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snarry_reader's Journal
Title: The Puppet Master (note: link takes you to warning page; click through to story list)
Author:
![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
tryfanstoneRating: NC 17
Pairings Harry/Snape/Voldemort
Warnings: I'm not sure how to categorize this story, in the sense of warnings. It's both consensual and not: the sexual ethics here are intricate and provocative.
Summary: "Moments after the last battle, a man clings to his own soul."
This short but very effective story is simultaneously chilling, hopeful, and powerfully erotic. It's got rich detail and satin-smooth prose. And the writer's control over the story POV is simply masterful. You'll want to (and need to) read this a second time, to see all the shadings she's achieved, in terms of conveying delicate implications and connotations, and in foreshadowing the story's ending. Very few writers could achieve this level of control over POV, I think.
This story does a marvelous job of showing us how Voldemort's mind truly works, avoiding all the shallow, cliche "evil monster of non con" fanon renditions. Rather, it shows how Voldemort's evil flows from his grasping, scrabbling attempts to cling first to life and flesh, and then to power. Because that is what is driving him: an absolute rejection of death, bone-deep fear of death. This story brings that part of him to life, and actually made me pity him, because this story shows that it is a terrible thing to live inside a mind like Voldemort's. And it delivers all that, along with one of the most poetic and graphic descriptions of sex that I have ever read. And a hopeful ending.
Don't miss this. Even if Voldemort isn't usually your cuppa.
Title: A Time For All Things
Rating: NC 17
Pairings: Well, there are spoilers here. Not just Snape/Harry; check the spoilers if you need to know.
Warnings: There are warnings, but they're spoilers. Roll over and highlight if you want to know; they're moderately serious ones.
Summary: Severus doesn’t like change, but he may have met his match in Harry Potter -- hero of the wizarding world, man with a secret, and Hogwarts' new librarian.
This is a short but well-crafted AU story in which (for unexplained reasons) James is still alive, Voldemort is dead, and Harry is now the Hogwarts librarian. The story is very AU, in terms of both the timeline and characterization; this Harry is a bit sweeter and odder than we know him in canon, and Snape is more mellow than one would usually expect. But I found the ways in which they engage with each other, and gradually draw nearer to each other, to be plausible and winning. If you don't mind AU or the issues that the warnings flag, then this is a very readable and entertaining story.
Title: The Soul Adores
Author:
maeglinyediPairings Harry/Tom, Harry/Snape
Rating: NC 17
Warnings: dubious consent, manipulation, underage (Harry turns 17 in the story), minor character deaths.
Harry hunts horcruxes here. Or does he? This story gives us a brilliant new twist on horcruxes, as Harry discovers that the locket is a rather . . . interactive horcrux, along the lines of the diary in Book 2. The plot is tricksy, and all three of the main characters engaged me deeply. The story is quite entertaining during the first half. But when it gets to the last section it acquires a level of power and drama that, well, makes "entertaining" seem too paltry an adjective.
This story concludes on a note of subtle, velvet-soft, gentle horror. Don't get me wrong: none of the main characters dies, and many people might even consider this to have a "happy ending." But the ending was simply a gut-punch for me (and one that I refuse to spoil), that left me shuddering. And crossing myself. Oh, Harry.