Fic Rec: The White Tower and the Winding Stair
Title: The White Tower and the Winding Stair
Author: CherryBlossomTide
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Molly Hooper, Irene Adler/Kate
Length: 25,500
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Verse: Sherlock BBC (AU)
Author's summary: Molly reads a lot of fairy tales and she knows very well how this story is supposed to go. The Princess in the Tower is rescued, either by the handsome Prince or the plucky young stable boy, and then they fall in love. What definitely isn’t supposed to happen is that the handsome Prince and the stable boy fall in love with each other, while the Princess is instructed to marry the Prince’s legendarily cold-hearted brother. But life rarely goes Molly’s way.
Reccer's comments: Molly is one of my favourite characters and I think she is quite difficult to write well. In canon she’s such a mass of conflicting qualities: she can seem timid but she’s also bold, brave and able to stand up for herself; she’s socially awkward but is highly intelligent with a successful career; she can seem innocent and unworldly but as part of her job deals with the aftermath of violent deaths; she can be misled because she wants to see the good in everyone but is also observant and can see things as they really are.
Here I think the author has captured her perfectly-perhaps ironically as this is an AU. The fic is set in a fairytale-like world but a realistic one in which there are no magical solutions, and happy endings for good people are not inevitable. Molly is a princess by birth who has to learn how to be one in practice. She discovers how to be independent while at the same time gaining many friends: though Molly takes centre stage this is an ensemble piece-the cast taking on new roles but everyone recognisable and in character.
This is first and foremost a great story-you want to keep reading and find out what happens next. But it’s the quality of the writing that’ll bring you back to read it again. This was one of the submissions for the Summer 2015 holmestice exchange and it was one of the highlights of the fest for me.
Author: CherryBlossomTide
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Mycroft Holmes/Molly Hooper, Irene Adler/Kate
Length: 25,500
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Verse: Sherlock BBC (AU)
Author's summary: Molly reads a lot of fairy tales and she knows very well how this story is supposed to go. The Princess in the Tower is rescued, either by the handsome Prince or the plucky young stable boy, and then they fall in love. What definitely isn’t supposed to happen is that the handsome Prince and the stable boy fall in love with each other, while the Princess is instructed to marry the Prince’s legendarily cold-hearted brother. But life rarely goes Molly’s way.
Reccer's comments: Molly is one of my favourite characters and I think she is quite difficult to write well. In canon she’s such a mass of conflicting qualities: she can seem timid but she’s also bold, brave and able to stand up for herself; she’s socially awkward but is highly intelligent with a successful career; she can seem innocent and unworldly but as part of her job deals with the aftermath of violent deaths; she can be misled because she wants to see the good in everyone but is also observant and can see things as they really are.
Here I think the author has captured her perfectly-perhaps ironically as this is an AU. The fic is set in a fairytale-like world but a realistic one in which there are no magical solutions, and happy endings for good people are not inevitable. Molly is a princess by birth who has to learn how to be one in practice. She discovers how to be independent while at the same time gaining many friends: though Molly takes centre stage this is an ensemble piece-the cast taking on new roles but everyone recognisable and in character.
This is first and foremost a great story-you want to keep reading and find out what happens next. But it’s the quality of the writing that’ll bring you back to read it again. This was one of the submissions for the Summer 2015 holmestice exchange and it was one of the highlights of the fest for me.