snarry_reader (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} snarry_reader) wrote,@ 2005-03-29 09:58:00 |
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Review: "Tell Me Who Is Victor," by Switchknife
Title: "Tell Me Who Is Victor"
Story Link: here
Author: Switchknife
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Author’s Web Site: Weapon of Choice
Author’s LJ:switchknife
Summary: A post-Hogwarts wartime story. Harry is paired with Snape in a guerrilla war, so that Snape can teach him about tactics and survival.
Reviewer: Regan V
UST is a fine fandom word, which captures the quality in a story that can keep you on the edge of your seat, scrolling down the screen frantically. But I’ve always felt that there should be a parallel word for unexpressed, unresolved emotional tensions, which---in the hands of a skilled writer---can build to an equally unbearable degree. In “Tell Me Who Is Victor,” Switchknife offers a taut, beautifully-realized tale of trust, attachment, and emotion, which develop gradually and powerfully, even though they are not acknowledged openly. As icing on the cake, the story is rendered in lovely, minimalist prose: both elegant and gritty.
That’s not to say that there’s no sex in this story: it’s there from the opening scene. And (as in many of her stories) the sex scenes are persuasive and affecting precisely because they are not glamorized or idealized: Switchknife has a good sense of the limitations and constraints that being at war would impose on any relationship. But although Harry and Snape are involved sexually almost from the story’s outset, both men are unwilling to acknowledge any emotional attachment. The feelings between them become steadily more complex, and reach an intelligent, persuasive resolution by the end. This story is anything but fluffy: and yet, I found it deeply satisfying.
Title: "Tell Me Who Is Victor"
Story Link: here
Author: Switchknife
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Author’s Web Site: Weapon of Choice
Author’s LJ:
switchknifeSummary: A post-Hogwarts wartime story. Harry is paired with Snape in a guerrilla war, so that Snape can teach him about tactics and survival.
Reviewer: Regan V
UST is a fine fandom word, which captures the quality in a story that can keep you on the edge of your seat, scrolling down the screen frantically. But I’ve always felt that there should be a parallel word for unexpressed, unresolved emotional tensions, which---in the hands of a skilled writer---can build to an equally unbearable degree. In “Tell Me Who Is Victor,” Switchknife offers a taut, beautifully-realized tale of trust, attachment, and emotion, which develop gradually and powerfully, even though they are not acknowledged openly. As icing on the cake, the story is rendered in lovely, minimalist prose: both elegant and gritty.
That’s not to say that there’s no sex in this story: it’s there from the opening scene. And (as in many of her stories) the sex scenes are persuasive and affecting precisely because they are not glamorized or idealized: Switchknife has a good sense of the limitations and constraints that being at war would impose on any relationship. But although Harry and Snape are involved sexually almost from the story’s outset, both men are unwilling to acknowledge any emotional attachment. The feelings between them become steadily more complex, and reach an intelligent, persuasive resolution by the end. This story is anything but fluffy: and yet, I found it deeply satisfying.