(For context, Rachel has seen a therapist, and isn't uncomfortable talking about her experience of sexual abuse. You've been warned)
Critique my short chapter
(Please put a spoiler warning over the contents. This is a subject which can be triggering for people.)
(better?)
((You might want to move this to the critiques section, btw))
It's not a bad chapter, but I think you could work on pacing. It's very blatant and moves a bit too quickly. As you have stated, it is short, which will probably be remedied when you fix the pacing issue (this will come in time, don't worry). Maybe don't have your entire chapter be an exposition dump, as well. I noticed that it was almost entirely dialogue; establish a setting before you go into the conversations! Get reactions from others in the room! Tell the reader about the atmosphere of the room, how it changes throughout the conversation, stuff like that! Again, this is a good start, but a lot of polishing needs to be done. Keep going! It's looking promising :)
Description is key. Instead of using words like "felt" or "I feel" describe the feeling so the reader gets the idea without having to be told. The readers should be able to watch the story come to life, and though your writing is good, the missing description makes it harder for the reader to picture the scene or feel empathy for your character, which makes the scene less intense.
I think this is a good start! The biggest thing I noticed is that there's a few plot holes/things that could be clarified… maybe these are explained in earlier or later chapters but I was still confused when I read it. (hopefully this isn't triggering for anyone, but I'm putting it as a spoiler just in case)
- This should defintitly be touched on, if not in this chapter then in ones before, but sexual abuse builds up it doesn't happen suddenly. Rachel would not have been living happily with her dad then he suddenly raped her. It could have started as verbal abuse, then progressed to physical, then rape. Whatever happens, there has to be a progression, rape by family members doesn't come without any warning.
- (Im going to assume Allison is Rachels sister?) Again, there needs to be a progression, and Allison would have seen or experienced it as well. Its definitely possible that Allison didn't know Rachel was being raped, but she definitely would have recognized the abuse within their family. By this I mean, Allison was probably abused as well by her father, maybe not to the extent that Rachel was, but it's very very rare to have an abusive father only abuse one daughter.
- If Rachel had screamed and Allison was in the other room, she would have heard something. Even in totally soundproof rooms, you can still hear things like screams especially if they're close by. Theres a chance the room could have kept out of all the noise, but those types of room would have to be purposely soundproofed with very expensive materials, and I can't see why that would be the case? And if somehow she didn't hear it, she still could have felt bumps through the floor.
- Allison wouldn't have been able to hold down her dad all by herself. I mean maybe if the girls held him down together, its possible, but if he had been able to easily subdue Rachel in order to rape her, then there's a slim chance they could overtake him, especially since Rachel would have been weak from the rape and Allison couldn't do it alone.
- You should definitely look into rape laws and punishments more. It depends on what state they're in and what exactly happened, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a life sentence. Also (it disgusts me that I have to say this) a lot of rape court cases aren't fair at all. Chances are, the jury could believe the adult male over two teenage girls, even if there was evidence and witnesses, a lot of times rapists sentences are no where near fair.
My most important note is to really really make sure you write abuse well. I can already see more problems just in how you wrote her confession about her abuse, not because you're a bad writer, just because its incredibly hard to write about this if you haven't experienced it. I'm a victim of sexual abuse and harassment, and although it wasn't the same as this, I definitely see some similarities between me and Rachels stories, so I just really really want to make sure you write it right. If you need any help or have any questions, feel free to ask me, I'm pretty open to talking about it, and it will make it much better if you can talk to a victim who can explain what a real life experience is like.