Comments | xf_book_club: Story 82: "The Sin Eater" by Jane Mortimer

wendelah1 in xf_book_club

Story 82: "The Sin Eater" by Jane Mortimer

Jun 12, 2009 08:48

Last month, when I was going through the past recs for The X-Files at crack_van in preparation for my turn "driving the van," I was startled to realize that "The Sin Eater" was not on the list. As good as it is, and often as it has been recced elsewhere, I would have thought that everyone would have read it by now, but then a friend, who has been in the ( Read more... )

au, pg, msr

Comments 46

wendelah1 June 20 2009, 19:21:13 UTC

As an avowed Scullyist, I must confess that one of the elements that made me love this story is how it shows off, in a very unassuming way, what a smart, observant woman my heroine is, and what an asset to the X-Files division her assignment truly was.

Scully catches on right from the beginning that something is off.

What had happened? She pushed him back suddenly. They'd gone into the warehouse... not that long ago. Half an hour? And he'd been wearing a different suit. And his face...

"What's wrong with you?" she asked.

He seemed startled. "With me?"

It was his eyes, his expression, a certain look of refined misery, as though he'd just gotten out of bed after a fever. A burnt-down to essentials look. The crazy thing was, it had been suffused there, for a second, by a glow of sheer, inexplicable happiness that was so overpowering it was scary.

"Are you feeling all right?" she asked.Then of course, Mortimer plunges us right into the heart of the story, while continuing to give us little clues that are nearly all a result of ( ... )

memento1 June 20 2009, 23:41:01 UTC

Wow. Now that was a ride. I have to agree with everything written here - it stands out for its economical packaging. It's dark without being angsty. Normally I don't like dark fics - I don't want to get depressed and leave on a sour note. But this fic manages to get across that dark message very effectively without bringing the angst and depression that usually follows. This story shows one of the darker Mulders seen in fic, but only glancingly. Almost teasingly. You want to know more but you really, really don't. By holding back from endless angst, the story and the message stick with you long after the fic has ended. That's one of those things I search for in a fic but rarely find: one that leaves me hanging in a way, thinking about it after I've finished reading ( ... )

wendelah1 June 21 2009, 06:03:29 UTC

I thought you would like it. Frankly, I think there are many stories that would benefit from skipping over the sex. Most people can't write sex very well, or create a convincing scenario leading up to the deed. This can mar an otherwise well-conceived, nicely written story.

memento1 June 22 2009, 02:42:43 UTC

I agree. Sex is like sugar. Authors add it to everything thinking you can't go wrong, but only in certain doses under certain combinations does it really add something special. Haha...too much analogy?

estella_c June 21 2009, 18:07:06 UTC

I so agree with this post, and am so in sympathy with memento1's negative feelings about angst. But she nails why this story succeeds so magnificently. It's because of the subtlety, the "holding back." It allows you to feel and yet surmount the pain of what you're reading, and to remember it with deep respect and some odd kind of pleasure.

Cheap angst doesn't haunt you because it's essentially sentimental; you know there's always more of that commodity if it's your drug of choice. The Sin-Eater sticks to your brain because it's unique.

Thread 10

bmerb October 11 2016, 18:13:32 UTC

I can't say anything thing more insightful about this piece than what is written above, but wow what a punch it packs! Written in '97 hmm? Definitely a fantastic timeless feel to it. I had read this something me in the semi recent past and somehow got confused as to whether it was some kind of crossover. That is how realized and gritty the AU felt to me, regardless of how little about it was revealed. Epic.