3 recs : RPF, harry potter, sherlock holmes
Fandom : RPF
Title : Kinda Busy
Author : yeats
Rating : M
Characters & Pairings : Lady Gaga/Beyonce (Gaga/Honey B)
Length : ~600 words
Warnings : none
Summary : I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.
My Rave Review :
well, first of all, this won't make any sense unless you've seen the video for 'telephone'. so go do that. and then go read this fic, come back and tell me that yes indeed, it's the perfect narration of the relationship between gaga and beyonce's characters in the video.
A hundred miles out, Gaga thought she saw a sign for the World's Largest Vat of Vaseline, but Honey B just kept her Ann Demeulemeester heel on the gas and the nails of her three littlest fingers digging into Gaga's thigh.
the video is essentially a nine-minute long homage to tarantino, from the pussy wagon to the jail to the killing spree in the diner; best of all, the girls are exactly how i'd imagine the bride and o-ren were in their youth, before they hated each other. the fic picks up on the subtle touches of dominance, antagonism, loneliness and love that the video drops, and in less than 700 words manages to paint a picture of two high class ladies (and their dog) on the run not only from something, but toward something. i loved this so much; it'll take you ten minutes to read and it'll be the best ten minutes of your day.
Fandom : Harry Potter
Title : Shattered
Author : femmequixotic
Rating : E
Characters & Pairings : Harry/Draco, Luna, Hermione
Length : ~7500 words
Warnings : some blood and paint play
Summary : One damned accident involving one too-lucky curse, and suddenly you'd think he was five again, with their Harry, be carefuls and their quick Levitating charms ready the instant the potion gives way and his rebelling hands lose hold of whatever's in their grasp.
My Rave Review :
i will still freely admit to being a harry/draco fan, and i'm even more interested in post-series fic now than i ever was before. i wasn't a big fan of the epilogue and i like fic that deals directly with the fact that life is never that simple or easy. this fic is based upon that premise. harry got cursed in his work as an auror, and now his hands don't work right anymore. they tremble and betray him and he's frustrated and angry a lot of the time because of his condition. then in steps draco, who's become an artist in the years since the war, a successful one who makes beautiful sculptures out of glass. harry meets him at a gallery showcasing his work, and the banter between them is no less interesting and tense for them being ten years older than they were in the books. yet there's a level of understanding in it, a sense of something more between them even through the antagonism, that i really enjoy.
Colour spreads across Malfoy’s pale cheeks, but he only shrugs. “I don’t want platitudes.” He fixes a cool gaze on Harry and twists his wineglass stem between his long fingers. There are cuts across his knuckles, thin red-brown scabs that he hasn’t bothered to heal.“What does it make you feel?” he asks, his voice quiet, and Harry knows this is important to him.
He licks his bottom lip. “I don’t know,” he says, with an apologetic half-smile, and Malfoy looks oddly disappointed. Harry can’t--or won't, rather--tell him that he hasn’t felt much at all the past few years, other than the ever-present pain in his wrists and fingers, dulled only by the potions, so he looks away. He clenches his fists in his trouser pockets, pressing his bitten-to-the-nub fingernails into his skin.
also, the author has a way with words that strings me along so i barely noticed how fast i was eating it up until i was almost done. it's a great story (and hot, too :)) about feeling broken and lonely, and finding a little respite from that with someone else who's just as broken and lonely as you are.
Fandom : Sherlock Holmes
Title : These Things Were Promises
Author : paperclipbitch
Rating : E
Characters & Pairings : Holmes/Watson
Length : 10,000
Warnings : drug use (more intense and explicitly described than in canon)
Summary : Watson has had to take a brutal course in being honest with himself so nothing Holmes says will ever be a surprise.
My Rave Review :
this fic is, i imagine, to the holmes fandom and holmes/watson 'shippers what "you'll get there in the end (it just takes a while)" is to star trek reboot fans and kirk/spock shippers. it's long and twisty and gloriously well written; you wallow around in it while you're reading it, drawn on by the author's skill with words and description, the effortless way she imitates the style of the books, and the sense of holmes and watson being inexorably drawn together even as the reasons pile up why they should stay apart. the view of the world from watson's eyes is rounded out by his awareness of the fact that he's quite in love with his friend, and that, as much as holmes' drug use or any of their cases, is the problem central to the story.
Watson thinks that by now he knows almost as much about himself as Holmes knows about him, but he also thinks that Holmes does not know this. It would all be a lot easier if they could have a frank conversation, but they never will, Watson can tell this. Besides, he cannot shake the niggling thought that Holmes is aware of more, can see thoughts in Watson’s head that he has somehow not noticed, thoughts that will negate the feelings he believes he has for Holmes or, at the very least, make them into something slightly different. It is impossible to tell what Holmes sees when he looks at another human being, and on the whole Watson thinks he is grateful for this; he thinks the world through Sherlock Holmes’ eyes is too bright and too tangled and too ugly and it would not be comprehensible to anyone who was halfway sane.
i just love how natural this is; i have read most of the holmes stories and am in agreement with robert downey that you can definitely read holmes as "a very butch homosexual", so the shippiness of the story isn't a consequence of the movie so much as amplified by it. i think the author's done a fantastic job melding the two (she states the fic is set pre-movie, but it definitely has the madcap flavor of ritchie's interpretation of the characters and setting) throughout most of this, i just felt like i was reading another holmes story, to the point where i've definitely mixed up some things from this fic with actual canon. so if you're a fan of holmes and you think you might be into some shippy fic, start here. it's an emotional rollercoaster, but then again, that's basically what watson tells us life with holmes is like, so i only consider that another mark in the fic's favor. XD
and just a quick reminder to new watchers, don't try to join the comm, that's just for the reccers. all the posts are public so just watch it and you won't miss anything. <3!
