Title: The Potter Family Grimoire
Author: DisobedienceWriter
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Supernatural
DLP Category: Alternates
Pairing: None
Status: Complete one-shot. 20,905 words
Summary: Harry Potter has an unprecedented amount of freedom the summer before his Third Year. He stumbles into an odd shop in Diagon Alley that will change his life forever.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5101357/1/The_Potter_Family_Grimoire

A well-crafted complete one-shot from DisobedienceWriter. I like how the story is constructed and believe it's library worthy.

4 stars.

 

Not so great. Magical spell book grants Harry to wtfpwn everyone with his new found haxxorz. We have rape, angst, a white knight that holds Hermione's hand while she has an abortion, and righteous rage over social injustices.

The only thing I found interesting was the shopkeeper. Nothing really there, but I liked it and I'll give it a 2/5 for that.

 

3/5 because it's an interesting read, but there's really no themes to this story, just a plot and some spells. I won't give it a 2 because it was still "enjoyable."

 

I like how it's not the book, but Harry's ideals and morals that end up being the strong point.

Yes - he has a book with awesome spells. Trivial spells, as well. Good luck is just as easy to hand out as bad. That's nothing new. Wards have been mentioned briefly in the books, and this one has drawbacks of it's own. It's not an instant win. It has its dangers, and clears up the plot hole of killing curse survivor to a degree. (Degree, in that the book should have been lost by his own timeline before the '81 incident. Perhaps James was playing around with incomplete knowledge?)

Compared to other plot devices, the book isn't so bothersome.

I wasn't terribly happy with the World Cup solution. That was too unrealistic in my mind. Inventive, but unrealistic.

Not sure how to take the old bike of 'friend gets raped, this means war' to bring out Harry's protective streak. It's old. Very old, and it's really irritating.

Would have liked to hear more about how other family grimoires factored into the world, as opposed to a minor mentions, as almost an afterthought. As far as the world is concerned, there exists no other unique magics. That would have been a nice balancer, to the book itself.

3.5/5, mostly losing points for the rape-bike.

 

The Potter and Black mottos(?) were fairly interesting concepts that could be expanded upon, but they weren't used well. You are left with a cliche ridden IndyHarry story, down to inexplicably malevolent Dumbledore.

 

I've enjoyed a couple of DW's other stories; this one: not so much.

Plus Side: Using the cursed shopkeeper to frame the story was interesting, and everything was well-written. Plus it was fun to see Dumbledore and a few other minor villains get their comeuppance.

Negative Side: there's no drama or tension here. Harry is almost like a passive observer of the events around him. We're never afraid for him or rooting for him. Those family spells are just too powerful.

And the rape was totally unnecessary. The perpetrator could have been turned into a villain with an attempted sexual assault just as easily. Considering the consequences for the victim, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

3/5 - it wasn't a waste of time, but I don't ever want to read it again.

 

I was glad to see DW back with an HP story but have to agree with those feeling pretty meh about this one. Some good parts to this fic but nothing all that special. A few nifty spells that in this context are ridiculously useful and powerful. A completely anti-climactic end to Voldemort. Typical Dumbledore manipulation and comeuppance. And a nice framing at the start and end to make this feel like a little glimpse into an AU world.

Overall though, it's just kinda unremarkable. 3/5

 

Just like all DW's fics, Harry is powerful, ruthless and his enemies offer little to no challenge. That's exactly what I like.

3.5/5

 

The beginning of the story was pretty good, with decent characterization, but I felt it went downhill from there.

I particularly did not like the way DW showed Dumbledore to be. Dumbledore may be good or bad or an evil and manipulative old man but he sure is not incompetent. Hexing him with a bad luck curse, that was shown to be so effective felt kind of meh.

Also everything acts in Harry's favour, he always comes out on top of any problem he gets into. His enemies are weak, powerless and incompetent fools who get defeated by a teenager.

There is no suspense or thrill in the story. The only thing I liked about it was the depiction of the cursed shop-keeper.

I will give it 2/5. The writing is good, the plot not so much.

 

A typical DW story. A smart Harry only because everyone around him is too stupid or too weak or both. Zero challenge for Harry and everything conveniently falls into his lap. What happened to talent, preparation and plain old dumb luck? Anyway, this is a story for a lazy Sunday afternoon when you have a couple of hours to kill. One point for the vaguely coherent plot and another for the grammar and writing.

Final score: 2/5

 

I found it an enjoyable read, although as so many of you have already stated it was rather unremarkable. Quite clicheé with Harry buying a magical item of über power, but I did think it was rather well written and thus I didn't mind so much.

3/5

 

We're on similar paths here. Even though the story is structured by spells found in the grimoire (and consequently many elements are telegraphed), the focus is on Harry's ideals and morals. I agree with you that the rape was unnecessary, which is how it lost points with me too.

I think what would be cool is if someone did a "Book of Grimoires," and did it right. A longish chapter or chapters on how HP characters' actions are influenced by their family grimoires.

I thought the framing device was quite good and a nice twist on the usual mysterious shopkeeper motif perhaps best popularized in fanon by Rorschach's Blot. Voldemort's end was anti-climatic.

As mentioned above, the story is structured so that certain things are telegraphed, so its relative unremarkableness in that regard is to be expected. I think the unremarkableness of the action means that Harry's ideals and morals are highlighted even more.

 

Wow! Holy Deus Ex Machina, Batman!

I like super!Harry as much as the next asshole, but this is a bit much.

DisobedienceWriter's best works in my opinion were Naruto's Compensation and Interview with the Slytherin Childe. Guerilla Potter is also quite something.

The cursed shopkeeper was interesting, but more could have been done.

 

It seems that in most of the author's fics, he gives Harry the moral authority by making, nigh on everyone else, incredibly stupid / incompetent / misguidedly evil yet still needs to be smited.

The Grimoire and awesome spells has been done before.

In every "Harry goes to Knockturn Aleey and is aweseome" the Dark Arts books can be replaced with family Grimoire and the result is the same.

Super Harry with unstoppable powers against the world.

The only redeeming factor in this particular fic? The author has managed to insert some Greek mythology and I <3 them.

2/5

 

Like most of Disobedience Writers work, it inspires some thought. A tad bit mundane in places, un-necessarily long-winded in others, but overall a decent read that had the most important part to a fic IMO: it's different. For concept and technical expertise I'll give it a 4.

 

This is the first of this writers stories that I stopped reading.
While I did go back and finish it later, It did not have enough (fill in the blank)
to hold my interest to read at one go and I knew it was a short read at the time i went looking for something better.

That said this story is better than a whole bunch of other stuff.

4/5 What other New Finished stories this month are better?

 

I read Master of Seals, and it was pretty horrible. Naruto left Konoha becoming a seal master and proceeded to crush everyone. There's no conflict whatsoever. I have a feeling this author may write the same story over and over, but I'll read a few more to make sure.

 

The Lie I've Lived, by Jbern.

 

I read the fic and I think it is decent 3/5 from me

 

Kinda surprised to see this here, considering how many of DisobedienceWriter's stories have been Binned already.

Points for excellent structure, well-crafted Shop Keeper, Writing Style and originality, aside from the initial premise.

Rape Plot stopped this from turning into a Utopia, and I liked Harry's morally ambiguous characterisation at the end.

4/5