I just got back a report from a beta reader who 1. didn't seem to like anything in my story and 2. didn't seem to like my writing either. He said he reads the genre...but also listed 6 other genres that are different. So maybe he reads them all the same way? That's fine though, I paid him to be honest.
Now I have a bigger problem. I was told I have too many characters. This is the second beta so far. The first one mentioned silly errors and pointed out some things that were missing/wrong/etc. The second beta (the one I'm talking about now) says I have way too many characters which stretch out the plot.
I have 1 MC, 4 supporting roles, and the other names are just victims that I gave a name to so I wouldn't have to keep saying "the blonde girl" or "boy with blue eyes." Should I remove the unimportant character names? And if so, how can I mention them without being repetitive?
I've just read what you posted in SYW and decided to answer the above question here, because I think I can see what the feedback above is getting at, and plus, on your SYW thread you've said you only want feedback regarding making the individual voices distinctive enough.
The issue, IMO isn't that you have too many characters, it's that you have too many POVs. Having the 5 characters (was it five? I lost count) in your story is totally fine and it's not too many. However, telling the story or parts of the story from that many points of view was just too much to process. Your first POV character Sasame totally engaged me. Great character, great story situation. I wanted to read on, in fact I want to read her whole story. Well-written. Distinctive voice. It ticks all the boxes.
Then you have all these other POV characters. I didn't like your second POV character at all. I didn't like his attitude and his worst problem was being late for class which frankly was self-infliced, so what was the point in being in his POV? I don't necessarily have to like a character to get into their POV. In fact I like getting a glimpse into the mind of fundamentally unlikable or outright criminally insane characters - but that would be in a situation that shows the pathology in their thinking. This doesn't do that.
Then you have 3 more (I think it was 3) POV characters. I lost count because trying to take in so many POVs got overwhelming and I started skim reading and lost interest (except in Sasame. I still want to read her story.)
The thing is, when you're in a character's POV in first person or close third, you completely identify with that person and see the world through their eyes. It's a very engaging POV and when it's written well and the character's interesting enough, you want to keep reading and learn more about them, their world, what's going on in their life and most importantly, how they're going to get through the problems in their life and end up in a (hopefully) better situation. You naturally take on board a lot of information about them.
So when there are 5 POV characters, my brain simply can't grasp and store that amount of information about all five in the short time it takes to read a chapter. This means I can't get into the other POVs at all.
IMO that's the issue. The positives you should take from this is that you can write first person narrative that is truly engaging and makes the reader feel engrossed in the character's world and wants to keep reading and doesn't want to be wrenched out of, and also that I really want to read Sasame's story.
My advice would be to stick mainly or entirely to Sasame's POV and if the other POVs are necessary for the story, maybe first person isn't the best way to do it.
If you feel that you really want to tell these characters' stories in first person POV kind of detail, then maybe they deserve stories of their own. It reminds me of advice I got years ago from a photography teacher... don't try to cram too much into one photo. If there's something that you really feel is so important to include in your photo then maybe it deserves a photo of its own.