Title: pick it up, pick it all up and start again
Author: Annerb
Rating: T
Genre: AU, Drama
Status: Active
Library Category: Romance or The Alternates
Pairings: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione
Summary: The thing about war is that it never ends. Not really. The battlefields just change locations. Harry and Ginny after the war. Sequel to The Changeling. First story in the Armistice Series. Harry/Ginny
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12569750/1/pick-it-up-pick-it-all-up-and-start-again


Sequel to The Changeling (https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/the-changeling-by-annerb-t.29703/). It's up to the same standard of writing as The Changeling, though the focus is much less on action and much more on growth and emotions. For anyone unfamiliar with The Changeling; you're missing out. Give the story a chance, even if you're put off by the Ginny centric nature. This story also constantly jumps between Harry's and Ginny's POV, which I find to be incredibly skillfully done.

Title: in my head we do everything right
Author: Annerb
Rating: M
Genre: Drama
Status: Incomplete
Library Category: Romance or The Alternates
Pairings: Harry/Ginny,
Summary: It's not as easy as it sounds, going from hypotheticals to reality. Harry and Ginny navigate life after Hogwarts. (Third in the Armistice Series, Harry/Ginny)
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13143812/1/in-my-head-we-do-everything-right

5/5 from me.

TL;DR: If you thought that was too long, then I'm sorry to say that reading probably isn't for you.

Checked by Sorrows: 03/08/2019
- Second sequel added

 

I'm a sucker for Harry/Ginny post-DH stories. That's what brought me to fanfiction, and it's still one of my favourite genres. Add to that Annerb's excellent prose and the more developped, more interesting Ginny from the Changeling, and this one is a sure hit.

I can honestly say the only fault I have with this fic is Annerb's apparent loss of capacity to capitalize her titles. Rest assured, it's not the case in-story.

While loving it, I had reserves about the Changeling (mainly the bore of the first chapters before it found its own plot), so I think I love this one even better. Damn, she was updating twice a week and I still wanted moar. She cannot post the next one in the series too soon.

5/5 from me.

 

Previous posts:

Not sure if this will stay up or not. Seems that it should, as Annerb means to create a distinct series starting with this, and the tone is rather different.

 

Blame the author, not the OP.

I would say rather that DLP has, by and large, moved on from caring about the precise pairing.

 

Couldn't, because the author didn't. Please peak before you speak.

 

Sure you want that? He might be a biter. And I never quite understood the Ginny hate. Still don't.

 

The Ginny hate was a combination of factors. Part of it was a rejection of the wider fandom and their perceived lack of taste, widely identifying themselves based on the pairing they shipped. There was quite a bit of distaste for "Herman" too, if you'll think back to the good old days.

Ginny wasn't very fleshed out, the romance came out of nowhere, the romance itself was handled badly when it was done, and all of that combined with DLP's edgy teenage years means that we had Ginny kill-off threads as a counter-culture type deal.

Today, it's mostly inertia and mild distaste rather than kill-off competitions and site mods named "Die Ginny Die." DLP, for the most part, isn't nearly as vehement about pairing issues. Look at Zombie just now. Despite his predilection against Ginny, he still gave the story a read. That's true of a majority of the forum now. We all have our preferences, but the passionate love and hate has simmered down.

 

The author purposefully didn't capitalize the title, they have capitalized in the past. It's a stylistic decision, which we should reproduce here, whether you like it or not.

 

Well now we know it isn't quite lost on everybody.

 

I enjoyed The Changeling. Can't say the same for the sequel.

There's not much in the way of plot, nothing actually happens. The Changeling was interesting because it gave a 7 book-ish rehash in Ginny's perspective with the added twist of being in Slytherin, and a few original ideas and characters.

This story just coasts along in the milking-the-franchise middling sequel sort of way. The original characters come off bland and superfluous when the arc is driven by the tepid interaction between canon characters.

I get that it's supposed to be about the healing and catharsis in the aftermath of trauma and war, but I found it terribly dull.
As the style of the title suggests, it's a whole lot of pretentious wanking, aspiring to sound clever without actually saying anything of substance. One of Ginny's lines toward the end basically amounted to, "I am capable of emotional attachment, you can piss off," but was presented as far more cutting and "oh snap" in the characters' reactions than it warranted.

Harry's painted as some tortured war vet trying to find his way back into peacetime, but that's not entirely fleshed out, bogged down by whatever passes as chemistry between him and Ginny.

All in all, the story's a lot of telling that's not reflected in the showing except in a vague, colourless way.

2/5

 

Before my review, I'll go ahead and point out that Annerb has started on the sequel to pick it all up (and once again it has a rather glibly off-kilter title): we can still be, who we said we were.

Pick it up, just like Changeling, I find quite riveting. There is something special with this writer: her style is skilled and constant, but it’s also very annoying. There's loads of pseudo-existential bullshit expressed in short, dramatic sentences which scream adolescent angst. But I think this is the point, as it’s point-of-view stuff from two characters, Ginny and Harry, who are people who tend to take themselves and their problems very seriously: neither of them being especially given to self-awareness or self-irony, when they do introspect, they do so while indulging their irresistible penchants for histrionics and melodrama, as if for the aesthetic pleasure they derive from seeing their own tortured soul laid out in all its unique and misunderstood purity.

Now, either this is how the writer writes spontaneously, or it is a deliberate and coherent choice to go with her subject matter. I tend to favour the second explanation, and attribute it to her skill at shaping her words to fit her characters. This capacity for adequacy makes her, in my opinion, the best stylist in the fandom, along with whistle.the.silver.

For those who like plot-centred stories, think again. This one, even more so than Changeling, is not specially plot-driven: it focuses at rather great length on Ginny and Harry in the two or three months following the battle at Hogwarts, and lets us see the organic way they develop in the aftermath of the trying year which preceded it, as they each come to terms with their difficult itineraries and the lives which now stretch out before them. Harry feels very much like canon, as he does in the preceding instalment, and Ginny continues to grow organically from where she was at the end of Changeling. All in all, it’s a brilliant and incisive study in character development once again.

 

Bumping this thread due to the completed nature of the sequel, which can be found here.

All in all, one of the most enjoyable reads to date for me in the fandom. It's angsty at times, but there was a surprising lack of overbearing Hurt/Comfort in this particular installment. It deals, primarily, with Harry and Ginny moving on from the war and what that means for each of them.

It was, in a word, satisfying. There was resolution. The characters make sense and operate how they should given their backgrounds. There's actual growth.

It's not without its cliches at times, but I believe that the skilled writing makes up for it. The author nails the vibe of two teenagers pretty well. They're both far too mature (because naturally), but they're still believably young in the way they handle things. They're also likable, which I consider a testament to the author. Too often are characters utterly flat. Everyone Annerb focuses on comes off the page distinctly. Ron and Hermione are fleshed out and handled well. Ginny's friends are the same. Everyone has such a distinct flavor that they seem realistic.

All in all, very good read. Given my love of romance (and given Harry/Ginny was my OG pairing) this was fantastic. 5/5