InsaneJournal

Fic reviews: lgbtfest (Supernatural)
Black Soul Choir by busaikko 5/5 Recommended
Supernatural. 25,400 words. The Winchesters' dying thoughts on shaping your own destiny and making deals; in which Mary is a hunter, John is a father, Dean is a transsexual man, and Sam is pretty happy being Dean's B-side. Featuring 4 hunters, 3 deals with the devil, 2 brothers, 1 blessing, and 1 curse.

This also used my prompt about Dean being trans and Castiel raising him from the dead with the body he'd always wanted, and it's much closer to what I was thinking about when I wrote the prompt. But I really love what she did with it aside from the prompt. Because here, while Dean is trans, that's not what the story is about. The story is about the apocalypse, just like canon. Just...Dean happens to be trans. I really love how it's told very little from Dean's POV and yet we still get such a clear picture of him.

There are so many little things I loved about this, I don't even know where to start. I loved all the parts about their childhood. John's POV was so great for that. And I also loved the first part of Sam's section, where he talks about not realising he wasn't just an extension of Dean. N'aww. And I really, really loved how conflicted Dean was when Castiel raised him from the dead with that body. Because, yeah, theoretically it was what he wanted, but he was used to his old body. He'd made it work. That's what I really wanted to see in my prompt, and she picked up on that so well.

The ending is the only thing that made me hesitate about giving this a five. If I were doing half points for fic (but, ha, no way am I changing my system now), I would have given if a 4.5. I actually would have liked a much bleaker ending than what we were given. (I loved the end of the apocalypse, though; if the show itself went this way I would be so happy.)

The Violet Hour by zooey_glass04 3/5
5500 words. In the bright glare of the overhead light it's impossible to ignore what he's been seeing all along: the broad, masculine shape of his sister's shoulders underneath the jacket.

This uses the same prompt of mine as this fic, and I definitely liked it better, though still not enough to push it over into a four, I don't think. This captured a lot of what I wanted to see, with Sam's attitude when faced with Dean after being away for three years, and I liked that though Sam thought John would be totally unaccepting, he wasn't. The ending seemed to wind up a little quickly, though, and although there's a change from him thinking of his sister to thinking of his brother, I didn't really feel like there was a reason. It was abrupt rather than gradual, yet there wasn't really anything right there, just sort of like "well, we're at the end of the fic, so he'd better be accepting now". It just felt rushed. Maybe the author was running up against their deadline, idk.

Three Shots Fired by jargonelle 2/5
3000 words. Jo tries to find her place in the hunting community.

I wavered between giving this a two and a three, but in the end I think I didn't like it quite enough for a three. If I were doing half points with these, it would get a 2.5. I like this Jo, but it's just not that great. Some bits feel rather heavy-handed, and overall the writing could be a lot better, less expositiony. I did like the ending, though.

Bloody Knuckles by chasingtides 2/5
3800 words. Sam never figured a bar fight in Nowheresville, Tennessee would lead to learning so much about his brother - or the hunting community.

While the one above was nearly a three, this is a very solid two. It starts off badly, with sentences like e wasn't looking forward to sleeping and maybe having a couple whiskeys and losing his mind to a couple hours of pool and bad music would do them both some good. that took me three times before I figured out what Sam wasn't looking forward to and what he thought would do them good. Bad punctuation choices made the rest of the fic similarly confusing, but that could have perhaps been overlooked had the story been any good. It wasn't, though. It was the sort of thing I dread from this fest: the exposition-heavy coming-out story. All the exposition is in dialogue, too, basically Dean standing there giving Sam a lecture on how the hunting community treats gays. Blergh. It almost makes me want to go back and give the one above a three, since I actually did enjoy that some.

Caught My Heart in the Middle of a Feeling by beckaandzac 4/5 Recommended
5900 words. Sam goes looking for new friends and finds something he never would have expected.

This one is actually from last year's fest. I had it bookmarked, but had forgot to tag it as lgbtfest, so it slipped through the cracks and I didn't find it until I was doing my master list reorganising.

I don't really have a lot to say about this. It's a typical sweet teen romance, Sam's the new kid, doesn't know how long he'll be staying, etc. But Jay, the person he's crushing on, is a trans guy. He thinks that gives him a loophole to being gay or bi, which thankfully the author had Jay call him on.

They’re turning onto Sam’s street when Jay says, “I take it you’re not out to your family.”

Sam blinks. “No, I mean, I don’t know if I’m… if there’s anything to come out about.”

Jay raises as his eyebrows and glances down at himself. “Uh, Sam…”

“Yeah, but you’re…”

Jay holds up a hand to stop him. “There’s no non-offensive way that sentence could end.”

Anyway, the writing's pretty good and it's just a cute fic. :)