Solace in Shadows - AU. When Harry is kidnapped by a seemingly sixteen year old Tom Riddle at the end of his second year, he's convinced that he would do absolutely anything to escape - but "anything" can be a dangerous conviction to have, and even heroes can grow tired of fighting without hope. Sometimes, survival means making a home in the dark...No slash. Warning: psychological abuse, could trigger.

Got to say, I'm very divided with this fic. Storywise it's okay and does tell a good what if story if Tom Riddle did in fact escape the diary in the Chamber of Secrets, by knocking Harry unconscious and talking to him later. In fact Tom Riddle himself is one of the best things about this fic, and his dynamic with Harry is both delightful and disturbing(at least to me it is).

However the fic has it's problems as well. The author has a bit of a problem by annoyingly using the word 'the other' rather than 'the other boy', and while the author has many times stated that the story is not slash, there is a reference that Tom uses later in story that is creepy:

Spoiler

When Tom discovers that Harry is one of his horcruxes, and he realizes that he can't tell Harry that he is a horcrux, Tom tells Harry that he is Harry's 'soulmate', but immediately states it is in no way romantic.

The final problem I have with this fic is that there are spelling mistakes, at least one to every three chapters, which while not bad, get annoying.

The thing is, is that I don't know if this story is even library material. It's good, and I'd even somewhat recommend it to anyone who wants to read a story about Tom's Diary hrocrux coming free, but I think that not everyone will like this fic, some might, some won't, but I think it's at least worth a read.

 

I managed to read Solace in Shadows up until the middle chapter 27, when I had the misfortune of stumbling upon the following lines.

Spoiler

Harry didn't even think about it, he just lunged forward and grabbed, tightly. Tom paused for a second, before his arms came round him in turn.

"Shh, come on, you're okay Harry, I've got you. It's over...please don't cry."
"I'm not crying," Harry spat, defensively, clinging all the harder, before letting go, flushing and scooting back.

Ugh. Needless to say, I didn't read further.

Still, I did find the beginning quite enjoyable, the highlight being teenage Tom and his dialogue with Harry, which was witty and believable. The writing was reasonably okay, though it would benefit from a decent proofreading.

The fic lacks subtlety. The copious use of the other I found easy to overlook, and him using the term soulmate in conversation with Harry is understandable (clearly he wouldn't want to explain the idea of a horcrux), but here are some other points that I was bothered about:

- Tom uses spoken incantations on several occasions, and he also fails to use magic when doing so would make sense (carrying or manhandling Harry on a few occasions).

- It is difficult to see Tom in the situation described ever bringing Harry to Malfoy Manor, or allowing him to visit friends with anything short of an elaborate Unbreakable Vow (even then it's flimsy).

- Doesn't seem believable that Tom would leave the Diary in the Chamber. Having Ginny survive in the diary kind of cheapens Tom's return.

- The slanderous Daily Prophet article about Harry was way out of proportion (at first I thought it was Tom's fabrication for manipulating Harry--but apparently not).

- Though the author plays with the theme that Tom might have trouble establishing his authority over Death Eaters (for indeed he is by all appearances a teen, and does not know what happened during the time when he was in the diary), he still has it far too easy, especially in his interactions with Snape.

Guess I'll stop here. Definitely not Library material, but I think it has a place in the Almost Recommendable volume. The idea has some merit, but the execution gets worse as the story progresses.

 

"Could trigger"? What the fuck? I've seen this in a few summaries, is this a new fad for angstwank fics?

 

'Triggers' are something I've been noticing for about a year now. Basically, if you've been raped, and reading about rape is something which greatly distresses you, then rape is a 'trigger' for you.

People seem to be stamping 'trigger' all over the place.

99% of us can ignore them.

 

It's short for Trauma Trigger, it's when something 'triggers' memories of a traumatic event, generally by being similar to the event itself. Even though the triggering event, such as reading a book or watching a film might not be traumatic itself, the experience, such as flashbacks, panic attacks and ptsd, are.

Thus, a 'trigger warning' is a heads up that it contains depictions of traumatic events that could trigger people who have had similar experiences.

TL;DR check your privilege.

Edit; ninja'd by a pathetic margin, teach me to not hit refresh after getting a drink.

 

...seems mighty like a way for bad angst writers to cry for attention/make their story seem more impressive, but whatever. The more you know...

 

I'm not surprised.

FFn is just an attention-whoring pit of shit.

 

Well, the summary definitely was a good trigger which told me to avoid that story under all costs.

 

Was I the only one who thought it said 'tigger'?

