#smalltown queer

[rubytulips]

my audible reactions to byler fics are always “bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!” as if i’m will’s bestie and “BITCHHHHH” as soon as mike queerler starts pulling some gay shit

[ofsleeping]

these twin passages from smalltown queer and hollow boy... ❤️‍🩹 @indybaggins i adore you

[permanentlyinspired]

Hiiii - Bless you, I went to read “smalltown queer” the other day per your post recommendation and loved it then moved on to the author’s WIP “Hollow Boy” and it has been a transcendental experience…have you read it? I feel it so deep in my soul. I can’t stop thinking about it. If you read it what did you think? If not pleeeeease do!!

I can’t tell you how happy this makes me! Smalltown Queer was truly transformative experience for me. I’m one of those rare people in this fandom who are old enough to remember the 80s. I came of age in the 90s and lost people I loved dearly to the AIDS crisis. The way that subject matter and the queer experience in that era was handled in Smalltown Queer was so tender and authentic. It cracked my chest open in ways that no other work of fiction ever has. I sobbed so hard, but it also healed something deep in me. I was able to access memories and process emotions that I had tucked away decades ago at at time in my life when I wasn’t equipped to process them. I’m talking about bring it up in therapy levels of transformation.

I recommend fan fics right and left, but this particular one is so dear to me. I also understand that reading a fic that starts with a 22 year jump is an emotional risk. I book marked it then set it aside for months after someone recommended it to me. So thank you for trusting me that it would be worth the heartbreak to get to the healing. And thank you for coming back and letting me know that it was meaningful to you too.

And a huge thank you for letting me know that the author has published another Strange Things fic! Smalltown Queer was their only published work when I read it. I am so excited to read Hollow Boy. I will most definitely let you know my thoughts. I love we have built book club culture into this fandom.