's made clear that this goes beyond limiting who she puts in her dating pool as well, as we're told that she was used to slouching and shrinking herself when around men in general. That's a shitty way to go through life, making yourself seem less.

We also see the consequences of this mentality when she stands behind Thomas. While it's been all but stated plainly that she's attracted both physically and mentally to her beloved Dr. Black, she feels a sense of disappointment when she realizes how short he actually is. Out of context, this could easily be taken to mean that she's simply against dating shorter guys (not that she's consciously looking to date Thomas, as this was just a subtle observation by her). But knowing what we know about her, I think this was a much more self-conscious feeling, one that leans more toward "a guy that short would never be interested in someone as tall as me" rather than "Huh, he's pretty cool, but he's just too short for me." It's almost as though she's judging herself on Thomas's behalf. Oh, if only she knew ...

And not much has been mentioned about Jeb as of yet, but I get the vibe that he may not be the most supportive father in the world, either. That's not to say he doesn't care about his daughter or that he loves her any less for going through this. However, between that nod that told Thomas that he would never consider expressing his feelings to a psychologist and Trish's desire to be able to speak about her problems with someone other than her father, "someone who she could be vulnerable with, someone who wasn't expecting her to to put on a brave face," I'm not so sure that Jeb even knows how to give her the type of support she needs, let alone be eager to give it to her.

All of this makes Trish a character that I can really empathize with, and that makes going on this journey with her toward building confidence and being comfortable in her own skin that much more enjoyable as a reader. I'm loving their sessions together. I actually found myself smiling while reading Trish go through the confidence-building exercises. 

I also think that all of that makes Thomas the perfect person to help her though that journey. The way she's drawn to his confidence is something that I believe will help her realize that there are more important things in life than height, both because of the way she's starting to feel about the shorter psychologist and the fact that he's not intimidated by her in any way. And the impact of that confidence on Trish can't be understated, either. I mean, you've got a whole hospital's-worth of people reaffirming her worst thoughts about herself, even if unintentionally so, only for one person's light to shine brighter than all of that and remind her who she really is and show her what's actually important (even if that light might be at least partially driven by said person's less-than-pure thoughts and fetish).

Obviously, I'm really curious to see how Jake the boyfriend handles seeing his now much taller girlfriend. Given what we've already established about Trish (namely that she thinks all guys want a shorter girl) and the general direction this story is trending in, it's likely going to be a less-than-ideal reunion, although you never know, I guess.

I'm also interested to see if/how the rest of the hospital changes its perception of her as she continues to build her confidence. It's easy to be afraid of something when it's afraid of itself. Will a confident, more outgoing Trish be received more warmly by the staff, or will the fact that she's not trying to ball herself up and make herself smaller only serve to scare them more?

Lastly, like the other reviewer, I also had a question (or more of a comment really, I suppose) about the sizes Trish will reach in this story. It's not so much that I need (or even really want) to know what heights she's going to reach but more that this story is tagged as only 1 mile to 100 miles tall. I would recommend that you add other size tags to this story (we're already in the 7 feet to 15 feet category now), as letting potential readers know what sizes will be used in the story (as opposed to just where things end up, if that's what the giga tag you picked is meant to signify) will seem more inviting for them. When you get into the miles-tall categories, that's usually a pretty particular clientele, and you might be better served letting people know that this story covers more than just that.

I also have to admit that I'm a bit concerned about this story getting into giga territory. I've got no problem with that stuff in general, and I'm sure that if we get there you've got a plan for it, but I can't help but feel as though this story will lose something special if we get to the point that communication between our two main characters is no longer possible. I don't know, this story so far hasn't given off much "humans are basically germs to me" vibes so far (in terms of setup), so it's hard to comprehend we would get there.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. Awesome work so far, and I look forward to seeing where this story goes from here!



Author's Response:

Thank you for the suggestions! This is the first story I've posted on giantessworld. I think I tried to select every size because the story spends a great deal of time at multiple sizes.

Also thank you for the very in depth feedback. Reading what you've liked about the story so far, I think you'll like where it goes.

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