Draco Malfoy the Amazing Boucing ... Rat? by Maya. (HP)
Silly title, absolutely brilliant and weepingly funny story, the rec for which I've stolen from
foreverdirt. Long, het, involving a whole rat-to-boy character arc, with some slashy bits thrown in to amuse the reader. No big secret that this is Draco/Hermione. Not a pairing I've ever seen before, but this story proves that pairing can be utterly beside the point in the hands of a good writer. I mean, hello? Draco/Neville? And, like "Lust Over Pendle," this convinces me that Draco is so *completely* HP's version of Spike, in spirit if not in every detail. Swoon. Watch for: The funky rat dance. The description of Draco in his bedsheet. The running joke of Seamus and his Prozac. And Draco's delightful post-rat takeover of the Gryffindor common room--it just gives me joy, great joy. (The blue jeans! The guitar! Eeeep!)
About a Dog by
cesperanza. (DS) Slash, F/RayK. And wow--I didn't even intend it, but this is a theme rec thing. First, Draco turns into a rat, and here, Dief turns into a human. Cesperanza stories don't really need to be recced. One should just be able to wave a hand negligently with the expectation that people will rustle off to read.
Today I also browsed the LJ of
seperis, who is big with the SV recs. Read a few different things, including Soulquake by rhiannonhero, which was probably partly responsible for my SV dream earlier today. Interesting read. The ending didn't toe to the moral line I usually expect Clark to adhere to, and that was both satisfying and disappointing, and I can't quite sort my reactions out. I think what disturbed me most was the apparent simpleness of the equation: that Clark would of course be insanely protective, and might even go to extremes again in the name of love, and everyone would in turn protect *him* because he was special. And likewise with Lex. Martha does think: "She knew what she would do to protect Clark. Clark, who was unique and precious and the only one of his kind. As was Lex. As was everyone." Et cetera. But that inclusive "everyone" doesn't make a lot of sense to me in context. It seems like a sop to anyone who might cry entitlement.Overall, I kept waiting for a big surprise of writing, plot, or characterization, but it was sort of by-the-numbers. Not bad for that reason, but there was nothing distinctive to linger in the mind.
I have nothing particularly distinctive to say about it either. I'm not especially ambitious about making recs. I think this story's a kind of comfort fic--which is strange to say given its subject matter. But it's about the protective impulse. And it is *is* hurt/comfort, and since comfort always comes after hurt, it's often what a reader takes away from that genre of story. Or is that just me?
Just blathering now.