With such incredibly beautiful imagery and a premise of deliciously brilliant complexity, Malenkaya has crawled up my list of favorite (not only Avengers fictions, but all) fictions with the greatest of ease. Each individual scene carries its own tune and bears its own aches that create a haven in the deepest parts of you, and the words and movements of every character bring such wonderful justice to the films/comics themselves.
Building such a glorious and promising adventure atop a famed fragment of history and a wonderful corner of Norse Mythology is one of the cleverest ideas I have seen, both in published novels and in fanfiction. An ambiance of complete bewilderment, anticipation, and heroism bleeds from each statement, despite that the two main characters have blood smeared on their pasts. It shifts your views on both the people and the situations, and it tinkers with your abilities to harbor anything but love for them.
As readers, we are engulfed by waves of familiarity from the films/comics and from the Romanova legend that impact you in such a wild abundance of ways, provoking aches, tears, joy, laughter, and determination that is rarely experienced from such stories. And yet, this one manages it so skillfully and gracefully, nearly scooping a reader up with every single layer of emotion laced into its fantastic complexities and abnormalities.
Malenkaya possesses moments; not a simple chapter or an overseen building of plot. I witnessed moments that remained with me, echoing in the back of my mind in the most beautiful, enlightening ways. Moments of anger, happiness, pain, frustration, sorrow, and pleasure that fuel your entire spirit, plucking at your every drive to write, solve, ponder, and feel. You witness an experience that knocks the breath from your lungs and the beats from your heart, because in some unfathomable way, it moves you.
This novella - this masterpiece of such phenomenal intricacy and enrapturing emotions that deserves the mightiest applause for its greatness - has my sincerest adoration, respect, and love, not only because it was written by my best friend, but because it is deserving of more than even the highest amounts of praise.
Not many other stories have captured me so smartly and completely, and for that I say thank you to the perfectly brilliant and blessedly talented author, forgiven-grace. You really are such an inspiration to me, Jessie, and this story means more to me than any flailing or screaming could ever express! :D
