The biggest problem with this fic was not the character development or any of that but the entire concept and her inablility to produce anything remotely bearable. I read about 5 chapters of this awhile ago before going "fuck this shit" because it was just that boring. Sure there might be times when an author needs to add a filler to help build up the story, but for this story it seemed as if after the first chapter or so it was all just filler.

 

Read this long a while ago, wasn't terribly impressed at the time. There is some half-decent imagery in here, and the writing style isn't too terrible. Character development and realism are far from being the source of this stories strengths, however, as has been pointed out previously in this thread. Harry's ridiculously powerful in places, yet acts like a complete wimp. He lets everyone else walk all over him, and acts like a naive little kid. The plot with that stupid book completely killed the story for me. I would have given it 2/5 for writing style, but the story apparently gets much, much worse.

1/5

 

I don't really give a shit about the story or anything in this thread, but I do wonder what Emma_Lipardi's reaction to this thread will be, seeing as she is a member of the forum.

 

Dark Lord Gullible: that was the point of this thread...in case you haven't seen it yet you might want to check out her intro where she gets publically bashed by Sree, who surprise, surprise started this thread.

 

The Petunia issue was touched before I got to it. She as neglectful, not abusive. When she sees that Harry is in fact in deep shit and that she may end up with a dead kid on her conscience, she wakes the fuck up. Petunia may have had been neglectful to Harry but who the hell wants to clean up after a suicide or explain to the police why you let a kid starve himself to death? Then, you talk to a shrink and you start seeing a different perspective of how much shit this kid went through. She starts trying to do a little better.

I didn't call anyone a retard. I said knee jerk reactions which rate the author down without reading it was retarded. "HURRRRR I HAVEN'T READ THIS STORY BUT IT SOUNDS GAY LOL. NEGATIVEBILLIONMILLION/5"

Flame that Harry is still a fucking pussy and that the adults in this story are encouraging him to be anything but self-reliant. Shit, there is so much that is so irrelevant to the plot that is added in, just for the feel good tingly feeling in the vaginas of fan girls. There are parts of this story that make me want to facepalm to the highest caliber, but I can definitely see where they are coming from.

It is much better than most fan fiction out there, including in the library here. I mean seriously, I could shit on my keyboard and it would make it as long as I mention killing Ginny. I can understand the hate for this story but it really isn't worth the low ratings it is being given without being read.

 

Relax; it's a colloquialism (on DLP). And a random thought that "came out of the blue" as I was typing.

 

I found this story a looong time ago on FF, i didn't care it had about 7000 reviews at the time, with a title like "An Aunts Love" I backed the hell out of there. Hilarious flames btw.

 

I tried reading this moons ago. Left a review.

Looking back on it, her response to my review (which wasn't positive in the least) was impartial and accepting of criticism, so, I can say that she's not as bad as some authors (some of which I've gotten replies that have just made my head hurt), however...

You're deluding yourself if you think this story has any literary merit. All of the character act illogically and the setting hardly makes any sense – besides it's chock full of flat original characters and ridiculous cliches. It's readable, and that's about it. Content-wise, it's the same as most of the stuff you'll find in ff.net.

 

No sir, while the Dursleys may not have been abusive to the point seen in all the abused!Harry fics, there were plenty of canon evidence pointing to the fact that they weren't merely neglectful either.

Because I would believe underfeeding a boy to the point of malnutrition and stunted growth, allowing your son to use him as his punching bag whenever he pleases, constantly belittling him, treating him almost as a slave and having no qualms about using physical violence on him (Petunia trying to clip Harry on the head with a skillet, as Tinn pointed out) falls under the category of both mental and physical abuse.

So yeah, I'm wondering who is the "retarded" one now, who probably reads too much abuse!fics and believe it must only mean the horrific torture, whipping and mutilation inflicted upon a hapless Harry.

Yes, Petunia is indeed abusive and not merely neglectful. But you are missing the point Sree is making. Even if it is as you say, and Petunia does not wish to have a dead nephew on her conscience, it sure as hell does not explain the rapid 180-degree U-turn in her attitude towards Harry. It might, just might have been believable if the change from an abusive Aunt to one who is caring and overprotective of him took place within years.

Can YOU seriously believe that a woman who has hated and despised a boy so much that she abuses him can make such a drastic change of heart in a matter of days? If so, you are the one with truly no idea of what character development means.

Suspension of belief is often needed when one reads a fic, but really, this premise of this fic simply crosses into the realm of absurdity.

 

*Coughs* Well said.

Also, the fact that I felt no incentive to read past the ninth chapter - slightly further than Sree - speaks badly for the fic.

Or not. I am, after all, just one person.

But when fthe majority of the people that posted in the thread dropped the fic like a pile of hot coals, then there is really something fucking wrong with the fic!

 

False - get the fuck out.

Check the library, you'll find that you are quite wrong.

You seem to be going by the image PP3 or Gayauthors whatever the fuck ever other site whose feelings we hurt try to project on us.

 

Nah, I don't really read much fan fiction at all. I just read whatever shows up on here rather than dig through the shit holes that make up the other sites.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good stories in the library but there are a few that made it that really don't deserve to be there that are certainly worse than this. If everyone dies fast and horrible deaths, you will lap it up. It is DLP's one weakness, like that chick that plays Luna is mine. ;_;

Why is he starved to the point of malnutrition and stunted growth? Because he is described as skinny and small? I was skinny and small when I was in grade school, also. That doesn't mean I was abused.