Title : Kinda Busy
Author : yeats
Rating : M
Characters & Pairings : Lady Gaga/Beyonce (Gaga/Honey B)
Length : ~600 words
Warnings : none
Summary : I left my head and my heart on the dance floor.
My Rave Review :
well, first of all, this won't make any sense unless you've seen the video for 'telephone'. so go do that. and then go read this fic, come back and tell me that yes indeed, it's the perfect narration of the relationship between gaga and beyonce's characters in the video.
A hundred miles out, Gaga thought she saw a sign for the World's Largest Vat of Vaseline, but Honey B just kept her Ann Demeulemeester heel on the gas and the nails of her three littlest fingers digging into Gaga's thigh.
the video is essentially a nine-minute long homage to tarantino, from the pussy wagon to the jail to the killing spree in the diner; best of all, the girls are exactly how i'd imagine the bride and o-ren were in their youth, before they hated each other. the fic picks up on the subtle touches of dominance, antagonism, loneliness and love that the video drops, and in less than 700 words manages to paint a picture of two high class ladies (and their dog) on the run not only from something, but toward something. i loved this so much; it'll take you ten minutes to read and it'll be the best ten minutes of your day.
Fandom : Harry Potter
Title : Shattered
Author : femmequixotic
Rating : E
Characters & Pairings : Harry/Draco, Luna, Hermione
Length : ~7500 words
Warnings : some blood and paint play
Summary : One damned accident involving one too-lucky curse, and suddenly you'd think he was five again, with their Harry, be carefuls and their quick Levitating charms ready the instant the potion gives way and his rebelling hands lose hold of whatever's in their grasp.
My Rave Review :
i will still freely admit to being a harry/draco fan, and i'm even more interested in post-series fic now than i ever was before. i wasn't a big fan of the epilogue and i like fic that deals directly with the fact that life is never that simple or easy. this fic is based upon that premise. harry got cursed in his work as an auror, and now his hands don't work right anymore. they tremble and betray him and he's frustrated and angry a lot of the time because of his condition. then in steps draco, who's become an artist in the years since the war, a successful one who makes beautiful sculptures out of glass. harry meets him at a gallery showcasing his work, and the banter between them is no less interesting and tense for them being ten years older than they were in the books. yet there's a level of understanding in it, a sense of something more between them even through the antagonism, that i really enjoy.
Colour spreads across Malfoy’s pale cheeks, but he only shrugs. “I don’t want platitudes.” He fixes a cool gaze on Harry and twists his wineglass stem between his long fingers. There are cuts across his knuckles, thin red-brown scabs that he hasn’t bothered to heal.“What does it make you feel?” he asks, his voice quiet, and Harry knows this is important to him.
He licks his bottom lip. “I don’t know,” he says, with an apologetic half-smile, and Malfoy looks oddly disappointed. Harry can’t--or won't, rather--tell him that he hasn’t felt much at all the past few years, other than the ever-present pain in his wrists and fingers, dulled only by the potions, so he looks away. He clenches his fists in his trouser pockets, pressing his bitten-to-the-nub fingernails into his skin.
also, the author has a way with words that strings me along so i barely noticed how fast i was eating it up until i was almost done. it's a great story (and hot, too :)) about feeling broken and lonely, and finding a little respite from that with someone else who's just as broken and lonely as you are.
Fandom : Sherlock Holmes
Title : These Things Were Promises
Author : paperclipbitch
Rating : E
Characters & Pairings : Holmes/Watson
Length : 10,000
Warnings : drug use (more intense and explicitly described than in canon)
Summary : Watson has had to take a brutal course in being honest with himself so nothing Holmes says will ever be a surprise.
My Rave Review :
this fic is, i imagine, to the holmes fandom and holmes/watson 'shippers what "you'll get there in the end (it just takes a while)" is to star trek reboot fans and kirk/spock shippers. it's long and twisty and gloriously well written; you wallow around in it while you're reading it, drawn on by the author's skill with words and description, the effortless way she imitates the style of the books, and the sense of holmes and watson being inexorably drawn together even as the reasons pile up why they should stay apart. the view of the world from watson's eyes is rounded out by his awareness of the fact that he's quite in love with his friend, and that, as much as holmes' drug use or any of their cases, is the problem central to the story.
Watson thinks that by now he knows almost as much about himself as Holmes knows about him, but he also thinks that Holmes does not know this. It would all be a lot easier if they could have a frank conversation, but they never will, Watson can tell this. Besides, he cannot shake the niggling thought that Holmes is aware of more, can see thoughts in Watson’s head that he has somehow not noticed, thoughts that will negate the feelings he believes he has for Holmes or, at the very least, make them into something slightly different. It is impossible to tell what Holmes sees when he looks at another human being, and on the whole Watson thinks he is grateful for this; he thinks the world through Sherlock Holmes’ eyes is too bright and too tangled and too ugly and it would not be comprehensible to anyone who was halfway sane.
i just love how natural this is; i have read most of the holmes stories and am in agreement with robert downey that you can definitely read holmes as "a very butch homosexual", so the shippiness of the story isn't a consequence of the movie so much as amplified by it. i think the author's done a fantastic job melding the two (she states the fic is set pre-movie, but it definitely has the madcap flavor of ritchie's interpretation of the characters and setting) throughout most of this, i just felt like i was reading another holmes story, to the point where i've definitely mixed up some things from this fic with actual canon. so if you're a fan of holmes and you think you might be into some shippy fic, start here. it's an emotional rollercoaster, but then again, that's basically what watson tells us life with holmes is like, so i only consider that another mark in the fic's favor. XD
and just a quick reminder to new watchers, don't try to join the comm, that's just for the reccers. all the posts are public so just watch it and you won't miss anything. <3!