Resonant

Between three and four stars, really, but my tie-breaker is the question, "Would I read more from this author?" and the answer is yes so I'm rounding up.

This is more what I expect from fan-fiction than the others I've read recently - maybe because the others were based on TV shows, so I didn't have a written point of comparison in my mind. The author here, Resonant, is, y'know, not JK Rowling, and it was very strange to be reading about Rowling's world and Rowling's characters without Rowling's voice or Rowling's sensibility.

Story involves Harry returning to Hogwarts to teach, on the occasion of Hogwarts' reopening after years of keeping its doors shut post-war. Apparently the story was written around when Order of the Phoenix was published, so the author's imagined the final battle, the war and its aftermath. Harry Potter was always a sort of generic character, and here he's a sort of generic adult with severe PTSD. A lot of the favorite characters from the series make appearances and the story also charts a romance between Harry and Draco.

Transfigurations is objectively well-done, but Resonant's vision of the HP-universe and my vision of the HP-universe didn't mesh well enough for me to lose myself in the story. Maybe because I'm not a fan of the Harry/Draco pairing? I hate Draco & find the actor who plays him seriously unsexy. Resonant's Draco reminded me a lot more of Snape from the books than Draco from the books, and I could get behind a Harry/SNAPE pairing, so their relationship was fun for me...except that it wasn't Snape, it was Draco. So his character felt off, the same way Hermione and Neville and Ron all felt a little off to me.

I'd be interested in trying a different story where I don't have such fixed, personal ideas about the character and writing and story. I guess that's a pitfall of fanfiction.… (mais)