The Dursley's spoil their son by giving him all he wants and pretending other kids are the problem. There are a lot of parents who do this. This is another sign they are neglectful instead of abusive.

Slave? The book gives very few examples of him ever doing labor. He had to watch the bacon once and do some gardening. Well, shit I had to clean the floors, garden, mow the lawn, and take out the trash when I was living with my parents. It wasn't exactly dominating my life.

The skillet thing is just supposed to be a threat. Ever been slapped in the back of the head? Crazy Brits must do it with skillets because they're hardcore.

Anyway, my point is that they see him as a burden and nuisance but they don't exactly hate him enough to want him to be able to call himself abused.

Also, her attitude changes in a matter of days? Are we reading the same story here?

 

Please link these stories.

 

This story is 50+ chapters of slowly developing crap.

 

I asked myself that same question no less than a dozen times. I found recomendations for it, from people I thought had taste, and the review count should be indicative of quality in some measure.

But no.

It's my educated opinion that here's what happened.

The author wrote a sucky story, one composed mostly of a core if monumentally concentrated fail.

Normally that would have been the end of the story.... but this clueless author didn't know when to stop for the good of mankind.

They kept writing adding to the steadily, increasing density and word mass of this brick of a fic, until it created an actual gravitic field of failure that sucked at the surrounding mass of Fanfiction.net.

Of course, Fanfiction.net is itself composed mostly of fail (ever since they banned smut fics) and slowly, small chunks of fail and lose started falling into this gravity well into a sort of accretion disk like construct. Some of the larger hunks of fail formed up into small planetoids of loserness, but then spiraled down into the central mass of this fic, serving only to increase the density and horror that is this tale.

Eventually, at a certain point this piece of overhyped bullshit exploded and then imploded into a swirling dark mass of utter shit that had more reviews than it could possibly deserve, ... and it started sucking in reviewers from parallel bizarro universes where these other worldly readers actually liked this fic and posted reviews to that effect.

Seriously, man. The fic is un fucking readable.

 

Probably one of the top ten to fifteen stories every written. Definitely deserving of a 5/5.

 

I remember when BioPlague/Saruman/Merrill/et alia put some effort into his trolling. Now he just says the opposite of what the majority of the thread believes in a sentence or two and calls it a day.

 

I haven't trolled once tonight. In fact, I've reviewed almost every story in this forum.

 

I've been resisting posting on this thread, but I think I finally have to weigh in. Call it masochism.

An Aunt's Love is not the absolute horrible piece of shit this thread makes it out to be; its flawed, yes, but its still well above average. I'm not sure how much 'well above average' is worth, but it does count for something.

The character development is weak, I'll agree there, especially in regards to Petunia. The emotional turnaround was quick and forced, but since that point, her character has been reasonable enough. The story isn't about Petunia's emotional 180, its about Harry dealing with the shit thats been thrown at him and I can understand, to some extent, rushing Petunia's development in order to get into the heart of the story. Snape and Malfoy, well, honestly, there's no excuse for that. I'm willing to overlook it though, since the story as a whole is decent.

The grammar and spelling are not flawless - very little ever is - but what few errors there are are insignificant enough not to detract from the writing.

The plot is unique; that gets major points from me. I've read enough fics, (and there are so few original ideas floating around), that I'm willing to forgive a few other issues in exchange for a morsel of originality. To my knowledge, there is not another fic in existence where Harry deals with his issues in a halfway realistic manner by going to a muggle asylum. If there is another, by all means point me towards it.

Harry is an absolute pussy at times in this fic, and I understand that that doesn't really fly here. At the very least though, this particular Pussy!Harry deserves some credit for being believable and having legitimate reasons for being a little bitch.

It isn't a great fic. It doesn't fit at DLP. It has flaws, including a couple of reasonably major ones. Nonetheless, it is decent, and, if the author took a little rewrite time and added some more character development towards the beginning, it would improve drastically.

3/5. Maybe 3.5/5, although as it stands that's pushing it a little.

 

Have the fail from the fic clouded your mind so much it can't remember canon details? Because I seem to remember an instance when Harry was given just a slice of bread with cheese as food after a long day's chores. Let us not forget the times when he was locked in his cupboard and not given food either.

You may have been small and skinny when you are in grade school, but if you are as underfed as Harry was, there is no way you would be anything but more than a runt.

Yes, but when they allow their child to use bully and use physical violence on their charge, it crosses the line from "neglectful" to abusive.

You are talking about events that occurred post-OOTP, after the Order had warned the Dursleys to shape up. He had to do more than gardening prior to that.

I don't suppose you'd like me to take a swing at your head with a skillet would you? Because it seems more than just a threat to me.

Indeed we are.

All this while, I've hardly touched open how they caged Harry up in a cupboard for eleven years of his life, like he is nothing more than an animal. Oh wait, of course this isn't abusive, just neglectful. Incarcerating a young growing boy in a cupboard for years and letting him out only when they need him for a chore surely isn't abusive. It surely doesn't remind one of a virtual prison. Need I mention the instance when they locked him in his room, to the extent of placing iron bars to secure the windows, prior to Harry's Second Year at Hogwarts?

I'm guessing I was right and all the abuse!fics have really gotten to you. Either that, or you seriously have no idea what constitutes abuse.<!-- / message -->