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Reviewer: babewithbrains Signed Date: 2011.01.28 - 02:54PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
This was great! I liked Ginny's POV better, but it didn't ruin it to add Hermione's too, although I was hoping for Harry's. Anyway, great work, keep it up!
~Soraya~
Reviewer: ProfessorBinns Signed Date: 2008.02.09 - 02:53AM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
I think it's brilliant. Hermione's voice suits her well, as does her analytical insight (complete with errors). "Straight-backwardness" is very clever. And I love the emotional depth that your additions to the plot bring, especially Ginny realizing before Hermione who Harry has a crush on... The idea of causing a mother's resentment is very perceptive and original. I hop you continue the series. Thanks!
Reviewer: Trance Starr Signed Date: 2008.01.14 - 02:35AM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
I REALLY want some more of this truthful AWESOMENESS!!! Let's here from Harry and Ron and Dean, the boys need their turn!!!
Reviewer: NaruKoibito Signed Date: 2007.12.25 - 04:57PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
Brilliant! I just loved both of them, especially Hermione's bit about how happy Ginny made Harry -- more than she or Ron could -- and how he acted around her. The grinning from Ginn'y chapter was great (that Harry :D ) and the resentment from this chapter. It's honesty, and I loved it. Great job.
Reviewer: Trance Starr Signed Date: 2007.03.11 - 06:14AM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
um..ok...you need to write more as soon as possible.
Reviewer: MissCorker Signed Date: 2006.12.09 - 10:01PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
Oh my Fabulous. I love it. I love how honest it is. I'm a big fan of that. Some people think that fanfiction doesn't have to be true-ish, but my favorite ones always are! I love all the thought and analysis you put into your works
Reviewer: Cassie Payne Signed Date: 2006.11.08 - 06:51PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
I have to admit I was hoping you were finally going to get into Harry's head, and was a bit disappointed with Hermione, but it was interesting to get her take on the whole romance plot. I felt so sorry for Ginny after the third task in GOF, and can imagine just that kind of response from her.
So... Give us Harry and Ron! I know we've seen Jo's version of Harry's thought process, but there were so many parts she left out, and you could do such a wonderful job with them. Please? Pretty Please?
BTW - I think I remember reading in your bio that you are rather young - how do you come up with insights like a mother resenting her grown son falling in love with another woman? That would just never have occured to me before maybe 40 or so!
Author's Response: Well, let's just say this isn't my first trip around the universe. ;-)
It's obviously not personal experience, but I just kind of go with how I'd imagine things to be. I don't always get it right. Thanks so much for this review!
Author's Response: Oh, and I totally know what you mean about Hermione POVs being a disappointment, I can't help feeling that way ALL THE TIME, when I'm reading fanfiction. In fact, just for that, I'm inspired to hurry up with Harry's perspective.
Reviewer: Rhetor Signed Date: 2006.10.11 - 04:11PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
Hmmmmm.
First of all, Laura, I like your writing and I always have. You've set yourself a difficult task here, because by creating first-person narratives you've withheld from yourself your most powerful tool, which is your gift for lyrical description and narrative voice. Since Ginny & Hermione aren't allowed to be as gorgeous as you are, they start out with a handicap.
So now I fall back on those first-person voices themselves and how they make me feel. The first thing I have to do is to completely jettison my own sense of either of these characters. Your Ginny's voice doesn't sound, to me, like the Ginny I hear in my head -- but that's all right, because what we know about Ginny from the canon is so slender that almost any voice would work. Still, she seems a bit too flip, a bit too hip, a bit to tarty to be the Ginny who did all the things Ginny has done. Where's the protective lionness who lashed out at Hermione for criticizing Harry's use of the curse against Draco? That wasn't just someone who liked Harry's body, nor someone who had convinced *herself* that she just liked Harry's body.
Hermione, though, is pretty far removed from canon-Herimione in her affect, and that's hard to reconcile becuase we know canon-Hermione so much better than we know canon-Ginny. Having said this, some of Hermione's sentiments are dead on target -- she would have disliked Ginny's cruelty to Ron for exactly the reason you ascribe, namely because his inexperience meant nothing to her because she wanted him badly.
Having said all this, if I treat your Ginny and your Hermione as brand-new characters who I've never met before, they are perfectly internally consistent and a lot of fun. I like your Hermione as a person a lot better than I like your Ginny, unfortunately, but maybe that will change.
Keep it up.
Ken
Author's Response: I really love this review. You have a gift, you know, for pointing out criticisms without causing even the slightest offense.
To address your concerns: this story, while being truthful, was very much a reaction to House of the Quick and the Hungry on my part. I had spent so long looking at the family aspect, and I felt like I needed to look at Ginny through the lense of some people who don't automatically have to love her unconditionally, you know? I don't suppose that makes sense, considering that chapter one is from her point of view, but it's very much a confessional. While writing this, I put myself in Ginny's place, and because we are always our own worst critics, a lot of the negative aspects showed through. Don't get me wrong, Ginny loves herself a healthy amount, but when it comes to telling her own story, reflecting on her own self, she's going to be more drawn to those moments where she wishes she could have made a different choice, or even just those moments when she had a lot of things complicated things to sort through.
