Fandom: Harry Potter Relationship: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley -------------------------------------------------- It's the summer before Harry's 6th year, and Harry is wracked with grief. But what happens when Harry makes a vow to himself to take control of his life? Harry's life takes a sharp turn when he gets an unexpected visitor one night. HPGW. Independent!Harry.
I am so ridiculously pissed off and I know that it is ridiculous but that can't stop me from feeling cheated and just unimaginably irritated. Seriously, if I had the author in my sights I would bloody shake them to an inch of their life.
You see, I had issues with this fic from chapter one. It's an almighty Harry who can do anything set up. Seriously he can do wandless magic and animagus in one summer holiday. And that's the least of it. Honestly. This sixteen year old probably should take over the ministry. But I kept damn well going because my husband had raved about it. And I ignored all my pissed off vibes at insta-power and insta-fixes. I mean, there is a lot of instant gratification wish fulfilment here. At the rate of this unbelievable progress, surely Harry would have challenged Dumbledore and taken the Elder Wand by the end of the first term, moved onto the Ministry and being Overlord of Britain by second term and made decent headway of conquering the world by the end of the year?
On top of this, the author tells rather than shows. You 'see' some potentially excellent scenes in a paragraphs of Harry's thoughts, and then you actually get to read endless hours of training and Ginny's internal musings. None of which is particularly interesting, but the actual scenes with Ron or Hermione would have been. There's only so long you want to read - this happened, that happened, he did this and she did that... show me instead of just telling me!
But it got better. I wasn't rolling my eyes every ten seconds. I might skip and quick read entire fucking paragraphs but I was actually engaged. I still struggled with some of the characterisations - notably of Hermione and, to a lesser degree, Ron. And I still felt that the author missed so much by relying on the insta-power and insta-fixes. There were so many scenes that could have been. Except they weren't because Harry is almighty and all powerful and can learn more than most adult wizards know in less than a term. There are a lot of missed opportunities. Like one hell of a lot.
And then we hit the last four chapters - probably at least 20,000 words each. And I was enthralled. I was truly engaged. Despite one insta-saviour moment that is borderline stupid, I was absolutely hooked. And then it just fecking stops. 550,000 fecking words and they cannot be arsed to write an ending. I could actually punch them. It is rare that a fanfiction actually makes me angry. This managed it. There are over 2000 pages here. The least you could damn well do is provide an ending. GRAH!
Yes, I fully admit that I am irrationally annoyed by this. I also have to admit that I am genuinely annoyed by this. There are so many issues with the writing and yet, I was going to bump to an easy three star based on the ending. Except then it didn't end. And it is a damn miracle that this isn't a one star rating. It might yet still become one.
Yawn. Classic way overpowered fanfic protagonist who is super special and nearly everybody else is stupid or evil, but He Prevails And Also Finds True Love. Even while needing a power fantasy, it feels kinda cheap.
Not a bad story, although a very sudden ending and an abandoned sequel means we'll probably never know what happens next. It's very anti-Hermione, which is new, and for its time was doubtless interesting. The writing is a good enough quality that I'd have really enjoyed finishing the story.