Title: Like Cats and Dogs
Author: disnickyX
Rating: T
Genre: Romance/Drama
Status: In-Progress
Pairings: Tori and Jade
Words: 351,649
Summary: Tori and Jade don't get along. They're always fighting, even over the smallest of things. But then Tori's ex shows up at Hollywood Arts; and he's dating a girl named Melissa there. Tori tells him that she's dating someone new too. He invites her on a double date and now she's got a problem. She needs a date. Rating may change if I can get the courage to write one of those scenes
Link: ff.net

So, this is a fandom that I doubt many people here are into. Before the call to post everything, wouldn't really have considered reccing this here, in fact. Not really someone who watches the show myself - checked out a few episodes, it's reasonably fun but by no means great - but through someones profile and procrastination I stumbled into the fandom and after wading through a lot of guilty pleasure time wasters, I found this story, which is most likely the best of its kind there. That sounds like faint praise but it's actually a really good read.

Now, the summary makes it sound like your usual fanfiction romance, what with the "let's pretend we're dating for a reason" thing which then, of course, goes the way these things usually go in fanfiction. And yeah, the romance and drama on that front is nothing groundbreaking or unique. It's still well done, mind you, the characters are interesting, likeable and weirdly compelling. There is character development there and a certain gravitas even though Jade for example is in many regards actually a pretty shitty person, especially at the start.

But you also know they're still teenagers with issues so there is certain indulgence there, where we're cutting them some slack. There is a nuance and an eye to detail with the main characters and their dynamic.

There are other weak points such as that some of the antagonistic characters are rather two dimensional and while they aren't meant to be more and aren't unrealistic per se, since people like that do exist and all, it's still a bit meh to have caricatures like that running around. They don't make for interesting characters outside an easy way to hate them but maybe that's on me.

The side cast of Victorious is also rather shelved for the most part. Prominent characters of the series, such as André, Bobby and even Cat are pretty much benched and the focus is on the two girls, some OCs and the families.

So far, I haven't really told you why you should read this story though. While the romance and character stuff for the two main girls is handled decently enough, for me the absolute draw of the story and where it excells far beyond many other stories that I have read is the way it handles the family dynamic of Jade. Jade here has two younger step-sisters and is living with them and her step-mother and the whole relationship there is utterly fascinating and deeply compelling. Jade herself is a rather difficult individual, with a lot of issues. The aspects of her personality that are jokes in the series are taken seriously here and they lead to problems with her family. The super interesting thing to me there is, the family loves her. Her step-mother loves her and absolutely sees her as her daughter. Her two little sisters also love her and one of them outright idolizes her. Not really spoiling anything here since we meet them in chapters 2 or 3 and it becomes clear how they feel. The story is less about twists and turns and more about the journey, although there are still things that will catch you off guard.

But at the same time, Jade treats them rather badly because of her own issues but at the same time also loves them but is afraid/unable to show it. A lot of the story is the growth and development of her character, the influence of Tori on Jade and the family and Tori's own budding relationship with the West family.

And the very cathartic conversation between Jade and her step-mother was one of the more touching and rewarding moments there and it's not like it's smooth sailing afterwards. One doesn't change over night or much and all and the way how those dynamics and personalities interact and keep interacting remains one of the huge draws of the story. Really love how the family stuff is handled.

Updates are like very rare though. Like I stumbled upon this story in 2016 and was lucky enough to get an update like a day after finding it but the next update was 2 years later in February. The upside there is that the chapters were between 20k and 30k there so the author is still working on them.

The writing itself is really solid and while it has of course its issues, haven't really had any problem with flaws interrupting my reading flow. The story is of course not for everyone but if you made it this far, that's on you.

All in all, a rather interesting story that is worth checking out if one is in the right mood.

4/5

 

Seems like I was in the right mood.

It helps that I can be a sucker for romance and have siblings who used to watch Nickelodeon religiously so I have a passing familiarity with Victorious (though you don't need any to read this).

I'll reiterate Nemrut's main points that the leading girls are weirdly compelling and likable, and the developing relationship between Jade and her family is fascinating to read about.

I also liked how the fact that Tori and Jade aren't just teenagers awkwardly pretending to be in a relationship, they're two aspiring actors with the knowledge and talent to play that role and bring it to life. And this, in turn, makes more things more difficult for them in long-run as the lines between the act and reality blur and they can't tell when the other is being genuine.

A small nitpick of mine is the weird slang they use to substitute for curse words though I suspect that's a carryover from the show. It somehow took me six chapters to realise what "wazz" meant for instance.

Anyway, it was definitely fun to binge and hopefully those long chapters will make up long waits I'm expecting.

4/5