As for Hermione, she is talking more about Ginny here than about herself, but while in some respects she understands Ginny very well, there is a fundamental inequality between them that both are constantly grappling with. Hermione, bless her, doesn't really understand how exhausting it is to be (or feel like, rather) an inferior person, and so she can't fully understand the way Ginny feels about some things. Ginny knows she loves Harry very much, but she feels like saying so to Hermione would be like me telling some famous writer that I'm working on a novel... it's remarkably hard to put that out there. Ginny can't be completely straightforward with Hermione, but to me, therein lies the fascination: taking a look at how a certain thing can look so different between different points of view.
Wow, that was a long response. I don't know, did that make any sense at all? I hope it did, it was such a lovely review, I feel like it deserves a good response. Thank you, I really, really appreciate it!
Reviewer: orango Signed Date: 2006.10.01 - 07:56PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
i loved this chapter from hermione's point of view. i think you should do one from ron's next, or possible harry's...
Author's Response: That IS the plan. Thanks for the review!
Reviewer: Enchantedgurls Signed Date: 2006.09.09 - 09:16PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
This was good. Kind of reminded me of that river psychology in your other story. Ginny just can't help but be an actress when things are getting rough, can she? I actually really liked Hermione's take on everything and I also really liked that Ginny noticed that Harry liked her. Their conversation was a fun read. Please write more soon!
Reviewer: Enchantedgurls Signed Date: 2006.09.09 - 09:11PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
This was good. Kind of reminded me of that river psychology in your other story. Ginny just can't help but be an actress when things are getting rough, can she? I actually really liked Hermione's take on everything and I also really liked that Ginny noticed that Harry liked her. Their conversation was a fun read. Please write more soon!
Author's Response: Glad you caught onto the River Psychology thing, I was hoping someone would. As always, thanks for your reviews!
Reviewer: untouchableshrewwoman Anonymous Date: 2006.09.09 - 03:56PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
on the critical side, i feel like your writing isn't quite appropriate for hermione. i think her character's inner monologue is probably the hardest to capture, so this piece feels a little scattershot. still i feel like you used her successfully to keep building your image of ginny. she's not really cold, she's just a warm and emotional person who hates being vulnerable. i think that builds a more coherent image of ginny. sorry if i sound like a pretentious windbag. in short it wasnt as enjoyable a read as your first chapter, but snape's inventively cruel grading system all but made up for it.
Author's Response: I love your reviews. You're right, I'm ultimately not cut out to write Hermione---I just don't *feel* her the way I do Ginny. In any case, when you say that you thought I used her successfully to show a more peripheral perception of Ginny, it set me at ease, because that was ultimately my goal. Thank you so much for the review!
Reviewer: Delani Anonymous Date: 2006.09.09 - 02:01PM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
Woah. Well that was...that was like you're the fish that was caught by the hook, but when you get up there, they toss you back. and you try to explain if to all your fish friends, but they don't understand...you understand? lol. I absolutely liked the fresh perspective of Hermione. In her similar narration to Ginny's one understands their relationship a bit more. Oh and where was it? AH yes, I loved Ginny's thought process, the whole "physical attraction" and what not, and how they knew about Harry and his crush...he was just too cute for his own good. You must have some very Harry Potter realm-like friends because honestly, you can't just pull this stuff out of thin air...or, i know, you're secretly GInny writing this!! lol.
Great work
Delani
Reviewer: TGIF Signed Date: 2006.09.09 - 11:53AM Title: Truth-With-a-Capital-T
I am a bit torn.
I liked the fact that you tried something different with Ginny, but the essence of her was still there. Sexually aggressive!Ginny doesn't bother me at all. Its something I could see happening, that and stealing Harry's sheets. Since we know he does love the smell of her, I am sure he was in for an interesting night. Probably thought he was going crazy - not able to get the SMELL of her out of his mind.
Perhaps it was in you attempt to avoid fluff or angst, but at times Ginny came across a bit cold. I think it was more in Hermione not understanding her, but I found myself thinking "Is that really Ginny?" Although trying to pinpoint what DIDN'T work is nearly impossible, everything is completely justifiable. Ginny was protecting herself from being hurt by Harry, so she didn't want to admit how deep her feelings were. And she obviously wasn't a cold person (see the scene after the TriWizard Tournamanet). I think ultimately it lied in the fact of the different perspectives between the chapters. Ginnys straightforward attitude in the first chapter works wonderfully, but when compared to Hermione's concern for Harry's feelings and emotions as well as others, or at least her more expressive emotions Ginny came across a little cold.
I thought your writing was beautiful and I always look forward to new takes on characters. That is what is wonderful with fanfiction. Fleshing out the smaller characters (sadly, thats Ginny, as much as I'd like her to play a larger part in the books) is always fun and up for interpertation. I really can't pinpoint what didn't work for me - I tried to in the above paragraph, but even then, I am not certain.
Author's Response: The real Ginny isn't cold, you're right. That's why I didn't include Hermione's perspective in House of the Quick and the Hungry. Hermione has more of an outsider's perception of Ginny, and even though Hermione guessed correctly about Ginny's tendancy to play the devil's advocate to her own feelings, Ginny won't let her completely into her heart until she feels like an equal, which she doesn't, in my universe, until after they leave on the Horcrux Hunt and she joins the Order. I realize now how many unanswered questions this story has left, and I won't mark it complete until I feel I've tied up all the ends.
