My Five Fan Fiction Reviews by TCJ

Beauty and the Beast

This fan fiction delves into the prologue of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ story and attempts to explain the origins of how The Beast become to be. The story is told from several points of view, it begins with a messenger that had been sent to the king. Following this brief passage we move into the beginning and origins of the Witches’ story, explaining her reasons and methods for cursing The King and his family. The story moves the birth of The Beast and the shock it causes the entire castle culminating in a final confrontation between the King and the Witch.

This was written as a prologue and although brief, goes well into explaining the nature of the kingdom and the curse placed on the Royal Family. The pacing of the story I find enjoyable as it has been whittled down to only the essentials of the story. I like that as a baby The Beast is shown with a good temperament while The King is shown as being selfish and cruel. These are attitudes usually considered part of The Beast makeup giving the thought that the creature he becomes is in part caused by nurture and not nature. Another source of role reversal is that of The Witch. In most contexts is portrayed as being evil, while in this fan fiction it gives a noble sentiment to her actions. I like how this inverts the story slightly and giving it a new perspective on an old tale.

**Whoops. Sorry guys. Still new to this fanfiction.net site. I didn't realize there was more than just the prologue. Just to clarify, my review only covers prologue and not the entire story. Please forgive, and my next will cover the entire story.


Pas de Deux

This is a fluff short story set within The Dresden Files universe. It tells of an interaction between the lead character of the story Harry Dresden and one of his main supporting characters, Karrin Murphey. Their relationship is one of mutual friendship, with the prospect of maybe something more someday. A Wandering Minstrel's story covers a small interaction between these two characters when one is in a different getup then they otherwise would wear. Karrin having just come from a formal police event and in a dress, stops by Harry's to drop of his latest police consultants fee.

When I first read this story I felt the need to rip it to shreds based on the inaccuracies it shows of the author's knowledge of the source material. A simple thing such as Harry was an orphan from the age of six. He had no uncle and his mother died in child birth. This would never have allowed some of the things that was said to be possible. Murphy's description of her college's and the way they would view her goes against type that Jim Butcher set up with this verse. As an avid fan of the series I wanted to tear into this story and demolish it.

I stopped and calmed down and forced myself to step back and re-read it again. Once this was done I could see the story for what it was. A cute and 'fluff' piece done showing a new side to the characters relationship. Written within the same style, and tone that you would find in any of the novels. The story, when taken in that context was a welcome and could be forgive for the inaccuracies it showed. I did end up enjoying the work and felt that in all it was a enjoyable look into a rare quiet day within the characters lives.


True Beauty: The Retelling of Rapunzel

Rapunzel, is the story of a young girl given up at birth as payment to an enchantress for sparing her father’s life, after he has been found stealing from the enchantress’s garden. Raised by the Enchantress she is trapped in a tower from the age of twelve until rescued by a prince.

BittersweetHearts08 telling of this tale comes from the perspective of Rapunzel herself. In this telling it is known by most how to get Rapunzel’s tower and the pass phrase that allows Rapunzel to let down her hair. With many men coming to her “rescue” Rapunzel would play out the role expected of her. Rapunzel laments on the repetitiveness of her life and the boredom and stupidity of the man that come to rescue her. All only interested in the beauty of her features, and not caring for Rapunzel herself. This leads to the idea that if rescued she would be a trophy. One to be shown and paraded with no thought or care to her own needs. When one prince almost succeeds Rapunzel has had enough and with a final act defiance, she berates they would-be savoir and cast him off by cutting her hair herself thus trapping herself in the tower but teaching the world that beauty is more than being skin deep.

While in itself I did enjoy reading the piece I didn’t like the overall message to me it displayed. While Rapunzel was well constructed the males in the world were treated as vapid, one-dimensional fools. I find it hard to believe that anyplace that has ‘How to Charm Ladies 101’ would not teach that women are more than facial beauty. I felt that it should have been explored why if she did have scissors all this time, she had never cut off her hair before or tried to escape and live her own life. She was as much a part of the problem as the princes. Also with no hair, how does she get food or water or any provisions up into her tower?


All That Glitters

In the end of book six of The Dresden Files, Harry not only finds out he has a brother but gets him as a roommate. This changes his lifestyle from one of solitary to a more domesticated one. The next book jumps a year in their future with never truly covering the adjustment period of the two. All That Glitters by Lyra Ngalia shows one aspect of this adjustment period. In Lyra's story, Harry and Thomas have come home after Harry found his brother half naked feeding off the psychic energy of women in a alleyway during the act of sex. Most disturbing, was the fact Thomas was covered in glitter. We learn that Thomas was disguising himself as a vampire from the 'Twilight' novels as a ruse to seduce his victims.

I loved this story, for not only poking a bit of fun at the 'Twilight' series but for allowing it to show the foolishness of people in the Dresden Verse as being almost as silly as the ones in our own. I liked that this was in very general terms a crossover piece. Allowing the author to bring one fictional series into another while keeping true to both and not allowing the story to devolve into too much folly. By keeping the idea of 'Twilight' as books also helpd with keeping a sense of realisum to the peice.

The start of the story was a little confusing as it didn't make too much sense until I had completed the story. I thought that the initial set up of the story could have been done better as to begin with I had no idea where we were or what had just happened. After a time it did pick up its pacing and revel itself into a wonderful little gem of a story. All in all I was quiet impressed and would like to read more from this author.


Not So Little Red Riding Hood

This is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood stories. This version is one of the funniest that I have read. It combines elements of both innocence and maturity into the tale. This gives such a simple story added dimensions, allowing the reader to enjoy Chibi Koneko's version of this tale on multiple levels. This is demonstrated well with the idea that the Grandpa is not only physically sick, but also 'sick' in the sense that he is an embodiment of the 'Dirty Old Man' stereotype.

The tale begins as standard but soon the changes are well noticed further we get into the story. The first change we notice is that Red Riding Hood in now “twenty-three years old” but still has the intelligence of a younger girl. This can be shown in her lack of fear of the 'Son of The Big Bad Wolf' and continual use of "kitty" to describe him. We learn also tale that this tale is modernized somewhat and set within the last 120 years. This time frame can be claimed as cars have only been mass produced since 1902 (according to Wikipedia). Another big shift is the gender bases for two of the characters. This has allowed the author to switch the usual Grandma role into a
Grandpa and make the Huntsman into a “Hunts(wo)man”.

In my opinion I found this Fan Fiction story very humorous and well crafted. There was a natural flow to the writing with enough narrative to allow me to visualize the piece clearly in my imagination. The story did make me 'laugh out loud' at certain points with a series of running jokes well placed throughout the story. These included the idea of the Wolf being called or referred to as 'kitty' by all characters, Red as being simple or naive, and Grandpa's sickness having multiple meanings.