If you’re unfamiliar with the fanfic world, they have what they call Bangs, where artists and authors get paired together. It’s a nice way to collaborate and additionally, you often end up meeting lots of fellow writers and artists that way. Many of the stories from this month (and a few from January) were part of a Winter Bang, which is why a lot of these fics have two authors listed (writer, artist). This isn’t universally the case (some Bang fics don’t include the artist as an author, and some fics are written collaboratively with other writers) but this goes some way to explain why I’m reviewing a LOT of these right now.

First:  Vine Slips of a Strange God by depraveddame and Zivilzz. This is one of those cases of a fanfic that didn’t work for me on multiple levels. I’m not going to critique it – these things are labors of love for the authors, and a story not working for me is a me-issue. I could have stopped reading any time. I kept going because I needed to occupy my brain with something consuming while I was in a very dark place mentally. It’s my own fault if I finished something I wasn’t enjoying.

Second: Out Cold by Afraid_Industry8409 and Orangejuiceinmyshoe. The weather turns, and a hiker is stuck on a snowy mountain. He’s rescued by an angel, only to wake up in the hospital several days later, realizing it was a near-death delusion. As he begins physical and emotional rehab, something about the experience lingers. This was an interesting story that went places I didn’t expect. It was a nice break from more straightforward tales.

Third: The Solstice Dinner by Di_42 and Hogs_and_ham. Classic enemies to lovers set around the winter solstice, with a few extra elements (including the most clever use of Warlock’s character that I’ve ever read). This was sweet and charming and just so perfect for the season.

Fourth: Living Fiction by Sakascal. This was absolutely the sweetest story. Soooooo sweet! Longterm pining, grand gestures that go wrong, a cheeky young Warlock, lots of plants, gay romance novels, walks in the rain, shared umbrellas, nose kisses…

Fifth: Group Chat: Flat 3B🐍📚 by whatkeepsusalive. This adorable short fic was told half in texts and half in regular prose. Two flatmates converse constantly, bickerflirting and just generally being silly and snarky to each other, neither admitting that they have growing feelings for each other until WAY past when its realistic, but realism isn’t the point. It’s sweet. I loved it.

Sixth: Improvement Day by Twilightcitysky. I’ve previously enjoyed works by this author and this one didn’t disappoint. Imagine the cringiest corporate team-building retreat ever, the type with trust falls and sack races, only make it angels plus a sneaky demon who has infiltrated in (not so good) disguise. Heh.

Seventh: in the study with the lead pipe by teethandblood. This is my second Clue-centric GO fic I’ve read this year, and I liked this one a lot better than the first. This read a lot like the movie, but without just copying it over exactly. Honestly, knowing the movie as well as I did, I should have expected the end, but instead, I was expecting a slightly different twist that was more And Then There Were None style. Anyway, I quite enjoyed how it ended, and hey, this was my first “Major Character Death” fic that I’ve dared to read, heh.

Eighth: The Human Thing by Sakascal. This short piece was a perfectly structured bit of domestic fluff-and-smut, starting cute and sweet, drifting into romantic and tender, hitting the hot and sexy notes before returning to romance, and then back to the cute and sweet moments that touched back on the beginning of the story. It was quite well done, and I love these sorts of “already established relationship” fics.

Ninth: The Demon’s Tutor by SilvorMoon. In this fantasy, a man with “the gift of angels” (to keep at bay all things evil) is hired to help a man born with a “demon’s mark” and who is trying not to turn into a demon, at which point he’ll need to be killed. All is not as it seems, though, and a series of events coming from many different parts of this small village culminates in a giant forest fire, backfiring jinxes, an escaped bottle-imp, a crash course in magic, an old-fashioned gun loaded with holy buckshot, a runaway horse, and spontaneous romances. While the story is nothing like the original book in content, it’s probably the first fanfic that reads like the book in form, structure, pov, and tone.

Bonus: Not Like Other Boys by AppleSeeds. This one is too short to go on my book list, but it’s too good not to mention it. It’s two stories, both parodies of the “sold to One Direction” style fics. It is over the top ridiculous, taking the trope and using every cliche possible to make the parody even more absurd. I laughed so hard reading this, and it just kept getting better. There was one part in the second story where I laughed at the first half of a sentence, and not expecting the second, I went to take a sip of coffee. Thank goodness I read before I sipped because I would have had coffee all over my laptop…

Whew! I have a feeling my reading will drop off after this month because I’ve finally caught up a bit on my backlog!