Some fics I like

[donnaimmaculata]

Very much to my surprise, I've finally got to read Snape/Lupin fics I really like. I've liked this pairing - in theory - ever since I discovered HP slash, but it's so difficult to write and not many authors manage a Lupin who is believable in my eyes.

Unsurprisingly, both fics have been written for the Snape FQF. "Hidden" by Nny villainny is basically a PWP featuring a highly believable Aggressor!Lupin, a needy Snape, and some very hot sex. The main reason I like it is that she doesn't have them proclaim true love in the end and be-happy-ever-after, and instead creates an atmosphere of resentment, aggression, and painful need. The passage

"Snape rolled over and raised himself onto protesting hands and knees - the angle of entry would be easier and...

And he wouldn't have to see Lupin's face."

really did it for me.

The other Snape/Lupin author is the brilliant Juxian Tang, who also wrote a heartbreaking Snape/Firenze ("Gross Infringement") and a Snape/Harry ("Plight") I actually enjoyed reading. Well, "enjoy" is probably the wrong word. It's a heavy punch right in the solar plexus, dark and compelling, but with a ray of hope in the end.

"Lukewarm", her Snape/Lupin fic, features a dark and angry Lupin, and the slow development from a convenient, stress-relieving arrangement to something resembling a relationship between two very damaged characters. Go read!

And finally, an older fic but one I've only come across very recently: vignette00's Phineas Nigellus-centred story portraiture. (Have you read it yet, isiscolo?) It contains major spoilers for OotP, so I'll cut the rest of my rec for the sake of the two people who haven't read the novel yet.



"portraiture" is a mild Phineas/Sirius from Phineas's PoV and basically deals with Nigellus's view on Sirius and the development this view experienced over the years. Written in a very laconic, dry style, it pictures a Nigellus who, after so many centuries as a portrait, is rather blasé and bored with everything but Sirius, whose vivid, fierce personality becomes a point of focus for Phineas. As I said, the style is very laconic, and the simple sentence stating Sirius's death
delivered a much harder blow to me than JKR's entire description and Harry's subsequent mourning-cum-anger scenes.

And it was nice to find a Phineas-centred fic, too.

Comments

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

Thankyou. And... that was actually the passage I had most trouble writing- I kept wanting to extend it, but it was hard to do it without it turning into a Peter and Jane "Look at the newbie angst! Angst, newbie, angst!" exercise.

=)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

You see, for me it's very often the simple, laconic statements that have the greatest effect (cf. my comment on "portraiture"). Had you elaborated why he didn't want to see Lupin's face, much of the impact would have been lost. It's like in a good horror movie, where you don't get to see the monster in the shadows. The reader's fantasy supplies more horrible images and explanations than an author's elaborations ever could.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for pointing me to Phineas-fic. That was very nice.

I have a bunch of Snape/Lupin recs on my website's recs page (see my userinfo for url). I also wrote a very dark and unromantic Snape/Lupin, on my site. I agree that fluffy Snape/Lupin just doesn't work, and Lupin in particular tends to be feminized and nicer than he really is.

And if you liked Lukewarm, its sequel Mine is at the SSFF now -- and I just finished betaing the third in the series, and that one will knock your socks off.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. As I said, I very much liked it, and I hope so will you...

Thanks for pointing out your rec page in turn. Somehow, unromantic, dark Snape/Lupin is the only way this pairing works for me, and a nice Lupin is completely out of the question in any case. For some reason, I require Snape/Lupin to be even darker and more painful than Snape/Black.

I've read "Mine" already, and I did like it, as well, but not quite as much as I liked "Lukewarm". I'm very much looking forward to the third part of the series - I would have read it in any case, but even more so as I fully trust your judgement.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Snape/Firenze?

Oh... my...

Ow? :)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Nothing graphic... quite pre-slashy, really *g*

But Juxian says she likes centaurs, so maybe there's more to come...

It's the atmosphere that does it, anyway. Not the sex passages.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heehee. I'm going to have to hunt this down and check it out. It does sound interesting!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

It certainly is. A short recommendation doesn't do the fic justice, because I wouldn't know where to start and what to point out. So yeah, the atmosphere. And how she includes the Snape/Black conflict in the fic as a basic motif.

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

I want to write Phineasfic more than ever now.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Have you read it?

And yes, do write a Phineas fic! There are not enough around yet.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I want to read Phineasfic more than ever now.

[mimine.livejournal.com]

Oh, my... thanks for the link to the Phineas fic, it was amazing. Even more so considering that I don't really care for Sirius when there is no Snape in sight but that fic really did it for me. The world needs more Phineas fic.

As for "Hidden", I read it yesterday and I think I liked it but I was half asleep so couldn't be sure. Looks like I should read it again.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's brilliant. Like you, I felt so much more deeply touched by vignette00's take on Sirius's death than Rowling's. And her characterisation is spot-on. I re-read the fic today and it still sends shivers down my spine.

Hidden's got a Lupin I like. Since you're more (or: exclusively) into Snape, you might not like it quite as much as I did.