So yeah ... I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, now. I want to talk about few fics that should be read by ... well, I was going to say anyone who loves Twilight fanfiction, but honestly? These stories should be read by everyone who likes to read. They are just good stories; well-written and with plots I connect to for one reason or another. All three are All-Human stories and while the characters might be named Edward, Bella, Jasper et al, they will still mean something to you, even if you didn’t read the books and don’t get the little winks to canon which may be hidden within their text (these winks are more prominent in one story than in the others). I have three stories I am going to write about, here, and will tackle one story each, over the next three blog entries.
When it comes to Twific, I am not picky about what I will read. I don’t eschew any particular “ship” (character relationships, for those of you who might not be up on the fandom lingo); I like vamp stores as well as AH ones; I like fluff, I like angst, I like humor, I like romance, I like mystery—basically, I like anything, so long as I think it is well-written and it pulls me in. These days, I generally pick what to read based on the recommendations of friends and the occasional blog, but I have been known to just peruse and see what’s out there. I look for originality; I look for fully- and well-developed characters.
I will start with a story that I read about on some blog or another many months ago. It has actually been written about on several blogs and deservedly so, as it is really wonderful. However, in spite of the publicity it has garnered, for some reason it still does not have as large an audience as it deserves.
Title: All That Jazz
Author: Javamomma0921
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5928431/1/All_That_Jazz
Completed? No
Summary: AH/AU Set in 1919. Meet orphan sisters, Bella and Alice Swan, as they journey to Chicago to meet their Aunt Esme, brazen, disowned sister of their mother. Join Bella as she learns the true meaning of marriage and love. M for adult themes and later lemons.
Suggested Accessories While Reading: Flapper dress, bob hairdo, a derby, picnic basket, a victrola
Suggested Cocktail While Reading: Gin Martini (two olives) or a tall, cold lemonade
(In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I act as a pre-reader/beta for this story. However, I loved it before I ever started acting in this capacity. It is because I love the story so much, in fact, that I started stalking and harassing PM’ing javamomma0921 and eventually became a pre-reader.)
This story takes place during a time in American history which was fraught with growing pains. One part of us wanted to remain trussed up in our straight-laced and somewhat puritanical traditions and morays and one part wanted to let loose, raise the hems on our skirts a little and recognize that nothing is wrong with a little smooch or two. The women’s rights movement was in its infancy; the fight for the rights of workers was just beginning. People were talking about evolution. It was also the age of prohibition and, as an extension, the height of an organized crime wave. I cannot imagine anyone writing about the Jazz Age quite as well as Javamomma does in this fic. She has obviously done her homework and studied this period (which is essential to me—little is more annoying than writers who don’t do their research). Her writing is filled with telling bits, cluing us into our environment: from the language used, to the manners displayed by both men and women, to the rigid morays of the time. The author even knows what the city of Chicago, where the story takes place, looked like in the year 1919.
When we first meet Bella Swan and her sister, Alice, we are informed that their extremely strict mother has recently died, requiring them to move in with relatives they have never met: Esme and Carlisle Cullen and their son, Emmett. The two young women have had quite different reactions to their rigid upbringing and that is obvious from the get-go. Bella believes everything their mother has taught them, including that marriages are made, not out of love, but of practicality. “Regular girls take the matches that their mothers and fathers make for them and they make the most of them,” Bella says at one point. “Mother always told us a woman was made to serve a man. We're not their equals, Alice. We can only hope for a man kind enough to allow us to keep house and raise children in peace. So many women don't get that! They get tyrants who expect unseemly favors.”
Yes, it is a sad mental state we find this poor child in, initially. Alice, however, has a completely different view. She wants to experience the world around her and has every intention of marrying for love. In wanting to live life to its fullest, in fact, she rather forcefully and sometimes carelessly storms through her days, grabbing for everything within her reach.
