A Strange Attraction by Saone (NC-17)
Title: A Strange Attraction
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Graham/Xander
Categories: slash, romantic comedy, mild kink
Length: Long (15,900 words)
Warnings: light bondage, sex (in the last chapter)
Author Website: Saone's page on the Unconventional Relationshippers archive.
Summary:
When Graham gets hurt, the Scoobies subject him to their brand of helping.
Review:
I first came across this immensely silly story many years ago, and recommended it to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen. Then Saone's original website disappeared, as such things do, and there was much mourning (and possibly a little gloating that I had saved a copy to read offline). Fortunately it still exists on a number of archive sites, as I discovered when I went looking for Rom-Com week offerings, so I can push it to a new generation of fandom. Lucky you.
The story takes place at some point in an alternate season five. Riley is still Buffy's boyfriend, Graham is around as a permanant liaison, and Xander and Anya aren't together for unspecified reasons. Olaf the troll has turned up and been sent off without his hammer, and some time later Buffy is a tad careless while swinging it around, putting Graham in hospital with a broken leg. More than that you'll pick up as you go along, and in any case it's just window-dressing to the bumbling misunderstandings Graham and Xander manage to foster between themselves. To add to the confusion, Buffy, Riley and Willow figure out that something is up between Xander and Graham, and promptly start grasping the wrong end of various different sticks. It's all very nicely blended together, and a perfect recipe for a rom-com plot.
Saone has a deft touch with the characters, and puts together some wonderful conversational exchanges. The ways the various Scoobies try to cheer Graham up during visiting hours are particularly nicely done, and you can see after only a few paragraphs why Graham would regard Xander as the only sane company he's going to get. It's a testament to the writing quality that I can see the action happening in my mind's eye as if I was watching as an episode.
On the downside, the POV does slip around rather a lot. I have no problem with authors swapping viewpoint characters between sections, but when the viewpoint swaps (often several times) in the middle of a section it gets downright confusing. There is a particular point in chapter 2 when the viewpoint slides from Graham to Xander to Graham's daydream quite rapidly, and something that should have been funny instead throws me out of the story.
It's still a very amusing take on the classic romantic misunderstanding. Go on, treat yourself to a laugh.
A Strange Attraction was originally published in separate chapters that are irritatingly not linked together. Here's a table of chapter links to the story as archived at UCSL (the UnConventional RelationShippers List archive) and Big Guns (the Graham slash archive):
Chapter 1: Death To Teddy Bearson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 2: Bad Thoughtson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 3: Desperate Timeson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 4: Assumptionson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 5: Playing It Straighton UCSLPart 1, part 2 on Big Guns
Chapter 6: Finallyon UCSLon Big Guns
I found a single-page version, but it looks like an unprettified website archive and may not hang around. Here's the link:
A Strange Attraction
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Graham/Xander
Categories: slash, romantic comedy, mild kink
Length: Long (15,900 words)
Warnings: light bondage, sex (in the last chapter)
Author Website: Saone's page on the Unconventional Relationshippers archive.
Summary:
When Graham gets hurt, the Scoobies subject him to their brand of helping.
Review:
I first came across this immensely silly story many years ago, and recommended it to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen. Then Saone's original website disappeared, as such things do, and there was much mourning (and possibly a little gloating that I had saved a copy to read offline). Fortunately it still exists on a number of archive sites, as I discovered when I went looking for Rom-Com week offerings, so I can push it to a new generation of fandom. Lucky you.
The story takes place at some point in an alternate season five. Riley is still Buffy's boyfriend, Graham is around as a permanant liaison, and Xander and Anya aren't together for unspecified reasons. Olaf the troll has turned up and been sent off without his hammer, and some time later Buffy is a tad careless while swinging it around, putting Graham in hospital with a broken leg. More than that you'll pick up as you go along, and in any case it's just window-dressing to the bumbling misunderstandings Graham and Xander manage to foster between themselves. To add to the confusion, Buffy, Riley and Willow figure out that something is up between Xander and Graham, and promptly start grasping the wrong end of various different sticks. It's all very nicely blended together, and a perfect recipe for a rom-com plot.
Saone has a deft touch with the characters, and puts together some wonderful conversational exchanges. The ways the various Scoobies try to cheer Graham up during visiting hours are particularly nicely done, and you can see after only a few paragraphs why Graham would regard Xander as the only sane company he's going to get. It's a testament to the writing quality that I can see the action happening in my mind's eye as if I was watching as an episode.
On the downside, the POV does slip around rather a lot. I have no problem with authors swapping viewpoint characters between sections, but when the viewpoint swaps (often several times) in the middle of a section it gets downright confusing. There is a particular point in chapter 2 when the viewpoint slides from Graham to Xander to Graham's daydream quite rapidly, and something that should have been funny instead throws me out of the story.
It's still a very amusing take on the classic romantic misunderstanding. Go on, treat yourself to a laugh.
A Strange Attraction was originally published in separate chapters that are irritatingly not linked together. Here's a table of chapter links to the story as archived at UCSL (the UnConventional RelationShippers List archive) and Big Guns (the Graham slash archive):
Chapter 1: Death To Teddy Bearson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 2: Bad Thoughtson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 3: Desperate Timeson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 4: Assumptionson UCSLon Big Guns
Chapter 5: Playing It Straighton UCSLPart 1, part 2 on Big Guns
Chapter 6: Finallyon UCSLon Big Guns
I found a single-page version, but it looks like an unprettified website archive and may not hang around. Here's the link:
A Strange Attraction