yuletide recs thread
Hi everyone,
I suppose many of you are aware that the Yuletide rare fandom secret santa project has gone live. There's rec pages everywhere, but I wanted to start a thread here, so lots of recs for f/f or stories that focus strongly on female characters and their relationships (romantic or not) could be gathered in one place and I could memory it and return to it now and then. With more than five hundred stories, treasures must be slipping away unnoticed. Let's fix that.
Here's a few recs to get this started. I'll add more in the comments as I keep reading.
Before Peter and After: This one is mine. L. M. Montgomery's A Tangled Web, special friendsish Donna/Virgina, hauntingly beautiful and sympathetic to Virginia and oh, it makes such perfect sense, it had to have happened that way. Bittersweet and wondermous and beautify heartbreaking. Go lavish my SS with love, because it is very much deserved. Virginia stood on the platform beside Drowned John, and tears ran down her cheeks as Donna boarded the train. Donna didn't cry. She kissed her hand to Virginia, and hung out the train window as it began to move away. 'Goodbye, Father. Goodbye, Virginia, darling! I'll tell you all about it!' Donna's face was lit up with anticipation of the joys of boarding school, and Virginia watched her dear friend being taken away from her.
Second-Best Roses More L. M. Montgomery, this time from the Anne of Green Gables series. Stella dreaming over Anne and always coming in second for attention, until Christmas at Patty's place. So darling and true to Montgomery's voice and Stella needed more attention, damnit, and the attention to canon is breathtaking. Stella began to smile, despite her own clammy palms, wanting to reassure the stranger and invite her over; but her smile was slow to ripen, and before her lips had even parted a slender golden girl had stepped forward and offered a hand to the red-headed stranger.
Forgotten Wishes. Still on the Anne books, this time Anne and Diana and the fine line between bosom friendship and something more. The relationship between Anne and Diana, and their dialogue, is just too utterly perfect and true to the books while being subtly erotic as well. Diana tasted like moonlight and roses. Anne, like sunshine and fresh cut flowers.
What the Moon Saw This is New Year's form last year, but as I hadn't read it yet... Montgomery still, Emily of New Moon this time and Emily/Ilse, and very very pretty. The moon was bright, and the moon was the only thing that saw them that night, at least in the water. The gossipmongers would question the next day, and miss the point entirely.
And because there are more fandoms than Montgomery:
Wooster's School for Wayward Girls. Wodehouse Florence/Madeline. There are no words for how brilliant this is. It's like Wodehouse itself in that the best thing would just be to quote random lines. Or make you go read it yourself, because you would regret it if you didn't. I swear Wodehouse wrote this, and it was just lost. "If you hadn't sent us that poetry - oh, Bertie!" Madeline blinked her eyes so that her lashes fluttered alarmingly, like butterflies in a jar eager to be elsewhere. "Florence and I might never have found one another."
Just Between Us Absolutely Fabulous and I don't want to say any more for fear of spoiling it. Debated about whether to rec this here as neither romance nor friendship are central, although f/f references are deifnitely there as well as looking at mothership, but it definitely is about women's relationships and, oh, it's brilliant. "One of the girly ones, obviously, with nice clothes and a pretty girlfriend I could introduce people to at parties. `This is my lesbian daughter, Saffy, and this is her partner, Claire, they work at some terribly important science job together and are adopting two beautiful Vietnamese river-orphans...' "
Jingle Bell Rock. Jem. See above arguments as to why I'm including it. ^_^ Besides, it's Kimber/Stormer, and the characterisations are devastating, as are the mental images, especially of Pizzazz as the world's least angelic Christmas angel. "We're doing our Special Christmas number to raise money for poor little orphan girls everywhere without access to proper amplifying equipment. Do you know that most orphanage superintendents don't even know what 'moog' means?
and finally:
Queen Aurora & the Revenge of Maleficent. Disney Princesses, a sequel to Sleeping Beauty. Qualifying for mention here because of both the rivalry between Maleficent and Aurora and the strength of the maternal bond. Besides, it's a rip-roaring good story. Aurora shook her head. "You would be surprised, my darling Rosaline, at how few people seem to have any common sense, and fewer still that try to use it. I think that was the best gift of all, my love - and one day, it will make you the best queen that this kingdom has ever seen."
More later. ^_^ And I'm dying to see what others recommend...
