I really enjoyed this. After you learn to ignore the broom sniper it's quite a brilliant fic. I'd give it a 4/5 easy, but maybe that's just because I like a nice simple H.Hr every now and again.

 

I agree with most, though the somewhat interesting Harry/Fleur interaction was completely shot down by the awful, eye-cancer inducing dialogue between Harry and Ron beforehand. I don't even mean the bashing parts, which are naturally horrible, but this:

That just killed it for me.

 

Yes. I think Sanctuary is also very good even though I wouldn't call it a simple H/Hr especially after the first scene.

 

Yep; latest chapters have gone even more downhill, too.

 

Agreed. Any potential I felt this fic had died during the last two chapters on my end. The main tournament is the same, and the continued iffy dialogue - with no signs of improvement - between Harry and Fleur leaves me very disconnected with either of them. The author seems to only want to take the safe chances - adding more competitions, but not altering the main tasks, for example. Another middling fic.

Stranger in a Too Familiar Land also dove to an all time low in the last chapter. Harry acting "neutral" towards the Dumbledore of the new world. Righteous Angry!Pettigrew about James and Sirius thinking Harry's "Dark" because he's a Parselmouth. Befriending the Basilisk. Befriending a portrait of Salazar Slytherin that was in the Chamber.

Christ almighty. I really need to start writing again. I know I can do better than that.

 

While I agree that the cliches are piling up, the story is still readable and I actually like this refreshing Pettigrew angle. It'll be somewhat interesting to see where the author's going with this.

 

Yes this. Do it, scary. More Steps Toward the End. Now. Do it.

As for Letters... middling is the best term for it. I didn't care much for the first chapter and it hasn't gotten all that better - just a Triwizard rehash with some extra bits and with a side of adding in some random OC character who takes the whole book out of the "What Not To Do When Writing OCs" book, being pretty, smart, always there and apparently having a boyfriend "even more famous than Harry." I think, last I checked, IRC was guessing that she's dating Merlin's corpse.

 

Agreed on "Letters." It's almost like the author read some JBern and decided to rip off his basic tournament setup (the dueling, quidditch, quiz bowl, etc.), except this author isn't creative enough to make their own tasks. Really a dissappointment as Sesc could've done much, much better.

 

I think you're meaning Seratin. But yea, agreed.

 

Yeah whoops.

 

Beyond the Pale by Araceil
WBWL story, but it doesn't fall into most of the cliche pitfalls of the genre. I feel like it's better than a 3/5, but I'm not sure about putting it into For Review.

 

It's placed right at Almost Recommended. The exposition is dull and spartan, but the story has enough novel elements as to make it readable as a guilty pleasure. The author's a slash writer, but has stated that aside from a distasteful part of chapter 2, there won't be any pairings.

Spoiler

Lockhart is a paedophile who fucks Harry offscreen.

Among other things, the several plot holes would prevent the story from ending up in the Library.

 

I'm not sure why that would prevent if from being in the library unless you didn't like the way the author wrote it... It's not canon, but this story is AU and it's not a stretch to imagine that being true in any case. Still, in principle, I agree that the writing is somewhat bland, though that can be partially attributed to Harry's character. Frankly, Dumbledore bothered me more than anything else, and only because the author managed to neatly avoid other WBWL cliches like that.

 

Before reading anything else I got really excited about Jim Gaffigan crossed over with Harry Potter. Night ruined.

 

I'd give it a 2 out of 5. The biggest problem I see is that it's bare-bones. This feels more like an outline, parts of which someone's started to fill out, than a story.

Then there was Manipulative!Dumbledore. He got a law passed that forces kids to go to the same school where they began their magical education? Yeah . . . on general principle, most people would tell the government to go stick a pineapple up its own ass and no one would enforce it. Dumbledore would be all "Auror, go arrest them for not bringing the Potters to Hogwarts!" and the Auror would respond, "No." I.e., it's a shitty plot device and the author shouldn't have written themselves into a corner that require them to use it.

Harry is all angsty and emotionless, except when he isn't.

The end comes out of left field and feels more like the author just got tired of writing. They might has well have simply said "Fuck it. Rocks fall. Everyone dies."

 

Woah wait, what the fuck? Tab has been closed.

Shouldn't that kind of stuff be an instant 1/5 here? :/

 

It's referred to indirectly and happens off-screen. Honestly, this bothered me less than the illogical elements, which made it hard for me to enjoy.

Spoiler

For starters, the whole premise is stupid. Harry was an unwanted kid whom they couldn't take care of while in hiding from the Death Eaters, yet somehow this is different from the Potters' taking care of Charlus during their hiding from Voldemort?

The Potters supposedly love Harry, yet not once in a decade check up on him, visit him, or have anything whatsoever to do with him. No real explanation was given. They get the Dursleys tossed into prison for neglect for not treating their own crotch trash with "dignity" or whatever.

Who is in what year is mixed up. Harry and Charlus are a year apart in age, yet Charlus is tight with Ron and Neville. But Neville is in Harry's year. Weird.

Harry can't throw off Lockhart's Imperius, yet he can Crouch's.

These are just a few things that bugged me. I'm sure one can find explanations for some of these, but I can't be bothered to care for a story that's not all that interesting. For me it rates 2/5 with moments of 3/5 (the scene with Fawkes where Harry meets his family the first time is decent, e.g.) and therefore is Almost Recommended.

 

You bitches need to get more creative with your titles. I swear to fuck if I see one more "Harry Potter and the... ", this thread is going to turn into "Vashadora Tonks and the Pointless Psychotic Bloodbath Over Trivial Internet Shit". D:

 

That story has awesomesauce written all over it. You must write it.

 

There needs to be a 'Not Recommended list', so we can include pretty much every new hp/dg, hp/ll, hp/bl, hp/nt story that isn't written by a dlper.