I was imagining all of these crossovers with Winnie The Pooh and I was so happy for a few brief seconds...

 

We can't blame FFN for the trigger cancer. That's all Tumblr's fault.

 

Title: Harry Potter and the Deus Ex Machina

Author: Karmic Acumen

Link: Harry Potter and the Deux Ex Machina.


I really feel that this story is going to be the one that is going to wash away the notoriety that still haunts me regarding my shit recommendations in this thread. (Debatable. I did recommend a few decent ones too).

It's basically a first war beginning where Regulus Black escapes the lake with the help of Deux Ex Machina and him working behind the scenes to thwart Voldemort's plans.

Magic in this story is well written and believable. Although there is the whole concept of family magic and 'Ancient and Noble Houses', those can be ignored in favor of the awesome combat scenes and 'Marius Black's' awesomeness.

The first chapter isn't that interesting, but shit hits the storm from chapter-3. Also, pure-blood bigotry is explored in detail as well is the whole concept of 'apparation', 'portkeys' and wards.

It's huge btw. Its over 2,00,000 words and the story is yet to reach the canon timeline.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8964470/1/Flying by CheddarTrek

Please ignore generic title and bad description (One night he gets more than he bargained for when he goes flying out of bounds - it sounds like description of "plot" in a bad porno).

This oneshot have awesome Harry, Fawkes and Dumbledore (last one managed to do this via letter) in "lighthearted fun and a test for myself to see if I could write an action-type scene.".

I plan to post in for library review but I want to confirm that it is great.

Note to author: what about moving "It's meant to be lighthearted fun and a test for myself to see if I could write an action-type scene." to description? Maybe instead of the second sentence?

---------- Post automerged at 00:31 ---------- Previous post was at 00:23 ----------

And the next one:

The Twine Bracelet by CheddarTrek

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8461800/1/The-Twine-Bracelet

 

'Flying' is in the WbA section of Dark Lord Potter.

 

https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=23276

 

Repost?

Decent rec. The title is a little misleading - this is a more Regulus-centric story than anything. So far, at least. The author hinted in one of his earlier chapters that Harry will feature more prominently later, but we've barely even touched on pre-Hogwarts Harry after 200K words.

Took me a few tries to slog through the first couple of chapters (dense paragraphs, purple prose, wish-granting space-time-continuum-defying God). No glaring spelling/grammar issues, so kudos on that front.

Meh. Debatable.

Regulus' disowned great-uncle is a Squib and a 'lawyer extraordinaire'. Wizengamot trials are featured pretty heavily in this story and explore the whole Muggle/Wizarding Law dichotomy. Marius is fanwanked to the point where he pretty much pwns the Wizengamot and sets a revolutionary precedent. TL;DR - any two-bit defense attorney could destroy wizarding prosecution.

Combat magic is well done, for the most part. Although Regulus' uber apparition/portkey magic feels like a major cop-out at times. I facepalmed when the family magic bits came up. The author delves into the idiocy of pureblood-superiority for a massive chunk of the story. Nek-minnit. Family magic.

3/5

It's wordy, decent enough to keep you reading, if a little absurd at times.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5526332/1/Childhood-s-End - "Post-DH. On the eve of the Decommissioning of Malfoy Manor, Hermione remembers the end of her childhood. The bookstore scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, POV Hermione."

Oneshot, about Hermione, I have feeling that I like it way more than average reader, so I will not try posting it in the Library.

 

I mentioned my opinion on the new 'trigger warning' thing in the Peeves thread, recently.

Maybe the budding, sanctimonious, social-justice-warriors would implode and abolish the whole trigger warning bullshit if I mentioned often enough that trigger warnings ARE my trigger.

I'm reminded of Denis Leary's words of wisdom: "Life sucks; get a fuckin' helmet."

Please, please, anonymous wimps out there, don't even think for one minute that I should be responsible for your butthurt because you have decided everyone else has to pad the metaphorical walls because you're a fucking crybaby.

The wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things... unless you were once 'almost' attacked by someone whose top was made out of rubber, and whose bottom was made out of springs.

 

If it makes it any better, those of us who actually have issues with triggers and PTSD and the like tend to dislike it when things that are blatantly not triggering (or at least, not to most folks) get labelled as such, but at the same time it's a pretty minor thing, and flashbacks and PTSD episodes are not fun in the least. All in all, they can be stupid, but if I'm writing a rape scene I'm going to warn people ahead of time, because I'm not an insensitive asshole and it's easy to do. Whether it's 'rational' or not, it's not an experience I'd wish on anyone.

 

Very short and quite enjoyable imo. 4/5