I suppose many of you are aware that the Yuletide rare fandom secret santa project has gone live. There's rec pages everywhere, but I wanted to start a thread here, so lots of recs for f/f or stories that focus strongly on female characters and their relationships (romantic or not) could be gathered in one place and I could memory it and return to it now and then. With more than five hundred stories, treasures must be slipping away unnoticed. Let's fix that.
Here's a few recs to get this started. I'll add more in the comments as I keep reading.
Before Peter and After: This one is mine. L. M. Montgomery's A Tangled Web, special friendsish Donna/Virgina, hauntingly beautiful and sympathetic to Virginia and oh, it makes such perfect sense, it had to have happened that way. Bittersweet and wondermous and beautify heartbreaking. Go lavish my SS with love, because it is very much deserved. Virginia stood on the platform beside Drowned John, and tears ran down her cheeks as Donna boarded the train. Donna didn't cry. She kissed her hand to Virginia, and hung out the train window as it began to move away. 'Goodbye, Father. Goodbye, Virginia, darling! I'll tell you all about it!' Donna's face was lit up with anticipation of the joys of boarding school, and Virginia watched her dear friend being taken away from her.
Second-Best Roses More L. M. Montgomery, this time from the Anne of Green Gables series. Stella dreaming over Anne and always coming in second for attention, until Christmas at Patty's place. So darling and true to Montgomery's voice and Stella needed more attention, damnit, and the attention to canon is breathtaking. Stella began to smile, despite her own clammy palms, wanting to reassure the stranger and invite her over; but her smile was slow to ripen, and before her lips had even parted a slender golden girl had stepped forward and offered a hand to the red-headed stranger.
Forgotten Wishes. Still on the Anne books, this time Anne and Diana and the fine line between bosom friendship and something more. The relationship between Anne and Diana, and their dialogue, is just too utterly perfect and true to the books while being subtly erotic as well. Diana tasted like moonlight and roses. Anne, like sunshine and fresh cut flowers.
What the Moon Saw This is New Year's form last year, but as I hadn't read it yet... Montgomery still, Emily of New Moon this time and Emily/Ilse, and very very pretty. The moon was bright, and the moon was the only thing that saw them that night, at least in the water. The gossipmongers would question the next day, and miss the point entirely.
And because there are more fandoms than Montgomery:
Wooster's School for Wayward Girls. Wodehouse Florence/Madeline. There are no words for how brilliant this is. It's like Wodehouse itself in that the best thing would just be to quote random lines. Or make you go read it yourself, because you would regret it if you didn't. I swear Wodehouse wrote this, and it was just lost. "If you hadn't sent us that poetry - oh, Bertie!" Madeline blinked her eyes so that her lashes fluttered alarmingly, like butterflies in a jar eager to be elsewhere. "Florence and I might never have found one another."
Just Between Us Absolutely Fabulous and I don't want to say any more for fear of spoiling it. Debated about whether to rec this here as neither romance nor friendship are central, although f/f references are deifnitely there as well as looking at mothership, but it definitely is about women's relationships and, oh, it's brilliant. "One of the girly ones, obviously, with nice clothes and a pretty girlfriend I could introduce people to at parties. `This is my lesbian daughter, Saffy, and this is her partner, Claire, they work at some terribly important science job together and are adopting two beautiful Vietnamese river-orphans...' "
Jingle Bell Rock. Jem. See above arguments as to why I'm including it. ^_^ Besides, it's Kimber/Stormer, and the characterisations are devastating, as are the mental images, especially of Pizzazz as the world's least angelic Christmas angel. "We're doing our Special Christmas number to raise money for poor little orphan girls everywhere without access to proper amplifying equipment. Do you know that most orphanage superintendents don't even know what 'moog' means?
and finally:
Queen Aurora & the Revenge of Maleficent. Disney Princesses, a sequel to Sleeping Beauty. Qualifying for mention here because of both the rivalry between Maleficent and Aurora and the strength of the maternal bond. Besides, it's a rip-roaring good story. Aurora shook her head. "You would be surprised, my darling Rosaline, at how few people seem to have any common sense, and fewer still that try to use it. I think that was the best gift of all, my love - and one day, it will make you the best queen that this kingdom has ever seen."
More later. ^_^ And I'm dying to see what others recommend...