No Daphne, yet a guilty pleasure? I am surprised, Sesc. I'll give it a shot.

 

Aaaand I'm playing Charlotte the Harlot on my headphones now.

 

Whelp. I didn't think I'd enjoy this, but I actually did. That I haven't read a fic with the usual cliches- custom wand, Slytherin hierarchy etc- in years might be a large factor, and many of them can actually be kind of cool if they're executed remotely well. Of course, if you can't stomach this stuff anymore this won't be for you.

Something that goes in favor of this story is also that it doesn't go over the top, and the characters stay realistic: While many fics of its kind derail into the usual Dumbledore bashing etc, this story actually portray somewhat believable decisions and actions. Also, I must say that I enjoy the dynamics between the Slytherins and the OCs don't feel out of place.

Dumbledore's characterization is something that made this fic a lot more bearable to me. Instead of going the normal route and calling him a manipulative mastermind while portraying him as an incompetent imbecile, he's actually a good guy here, and his concerns regarding Harry are understandable because of the similarities between him and Riddle. This is obviously not Dark!Harry though, so I hope that these concerns dissolve after a while and that there won't be a forced conflict.

A guilty pleasure for sure, but I'm really looking forward to the next chapter so I'm also giving this a 3/5.

PS: The author has a few other stories with similar cliches. I won't open a thread for any of them because I don't think they're library material, but if you enjoy this one, you might enjoy those as well.

 

So this sounds fucking awful, but it’s either this or study for my econometrics final so I guess I’m going in. Will be back with a review.
--- Post automerged ---
Yikes. Before the first word of the story the author lists his favorite Slytherin Harry story and then listing a bunch of garbage he writes: “honorable mention to on the way to greatness, not top five by any means”


Ok keeping an open mind....


Edit: there are 7 numbered author notes before the first word of the story.

 

The first 6 chapters of this are almost entirely irrelevant. There are only two scenes that couldn't be cut without damaging the narrative: Dumbledore visiting Harry at the orphanage, and Harry meeting Charlotte. I would suggest everyone who wants to read this fic to either skip to the end of chapter 6 when Harry is sorted, or to scan through the first 6 chapters quickly if you don't outright read only those two scenes. The story does become markedly better when Harry gets to Hogwarts.

That said, this fic is just a little bit too much. The ANs are a little bit too obnoxious, Harry smirks a little bit too much, there are just a little bit too many calculating looks sent one way or another, there's just a little bit too much kissing of the ground Harry walks upon, everyone else is just a little bit too dimwitted, and the world a little bit too accommodating. If there were just a little bit less of any of those problems, I think I would like this story. But for every scene I like, there's two or three too many where Harry-cum-Jesus is putting even the most intelligent and suave Gary Stus to shame. That scene where Harry enlightened the entire room that the levitation spell could be used lethally was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen.

Above all I feel this scratches pretty much all the same itches as Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches and does it worse. I even feel like ACI100 and LeadVonE are similar people, but LeadVonE is a much better writer and has actually interesting, original ideas. I almost want to abstain from rating this until year 2 or 3, both because of Charlotte and because the author has shown improvement. As it stands this is the definition of a 2.5/5 in my opinion, it's a step below DPaSW but if you have an itch that needs scratched, this is tolerable.

 

It's not irrelevent. Daphne Greengrass is a great name. No OC name comes close. Plus, Daphne's hotness factor is intensified by years of being hot throughout fanfics. If you make it an OC with an OC name it's just not the same.

 

This story is fun and all, but the Slytherin House politics are a bit overblown. The concept of there being a student who leads the entire house was ridiculous in "Prince of Slytherin" and it hardly makes any more sense in this story. I prefer my house politics to be more organic, like they were in "Sitra Ahra" or "On The Way to Greatness" to there being this weird, rigid hierarchy which is seemingly accepted by students and teachers alike. Also, Harry calling his classmates "Mr." and "Ms." when nobody else does isn't polite. It's annoying to read, and would feel condescending as fuck in real life. If you can stomach these annoyances it seems to be a fairly decent independent fic. 3/5 for now, with the possibility of going down.

 

The long AN in the first chapter is a bit off-putting especially when the author says it's a one-time thing only to keep doing it afterwards. The plot is very heavy, but not in a thought-provoking way, more in "that's a lot of words that are meant to sound clever but really aren'' way making the story difficult to read. That being said there are some interesting concepts in there and the writing isn't bad, plus going by the number of reviews on ffnet there are obviously a fair number of people who enjoy it.

 

Ngl, the fact that this author considered Travel Secrets to be better than On The Way to Greatness isn’t a great start. But, I always enjoy Sesc’s recs so I’ll give it a go

 

This story is going to be deleted by the author within the next 48 hours.