Abbey's FanFic Reviews

Remembered for all Eternity

By SirRoberto

Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons

This brief piece is clearly the ramblings of a tired mind (that is confirmed in the disclaimer). Set in 2014, it outlines the deaths of physicists Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. Though short, a major story is told. Protecting the world from the Large Hadron Collider, Leonard orders Raj, Howard and Sheldon to leave the room. Something (which I don’t understand) is going wrong. Raj and Howard leave but Sheldon stays. They hold onto each other as they die from an explosion, which would have wiped out humanity if it weren’t for them, (Again, I don’t understand the intricacies of the science).

Posthumously, Cooper finally wins a Nobel prize, and the ‘Cooper-Hofstadter Prize’ is created for sacrifices made in the name of science.

As inspired as this brief story is, it is an amateur piece rife  with grammatical errors and, repeatedly, the word ‘got’.  I will allow that it was written as a speech, so I wasn’t exactly expecting inspired literature, but this piece is weak. The strong plot is let down by its rambling style. Perhaps some further work with a clear mind could redeem this story. As it stands, I would not recommend to anyone.

Normality or a Lack Thereof, a Some Like it Hot FanFic

By Arixa23

The 1959 official poster

Opening with Osgood's famous “Well, nobody’s perfect” Arixa23 attempts to elaborate on one of the world's most beloved comedies, taking it into serious new territories. I had my reservations over the genre change and the warning of “a bit of queerness.”  To me this film never represented sexual freedom or revolutionary new ideas; it was always just a bit of satire. I may have to rethink some things.

Recounting the weeks following the final scene, the piece focuses on Jerry/Daphne’s sexual confusion. After weeks of awkwardness on board the Caledonia, Daphne, who is written as being an entirely different entity than Jerry, accepts herself for what she is, and kisses her fiancé passionately on the lips. It closes beautifully with “the bit of Daphne which is Jerry worries briefly about what this new development means and about what will happen in the future and all that. But the bit of Jerry which is Daphne, and she was always more sensible than he is anyway, knows not to worry about it. Things have a way of working out if you let them. Especially if your husband is a millionaire.”

Skeptical as I was of this story, I am left thinking of one of my favourite films in an entirely new light. Arixa23 picks up on things which I had always taken as satire, and explores the meaning beneath them. For example when Osgood inquires why Jerry is so quiet he explains “Well, I’ve always been kind of quiet I guess, Joe’s the outgoing one, I just tag along with him. It’s a bad habit really.” Osgood replies, crucially, “You know, when you were Josephine and Daphne it was the opposite.”

I worried that this piece would brazenly add 21^st century values to this 1929-set film, but it is handled with all the subtlety of Annie Proulx’s 1963-set Brokeback Mountain (less the graphic scenes). “There is one awkward time when Joe walks into Jerry’s bedroom without knocking and catches him in a pair of high heels[…] Joe almost punches him hard enough to break several of Jerry’s ribs, but ends up sighing and just saying ‘Jerry I don’t know what to do with you’ “

This intriguing piece left me thinking for hours afterward. I think it is safe to say that is exactly what the writer intended.

I Told You So

By Sparkswillflyforever

Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant

In this alternate reality piece Sparkswillflyforever attempts to explain how the separation between Tom and Lynette Scavo ‘should have’ been handled. Hearing Keith Urbans’ ‘I Told You So’ on the radio, Lynette realizes that Tom will inevitably fall back into her life and thus begins a shallow story with no real outcome. Filled with static and superficial internal monologue and 10 (count em) lines of Keith Urban lyrics; this story simply fails to take off.

Embarking on a mission to ignore him till he runs back to her, Mrs Scavo ends up(embarrassingly enough) sidling up to another man in a bar to whisper “Your place or mine?” Enraged, Tom pulls her aside spitting “Ever since we started this separation which is, by the way, just a separation, you've been going out of your way to show me just how over me you really are. Well guess what. I'm not over you. I want you back, and I won't stop telling you that until you take me back." It ends with the punch line, “Oh Tom, I told you so.”

Desperate Housewives is a vast pool of possibility for FF writers and I can see what the writer has attempted here, but she has forgotten the golden rule; for anything to progress on that show the characters must learn something. By writing such a vainglorious piece she renders the separation obsolete. The outcome is the same as on the show but it feels emptier. She gets him back but there is no real learning curve. Not to mention feeling physically embarrassed at some of the cliched dialogue.

I appreciate what the writer has attempted in this piece and I do believe that this storyline should be further explored in Fan Fiction, but this time, it didn’t work for me.

The book which started it all

June Twenty Third

By Starlett2010

This little story explores the later lives of, personal childhood faves, The Babysitters Club. It is seen from  Kristy's perspective.  The members, who vowed to stay friends forever, have, for the most part, gone their separate ways. After re-acquainting herself  with Mary-Ann and Claudia at a New Years celebration, university-aged Kristy arrives home filled with ideas of a reunion. She is reminded of her old friends and the pact they made as young teens and she wonders if she will see them again.

Opening in diary form and moving effortlessly into internal monologue, the former BSC president resigns herself to the fact that things will never be as they were.

This piece is incredibly moving. Having grown up on this series it appealed to me naturally, and it will appeal to all former BSC readers left wondering what happened to the gang. The nostalgia Kristy feels about the Babysitters Club mirrors the nostalgia I feel about the Babysitters club. This is a powerful piece.

It reinforces the idea of childhood as something golden and magical, something which can never be recaptured once gone.

Kristys’ voice carries with it more wisdom and irony than Ann M. Martin's tween character, but Kristys’ voice is nonetheless captured brilliantly.

Saddened as I was to see the group split, such an eclectic cast was doomed from the start. The realism and ultimate sadness of this piece is what makes it so effective and I couldn’t speak more highly of it.

Urban Jungle
By GatesThistle

Edward Norton and Brad Pitt

In this piece, the two male protagonists of Fight Club sit on a roof discussing which philosopher they would fight, given the chance. The narrator offers Nietzsche because he was an “insane motherfucker” but Tyler, who has more knowledge on the subject, answers "Henry David Thoreau" adding, “Fucking Hypocrite.”

 He quotes “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. To front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…"

Thoreau is a hypocrite, Tyler claims, because he never moved away from society, never gave anything up and thus was never enlightened. When the narrator points out that they too live near society, Tyler replies, "But we're hitting bottom, something Thoreau never dreamed of."

This fan-fiction is extremely well done as it easily continues the thread of the film. There was no obvious point, in terms of alternate plot, to this piece but it serves as believable filler and helps to develop both Tyler and the narrator's characters. I believed this piece whole-heartedly and the writer's style is very fluid and easy to read. It evokes the same atmosphere of the movie and presents the same sentiments.  Highly recommended reading.