Oneshot I Know Not, and I Cannot Know--Yet I Live and I Love by billowsandsmoke

Title: I Know Not, and I Cannot Know--Yet I Live and I Love
Author: billowsandsmoke
Rating: K+
Genre: Friendship (That's a genre right?)
Status: Complete
Words: 32,578
Library Category: General
Pairings: none
Summary: Severus Snape has his emotions in check. He knows that he experiences anger and self-loathing and a bitter yearning, and that he rarely deviates from that spectrum… Until the first-year Luna Lovegood arrives to his class wearing a wreath of baby's breath. Over the next six years, an odd friendship grows between the two, and Snape is not sure how he feels about any of it.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11923164/1/

Disclaimer: This is the first time I'm posting something on the review board so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I looked through everything I thought that I ought to have looked through and I didn't see this fic. In the event that I'm not doing it right, please behead me as opposed to ripping my head off...much more civilized, you see.

Came across this and knew this deserved a place in the library. The friendship between Snape and Luna is now officially my new headcanon. The author manages to keep them in character throughout and it's canon compliant. I didn't notice any grammar issues, but I'm hardly the best person with such things. Nevertheless, I would say that it's heavily proofread if not edited.

As for sheer entertainment value I can't state enough how brilliant this fic is. I hardly ever find fanfiction funny, but I couldn't stop smiling as I read it and it even made laugh out loud at times. I give it a 5/5.

 

I'm going to be honest, I clicked the link anticipating something I could really enjoy tearing apart - seriously, a Snape/Luna friendship fic? It sounds unbelievably dumb - but much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it.

It's very well written, not showy or dazzling, just engaging and effective, and it hits the important emotional elements really well. I'm not wholly convinced that Snape is as in character as you suggest, but it's a believable amendment to canon, so that's not a serious thing. Other than that, nothing to criticise. It's touching, funny, and oddly elegant. Really good find.

 

Just finished reading this and well I really liked it, it was nice and touching. Shinysavage has pointed out all great points, the only thing I can criticise is I thought that end scene with Harry and Luna was a bit long.

I'd probably give this a 4.5/5

 

I don't know what I was expecting... but it wasn't this.

This fic is incredible. It is incredibly touching and yet in character. I could see this happening.

Plus, the author writes Luna extremely well. One of the best I've seen.

While this fic was the perfect length, I wish it was longer. I didn't want it to end.

5/5 Easily. There is just so much emotion here.

 

Reading the reviews I went into this fic prepared to get my mind blown and I found myself... underwhelmed. On the one hand I liked it well enough. Snape and Luna are two of the hardest characters to get right and the author does a commendable job and their interactions hit the right notes.

My main problem is the length. So much of the fic is dedicated to psychoanalyzing Snape's actions that affected my immersion.

Spoiler

There's a point where he's comparing his situation with Luna to that with Lily. Not that it was creepy or anything, but it felt unnecessary.

The fic is too littered and suffers from being overly descriptive. With a word count of over 30k words I felt it was 10k too long.

Tighter editing would have elevated an otherwise 3/5 good fic (imo) to a 5/5 masterpiece.

 

It was extremely well characterised, with a fascinating idea, though the execution was somewhat lacking in that the writing was perhaps not the best I've seen. The emotions were a bit direct in description, and a bit more subtlety would not have been misplaced. Snape's inner reflection became slightly repetitive at one point, despite his constant evolution through the narrative. Overall, I've seen many stories worse than this being given five, so I'm voting 5/5.