Title: A Wand for Skitter
Author: ShayneT
Rating: T (I would set a higher rating for brutality)
Genre: Fantasy/Suspense
Status: Complete
Length: 359,078 Words
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: none
Summary: Waking in the body of a murdered child, Taylor Hebert, once a super villain and later a super hero must discover who has been killing muggleborns while being forced to go to Hogwarts, among groups who are the most likely suspects.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13220537/1/A-Wand-for-Skitter


A crossover between Worm and Harry Potter. The main character, as indiciated in the summary is Taylor. She does not replace Harry, but is dropped into the HP world just before Harry starts Hogwarts and the changes spiral out from there. Harry is not seen much initially but takes on bigger parts later. As it is Taylor post-Worm, she has of course a huge lead in terms of experience compared to her age cohort. She has to go to school with all the annoyances that would bring but it is not overblown. There is no bashing, and the characters are well portrayed.

It is hopefully not too much to spoil, since it is already alluded in the author's summary: Much of the initial tension comes from Taylor being sorted into Slytherin. The conflict with the purebloods is one of the main sources of conflict. Because of this, there is nearly constant tension.

This Taylor is extremely pragmatic and ruthless, perhaps more so than in canon. But it is still plausible. There was no time to recover, basically she is dropped from being shot by Contessa immediately into her new body. Expect much escalation. I am not sure I agree with the T rating, the story can be pretty brutal with detailed descriptions of gore.

The story is written fast paced, and left me easily hooked to see what comes next. That is the main attraction of it in my view. While some predictability cannot be avoided by the constraints of the setting, the author managed to keep things interesting and often enough surprising.

The spelling and grammar are mostly fine as far as I can tell. It was originally written rather fast, with an update often every other day on Spacebattles. The Fanfiction.net version seems a bit cleaner, and it was posted only after completion, therefore I would expect some improvement but I did not check in detail. The downside of this writing style, however, is that I think the author had not fully planned out where he wanted to go, or at least how to get there. It is complete, and not badly done, but there is a bit of a rush in the endgame.

Spoiler: My personal highlights without saying too much

Especially memorable scenes were Taylor encountering a Boggort, and her interactions with Umbridge.

I would give it 4/5. It is not perfect, but a good read. That said, I found it very entertaining to read. It explores the effects of a person such as Taylor dropped into Hogwarts well.

 

This is a horrible Worm fic and an even worse HP fic.

 

I'm really curious if he's actually read Worm, or just relied on the wiki or FFs. Sometimes it doesn't seem like it. The first one he did where Taylor inherits Magneto's powers, it really showed. The characters were just place settings for whatever he needed them to do.

Now it seems like he takes an idea or character and just bastardizes whatever cross he's doing with it. Like this one: she doesn't have her actual power, instead she magics it up from nothing. Sure, it's magic, but still. He twists HP magic into something that almost unrecognizable from canon.

Though it's understandable that he relates so well with Taylor as a main character in whatever story he's writing. He escalates to the extreme almost as quick as she does. The bad guys are bad and deserve anything that's done to them, and he's gotten inventive in his literary bloodlust with each story he writes.

The sad part is that he's got some good ideas, but they're buried in with all the slash/kill/murderize that it's become stale. Still, I read these stories when I have nothing else to read and I have a taste for a slasher fic.

In fact, it really reminds me of the old Friday the 13th movies I grew up on. Yes, they were awful. Yes, they were predictable, gore-filled, campy at times, and I left feeling like I needed a shower more often than not, but it served a need, I suppose.

For that it gets a 2/5.

 

For what it's worth, at least Shayne finishes his stories, which puts him ahead of most other fanfic authors out there. There are worse time-wasters than this.

2/5.

 

Eh, I guess I have lower standards. I agree with everything that’s been said above, but it doesn’t seem to bother me as much. The writing itself is certainly readable, and I read the whole thing, so that at least counts for something. Certainly no masterpiece, but if you’re looking for something to kill a day with and are willing to suspend your disbelief, you could do worse.

3/5

 

2/5. It's a time waster, and something that updated reliably, and it's finished. The prose is flat and workmanlike. The main character is not Taylor, however. They're more of a memetic exskalashion Taylor. To give you an idea of what that means, the 'final battle' was

Spoiler

some full on Home Alone shit ramped up to 11 of Taylor vs Voldemort and his army of dastardly European mercenaries.

It's something to read, and I was vaguely amused at times, but once again it's a fic that had an interesting premise that was buried under a tide of dumb plot twists and poor characterisations.

 

There's a reason this story has existed for a year and hasn't been posted here yet.

 

Honestly, this is a much better story to read a little at a time via periodic updates than to read the entire thing at your own leisure.

Reading a few thousand words in the occasional update was pretty good for most of the story but the big issues with characterization, 'Taylor' and everything else makes it something that I'll never reread.

2/5 as a completed work.