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snarry_reader (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} snarry_reader) wrote,@ 2005-02-08 22:49:00 |
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Review: Equipero Arc, by Meri Oddities
When is a PWP much more than a PWP? When it forms an arc, like this set of stories.
Title: The Equipero Series (link is to the author's HP story list, and all four stories in this arc are linked halfway down the page)
Author:meri_oddities
Rating: NC 17. Scorchingly so
Warnings Not so's you'd notice. Offstage and barely mentioned infidelity in one section. When the sex is this hot, who needs kink?
Summary: Snape and Harry have to get married. And then they have to figure out how to live together. Fortunately, sex is not a problem.
Full disclosure: I read the first section of "Equipero," I thought it was, beyond question, one of the finest PWPs I'd ever read in any pairing. I still think so today. But after I met the author, I asked her what came next: what happened, the next day? To my delight and shock, she finished a sequel for my next birthday, and added a segment each year thereafter. It's now a complete, four part story arc. And it proves that the sum is often greater than the total of its parts.
The first segment of "Equipero" is a PWP. Snape and Harry have to get married and bonded. For life. And consumate the marriage. An old plot, to be sure. But in this story, it's made freshly compelling. And simply unbelievably hot. Each subsequent story in the arc can be read as a stand-alone PWP. But as it unfolds, you see that it's more than that.
In part, this is because this arc uses sex as a vehicle for the development of the relationship so superbly. I mean, this is master class writing, when it comes to sex-as-characterization:
Even as Snape promised himself that he would not be so greedy or noisy this time, that he'd not give Potter the satisfaction, as soon as Potter's tongue started to press in again, he promptly broke the promise. And really, he assured himself, it didn't matter so much in the scheme of things.
The characterization of Snape here is another reason this arc works so well: this Snape is far too wary, too defensive to ever be straightforward with himself, or with Harry. He's outstandingly talented at denying his own emotions, and what he feels and needs here.
But Harry isn't willing to accept that. Like canon Harry, he wants a settled private life. He pushes Snape, crowds him, and refuses to simply walk away. And fortunately . . . every fight ends up in bed again. On one level, this is a terrific "fight until we fall into bed" relationship.
But it's also more than that, by the end. The story arc traces the gradual evolution of arguments and snarly wallsex, and early morning sex, and makeup sex, and really every sort of sex, until . . . they end up with a precarious sort of balance. And it works. For both of them, although I doubt any two other characters could have ended up in this place.
So the "Equipero" series is a PWP. With a plot. And the sex here? Is a plot.
But you'll need to read it, to find out how that works.
When is a PWP much more than a PWP? When it forms an arc, like this set of stories.
Title: The Equipero Series (link is to the author's HP story list, and all four stories in this arc are linked halfway down the page)
Author:
meri_odditiesRating: NC 17. Scorchingly so
Warnings Not so's you'd notice. Offstage and barely mentioned infidelity in one section. When the sex is this hot, who needs kink?
Summary: Snape and Harry have to get married. And then they have to figure out how to live together. Fortunately, sex is not a problem.
Full disclosure: I read the first section of "Equipero," I thought it was, beyond question, one of the finest PWPs I'd ever read in any pairing. I still think so today. But after I met the author, I asked her what came next: what happened, the next day? To my delight and shock, she finished a sequel for my next birthday, and added a segment each year thereafter. It's now a complete, four part story arc. And it proves that the sum is often greater than the total of its parts.
The first segment of "Equipero" is a PWP. Snape and Harry have to get married and bonded. For life. And consumate the marriage. An old plot, to be sure. But in this story, it's made freshly compelling. And simply unbelievably hot. Each subsequent story in the arc can be read as a stand-alone PWP. But as it unfolds, you see that it's more than that.
In part, this is because this arc uses sex as a vehicle for the development of the relationship so superbly. I mean, this is master class writing, when it comes to sex-as-characterization:
Even as Snape promised himself that he would not be so greedy or noisy this time, that he'd not give Potter the satisfaction, as soon as Potter's tongue started to press in again, he promptly broke the promise. And really, he assured himself, it didn't matter so much in the scheme of things.
The characterization of Snape here is another reason this arc works so well: this Snape is far too wary, too defensive to ever be straightforward with himself, or with Harry. He's outstandingly talented at denying his own emotions, and what he feels and needs here.
But Harry isn't willing to accept that. Like canon Harry, he wants a settled private life. He pushes Snape, crowds him, and refuses to simply walk away. And fortunately . . . every fight ends up in bed again. On one level, this is a terrific "fight until we fall into bed" relationship.
But it's also more than that, by the end. The story arc traces the gradual evolution of arguments and snarly wallsex, and early morning sex, and makeup sex, and really every sort of sex, until . . . they end up with a precarious sort of balance. And it works. For both of them, although I doubt any two other characters could have ended up in this place.
So the "Equipero" series is a PWP. With a plot. And the sex here? Is a plot.
But you'll need to read it, to find out how that works.