These are slightly different versions of Bella and Alice than we are used to, but there remain some character traits we will find familiar. The way they are woven into this story, however, keeps those canon elements from seeming cliche’. Bella is the self-sacrificing, selfless-to-a-fault girl we know so well—the one with very little esteem for her appearance and, at least initially, wonders why someone as “perfect” as Edward would be interested in her. What I love about these traits in this Bella, though, is that they are perfectly understandable. They make complete sense given the time in which this girl was raised, and who her mother was (the more you learn about their mother, the more you understand that she wasn’t just a product of her time, but that she had a severely warped view and male/female relations, among other things. As a result, she was almost abusive in her strictness and some of the ideas she planted in the minds of her daughters were just flat out wacko. I am waiting to see if she was in some way abused by the man(men) in her life, because it would certainly seem so).
Alice is generally written as a spitfire and this story is no exception. Again, though, this part of her personality seems especially important and interesting given the yoke her character is trying to shake herself free of. As we are also used to seeing, this Alice pays very close attention to fashion and grooming and lassos Bella pretty much every morning so that she might pick out her wardrobe and/or fix her hair. But while most fics (and even the original work) make Alice seem superficial and oftentimes her Bella-makeovers are pushy and controlling, in this fic, these times are viewed through the loving eyes of her younger sister, Bella. They are seen almost as nurturing interactions between the sisters and I loved that distinction. The “usual” Alice is just so annoying.
As the story progresses, we watch as moving in with their aunt and uncle has a tremendous effect on the sisters. Esme is a far more modern woman than their mother was and the lessons she has to teach them are quite different from what they are used to. Alice takes to her aunt and this new living situation like a fish to water. Bella is more hesitant to abandon the ideas and ideals with which she grew up, but we watch as she thoughtfully considers them and compares them to the new information she is being shown every day. The girls go to a new school, they go to dances, they explore Chicago. And they, of course, meet boys. Specifically, Bella meets Edward and Alice, Jasper.
Edward and Jasper are also two sides of a coin, this time from the male perspective. Edward is more traditional, responsible and straight-laced. He falls hard for Bella and though he is of course sexually attracted to her, he knows the physical limits imposed on him by the time in which they live and he would never dream of crossing those lines. It is inferred that perhaps Jasper and Alice might physically push the envelope a little more than our main lovebirds, but as this is primarily Bella and Edward’s story, we don’t really get to know that for sure.
While both men come from good, upper-middle-class (if not well off) homes, Jasper is a bit of a rebel and ends up going to work and trying to make a life for himself on the “wrong side of the tracks” as it were. This affords javamomma the opportunity to give us at least a hint of what working conditions were like at the time and I have the sneaking suspicion that our fair Jasper might end up getting involved with some rather shady characters. It’s an interesting little side story and I hope she does more with it.
Since this story takes place during a time quite different from that in which we live, these kids are not jumping into the sack with each other. While the author promises us future “lemons” (sex scenes, for the uninitiated), as these characters are not married there have not yet been any. HOWEVER (and I say that in all caps because this is a point worth making adamantly), do NOT allow yourself to think that the lack of true lemons makes this story less sexy than, say, Master of the Universe. The truth is the exact opposite. I have been AMAZED at how sexy javamomma can make the holding of hands under a table or sitting in a porch swing. This is truly one of the sexiest fics I have read and everybody is still a virgin at this point (and it is FAR sexier, in my book, than is MoTU). I think as Writers of Smut, we all need to take a good long look at this fic and realize that “insert part A into slot B” (or “insert E into slot B”, as is the case with most Twific, heh-heh) isn’t always the sexiest route to take. There is a LOT to be said for unresolved sexual tension and javamomma weaves that UST through this story like an artist.
I wonder if the lack of gritty sexual content is the reason this fic has less than 800 reviews after 14 chapters. I know that is a respectable number of reviews, but to me this story should be one of the heavy hitters, with a few thousand at this point. So I wonder about it. Constantly. Because I just don’t get it. This is truly one of the best written fics not just being posted right now, but that has ever been posted. Or at least that I have read.
One final note: Each chapter begins with a little snippet of lyrics from a song from the time period. Granted, I am a music freak, but I LOVE this little bit of backdrop and feel it enhances the experience if you actually go out and find those songs. Take a listen. A) The music will help put you in the frame of mind for the time period and B) You might hear something new, that you never knew you would like.
Go. Read. Tell javamomma how awesome she is. Then tell all of your friends to do the same.
Next rec: Tangled up in Blue by TXBirdie
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