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fanfiction admiring post vol. 1

As I’ve just finished Not Enough Answer’s Tom Riddle/OC trilogy, i thought i should come up with some sort of opinion, since this story was keeping my heart rate racing for months. I started with An Exquisite pain back in August and with a little pause continued with Dancing With Time and by the end of this autumn jumped into The Fate’s Illusion. I figured, i’m gonna expound both the strength and the (few) weaknesses of the fic briefly in 5 points.

What i loved:

1. I’ve never read such an accurate Tom Riddle, who actually was going through so much emotional development but also managed not to turn into a huge, ugly OOC. I loved every smirk of his, and his sudden disappearances, emotionless facade, humor and the ability of the writer to whilst avoiding writing exact sex scenes, still perpetuating his very own kind of dark erotic manners.

2. Constant time traveling, twisting and turning the timelines, and getting every piece of the puzzle at it’s exact place at the end. Seriously i freaked out of the mere fact that Danielle/Clara got the Time traveler’s curse, because it seemed so logical, and i freaked out even more when the final twist of Narcissa Malfoy and the Vita Servo happened, i was overwhelmed.

3. I am also quite fond of the long-drawn-out progress of Clara’s and Tom’s relationship. I started rather disappointed, it seemed so cliché in the beginning, with Olive and all the girls fancying that heartless, horcrux-planning bastard, and as they relationship progressed into something more mature (remember the scene, when Clara got back her consciousness after Skender barely killing her, and not knowing how much time passed, she couldn’t get past Tom’s wards, that was some serious agony written) it cleared out, and all the arguments, abuse and fondness was real.

4. Really. complicated. plots. By the third volume i had some experience, but i was amazed how the writer managed to fool me and get myself on my nerves by complicating the story into stellar heights. For example the scene when Marigona was killed, and the horcrux was done, and the hooded figure was .... (i’m not gonna spoiler hahaha). Mindblow.

5. The way the story reflected to both canon and itself. Okay when Danielle/Clara saw the actual Voldemort when looking for Tom in the battle in the Department of Mysteries...who didn’t get goosebumps? And there was that little spark of humor when Danielle was making fun of Tom being so possessive and answering him “Yes my Lord!” and Tom actually getting the sarcasm of it. It was marvelous!

What could be improved:

1. Skipping longer periods made the reception slightly harder, and also had the reader feeling being left out of something. For example the winter after William’s birth was just briefly portrayed, and thus we had a hard time adopting a concept of Danielle/Clara being a mother and later it was likely that we missed their bond. Mostly because Tom wasn’t there for any kind of non-sociopathic bond. (awkward laughter)

2. Names. I laughed so hard, when in an author’s note it was considered that Alyssa and Dylan should get new names, since they seem odd in the 1940′s and mainly in a pureblood wizarding community. Although this particular problem got resolved with their name choices of Alyssa’s and Alphard’s twins, names like Skender, Kaltrina, and Chefflur were really weird and did not really fit in the story.

3. Sometimes the descriptions of more complex magical moments were hasty and the reader might have felt hurried. For example again, the horcrux scene stood on the sight and i shudder when even thinking about that bloody ritual, it included Tom’s whole twisted character, and reached out far from the plot, into getting the reader sink into the story.

4. The taciturnity of descriptions of clothing, housing, and physical environment kicked in sometimes, for example i would have liked to know much more about all the hiding places, inn rooms, and manors in which they spent a longer times. On the other hand we get so pretty close ups on Danielle’s/Clara’s habits, movement and Tom’s extraordinary facial expressions that probably those marginal background object were meant to seem blurry.

5. Dumbledore’s positive trait’s got a rather monumental emphasis, and this way the Grindelwald-duel was understandable with a great difficulty. And i know that it wasn’t the story’s main focus, but with Danielle’s/Clara’s camouflage background, we should know more of that relationship.