I saw this linked on r/hpff and thought it would be worth posting here as well.

The list is quite similar to the buzzfeed one from a few years ago and seems to mainly be a list of the most reviewed fics on FFN.

Nevertheless, I think its pretty interesting to see what the picked in the end, even if the categories aren't the most interesting.

https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/books/amp32438218/best-harry-potter-fan-fiction/

 

Wow... some of these choices aren't terrible, which is more than I expecting. Plenty are, and I will never read a Hermione/Snape story, and I don't really buy into Harry/Hermione because they seem like siblings to me (admittedly that's just my personal feeling).

 

A Black Comedy is there and that's about all I can say for it.

We literally talked on discord yesterday about how these people shouldn't be allowed near a comprehensive list until they've earned it by reading this shit for fifteen years.

 

It really looks like a list for tumblr and maybe AOE fans than the average DLP or r/HPff fanfic reader.
I mean it has A Big Happy Weasley Family at 3rd spot in smut.

Not quite how I would describe it lol, whoever wrote this didn't really read these fics and probably googled them.

 

About what you'd expect from people that don't seem terribly involved in the fandom trying to parse it out for mainstream consumption.

God, I'm such a fucking nerd.

 

I think it's another case of conflating best and popular.

 

Any list that puts MOR and POS among the best HP fics is a worthless list, regardless of what else is listed. Yes, they listed PotDK and ABC, but they also listed the first two.

Par for the course for those lists. We all still remember the Buzzfeed one that recommended Harry Crow, yeah?

 

Not the list I would write for myself, I've read maybe half of the fics and liked maybe a quarter of those.

 

Is it a comprehensive list if there isn't a single Daphne fic?

Kidding aside as much as I hate most of the highlighted pairings I don't mind them being included because the majority of fanfic fans don't hate those ships and it is supposed to be an all inclusive list.

I would have expected some of the safe classics to show up like Oh God not again and make a wish though.

Bonus points for lack of robst also.

 

I counted 4 or 5 fics that I have read and liked on the list. Most of the stories on the list are those which I will never read.

 

they sorted by favorites, how interesting

 

I think they also sorted by comments because there're a few with high comments but relatively few kudos.

 

Rookie mistakes, they should have said millions of stories. But yes likewise, no mention of some of the classics, nothing by Rorschach which was their first mistake.

 

Should DLP pen a formal letter to Oprah?

 

Yeah definitely on account of an utter shambles of an article that does not reflect the real scope of the Harry Potter fanfiction literature

 

I had no idea this list existed. It was a pleasant surprise to see A Black Comedy and The Best Revenge on it. I'm not a fan of the Snape-as-mentor trope, but Arsinoe de Blassenville (RIP) was a talented writer.

I wonder, though, if a real editor on Oprah's staff bothered to vet some of these picks. That Manacled fic is about Hermione being raped by victorious Death Eaters to repopulate the magical world. They call that 'forced surrogacy?' What the hell?

The 'erotica' choices are downright hilarious. A Big, Happy Weasley family is nothing but a cuckold fetish story. That's hardly representative of the fandom's smut (or the average person's tastes). HP and the Sword of Gryffindor is sometimes funny, but erotica it is not. (Unless you count dad-level dick jokes and ludicrous, anime-style porn that doesn't even attempt to be realistic).

Not going anywhere near the Hermione/Snape fics, but at least not all of them involve a teenage Hermione.

 

They sorted by 'genre' and 'favorites' on FFN and that's the list. I don't believe for a second whoever put that list together actually read and considered all those fics. Also, the dictionary at the beginning includes 'Modern AU'.

 

Huh. My list would probably have HPBWL, Fire Omens/You Meet In Paris, Victoria Potter, Prince of Slytherin, and Old Blood.

Btw, has Sitra Agra aged well? I tried out the first chapter a few weeks back and it didn't grab me.