I'm reccing a bandom fic.
What got me most about it was the structure of it.
I wasn't sure at first, because it was told in a close third person narrative voice, which is fine, but it seemed a little flat to begin with. A strange position between being inside the character's head and standing back and not wanting to intrude; it took me a little while to allow myself to settle into the lack of immediacy but it was well worth doing it.
The conceit of the story I'll go into in a minute - the theme of the story is what got me. It's about the different kinds of love that there are and it describes each one through the actions and reactions of those involved. Only once does it mention love in Jon Walker's voice, and that moment nearly had me tearing up because it was so deftly and beautifully done. This story is an awesome example of showing not telling, and I think I'm going to be reading it a load more times just so I can see how much I can learn from it. I
want to learn from it.
The structure, anyway. It tells the story in interconnected fragments; it would have been easy to tell the whole story, and it would have been wrong. This isn't to say that the whole story isn't here, just that everything unnecessary is left out but inferred from its surroundings, so you know what has been happening but you don't slog through the extra 10,000 words it would have been. Because the characters and events in this story are absolutely gorgeous, and it would have been easy enough I imagine to just keep going forever, but every part of this story is right. At the end I got a little antsy and suspected that there was a little dragging out going on - I felt like there had already been an emotional climax and more wasn't necessarily needed - but then it drew itself together in a way that was perfect for the way that the story should go.
It isn't particularly adventurous with the way that the story is told, but sometimes you need something in which the language or the structure or the inventiveness isn't foregrounded, a story that just unfolds in front of you without you noticing that you're settling right into the middle of it and letting it absorb you entirely.
A Brokedown Melody by
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flyingtapesIn which Jon Walker moved to Hawai'i and surfed and never joined Panic at the Disco, but somehow everything turned out right in the end.
Jon/Spencer, R.
Worth reading even if you have no idea who these people are (and don't care, either).
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