Review of an awesome fic

So I read it.

'It' being the newest H/D fic by Anonymous – The Price We Pay for Wings, and don't we all want to know who this gifted author is? I have one guess, but we won't really know for sure until January.

There are a handful of stories in my life that just hit my perfect spot as a reader, and I have to say straight out that this is one of them. I know that I'll be rereading this with much pleasure in years to come. When I finished, I had that certainty that this kind of reading experience was the reason that fandom has its unretractable hooks in me.

coffeejunkii asked the question regarding this story (paraphrased): – What's the draw? Why read something that's so deeply emotional? And that's a valid question. Except at the moment – having just finished – I can't even relate the question of sad or angsty or emotional to the experience I had. The only thing I can say is that this story makes me glad that I can share in its revelations about what it means to be human. A few readers compare it to the angsty, well-known "Beautiful World'. For me, that story was nowhere near this one. I wish I could remember who once told me that it's easy to make someone cry by killing a puppy. That's what 'Beautiful World' does – it sets up a sad, inevitable death, and the reader follows along. This story, however, goes way beyond that. Here we see the impact of life, love, choices… And the ability of the author to express it is within the power of only a few writers like amanuensis1. fabularasa. femmequixotic. legionseagle. helenish. pushdragon. mirabellawotr. frayach.

So yeah. I'm not saying every single person in fandom is gonna find it their cup of tea. But I'd be horribly remiss as a reader if I didn't tell you my own thoughts.

I feel especially moved to be able to say I read and experienced this. I encourage you to read it too.