gingersnaps

recommends/lightly reviews jily fic from a bygone era

[quaffleandthesnitch]

bloody shangri-la by dorcasdeadowes (or firbolging on ao3) is the best modern!jily au i have had the pleasure to read. set in what i believe is a made up, isolated, dreary muggle town in the 70s that gives all the feels of the era through mentions of seventies disco (which gets slagged off numerous times) and no phones - much appreciated by me.

i can’t quite put into words how funny this work is. if you even so much as chuckle at commentarius you’ll cry of laughter reading this. canon tropes are transferred in ingenious ways; death eaters/pure bloods become classist capitalists, trying to buy out the local village. bake sakes, charity discos and protests are the backdrop to the high highs and extremely low lows of james and lily’s relationship. it’s realistic and natural and you can feel the intense emotions radiating off the two seventeen year olds.

largely, this fic explores what it feels to grow up and become a real person - the marauders are utterly stupid, lily’s judgement is wrong sometimes, marlene lies much too often and mary is awfully upset that girls aren’t allowed to be catholic priests. these teenagers explore their sexuality and that romance is often…awkward.

sirius is incorrigible, remus simulataneously pathetic and cool and peter is comedically wimpish. james is insufferable to the point where it loops back to charming (or smarmy as miss evans would say) and snape matches his hair with a hilariously greasy personality.

read bloody shangri-la if you like jily, like a good au and like to laugh. or be a happy, satisfied person with this fic fully completed with a sensible 128k words.

heres the description:

"The way she babbled on about the place made it seem like some sort of promise land, but James knew full well that it was nothing of the sort. Sowsworth was a wasteland that comprised of seven shops, a pub, and the incredibly bored shadows of lonely people. It was not bloody Shangri-la." AU.

Fanfic: Bloody Shangrila Ch 1, Harry Potter | FanFiction

disclaimer: people write fanfiction for fun and for free. putting a work online doesn’t mean one can hurl abuse at projects people put time and effort towards. so let’s all be mindful :)

[quaffleandthesnitch]

the thought of the life and times by jewels5 on fanfiction.net being so popular it had its own fandom page is insane to me.

fics created to continue it

12k reviews, most recent one in may

most reviewed harry potter fic on ffnet

oh 100% the most iconic marauders fanfiction of all time.

[quaffleandthesnitch]

while this fic has been deleted, it hasn’t been scrubbed off our minds (i have it downloaded on epub, of course):

buried treasure and transmorgrify by rienna hawkes

i’m not particularly sure on the ethics of redistributing deleted fanfic, but buried treasure and transmorgrify needs to be read by every jily lover out there. this is our first completed fic rec, a cool 169k words spanning the entirety of seventh year.

now be warned, this is a strong M, with a load of smut that does also serve to push the story forward. my favourite part is lily and sirius’ relationship, a slow burn in its own right and funny and jarring all at once. sirius is horridly angsty and james has a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to his relationship with lily, which rings true to the famous ‘snape’s worse memory’ chapter

speaking of snape, there is past snily which comes in hand with james (and the reader!) having to come to terms with the fact that snape and lily had a romantic relationship, which for me served an interesting twist to how their relationship typically plays out in fic, and made the incident at the lake much more heartbreaking.

like commentarius, james and lily have to come to terms with their original perceptions of each other and who they are now. rienna hawkes portrayal of sirius is one of my favourites, and his character development is stellar. peter gives some good advice and there are plenty of adventures on full moons.

my second favourite part of this fic is the presentation of the slytherins. the war is on the forefront of our minds, even when castle romance clouds it, death and dismemberment occur. regulus has more of a role than pissing off his brother and a future member of the weird sisters is a fellow seventh year!

heres the fichub link:

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disclaimer: people write fanfiction for fun and for free. putting a work online doesn’t mean one can hurl abuse at projects people put time and effort towards. so let’s all be mindful :)

[quaffleandthesnitch]

now it’s time for what i call the creme de la creme of jily fic, the most romantic and fluffy and utterly hilarious 700k words ever:

commentarius by b.c daily

written with a style inspired by meg cabots ‘the princess diaries’ commentarius starts every chapter with a jack handey quote and is written as lily’s diary (commentarius means diary in latin). lily is obsessed with rice and the island guam, lily is anxious and can’t make her mind up about anything. shes accident prone and says the wrong thing and isn’t the mary-sue that she has been made out to be across fanfic

while b.c daily’s portrayal of lily is what really stood out to me, their james potter is the most swoon-worthy romantic lead ever. he’s complicated, tries so so hard, patient, and extraordinarily witty. i’ve never laughed at my phone so much. but what this fic does so well is reconciling the expectations they initially had for each other - james’ crush on lily vs her being a real person with flaws and the james that had disgusted her at the lake and the james two years later.

this is largely canon-compliant, though written pre-hbp so snape being lily’s childhood best friend was not yet revealed and is obviously missing here, but in my opinion makes it all the more fun. original characters have charm and are interesting beyond the main couple. this is what i’d consider a pure romance with first wizarding war conflict not having as big a presence.

the fic starts from september of seventh year to november, and is sadly unfinished, but the author is still active and planning to update.

Fanfic: Commentarius Ch 1, Harry Potter | FanFiction

disclaimer: people write fanfiction for fun and for free. putting a work online doesn’t mean one can hurl abuse at projects people put time and effort towards. so let’s all be mindful :)

[quaffleandthesnitch]

à la the username, i think it would be treason to not start with tlat - aka the life and times by jewels5 on fanfiction.net

this is a jily fic (obviously) starting from the beginning of sixth year to november of seventh year. is it unfinished? yes. is it over 600k words? also yes. but in my opinion it’s worth it. james and sirius’ relationship make me awfully jealous, the marauders are larger than life and peter is more than a will-be-evil cheerleader. intergration of barely mentioned canon characters is skilfully done, the ensemble is massive and yet no one is sidelined

the dialogue is fantastic, almost reminding me of gilmore girls, james and lily have this natural progression into enemies then associates then friends that makes it realistic for a pair of awfully dramatic teens in an awfully dramatic period (in the midst of a bloody war!)

lily’s relationship with snape and her sister is given a layer of depth that is more than snape + petunia=bad, and the original characters have a strong sense of self and purpose that isn’t only to drive the romance.

i’d say read tlat if you’re a fan of witty sarcastic jily, the best characterisation of james ever, a unique outlook on the famed ‘prank’, and a couple of good mysteries and wizarding activism.

if the fact that it’s unfinished puts you off, tlat ends like you knew it was coming, almost, so while the ache was there, i felt gladder that i had read it in the first place, rather than unfulfilled.

as my favourite fic ever, this gets full scores

The Life and Times Chapter 1: Prologue, a harry potter fanfic | FanFiction

disclaimer: people write fanfiction for fun and for free. putting a work online doesn’t mean one can hurl abuse at projects people put time and effort towards. so let’s all be mindful :)