by Joey (link)
Genre drama/angst, romance
Pairings Taylor/OFC
Length 26 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
I’ve realized that there are three types of early hanfic authors–older ones who handled darker plots well, young ones who wrote stories that were almost pure fluff and young ones who attempted something heavier but couldn’t quite hack it. Unfortunately, Joey, the author of Label falls into the latter category.
I had hoped that the title referred to some struggle involving stereotypes, which might have been interesting, but it’s much more literal than that. The label in question is a record label, which the character Destiny is eventually signed to near the end of the tale. In fact, the story largely centers around her and her music, which I suspect is a sensationalized and exaggerated stand-in for the authors’ own musical ambitions.
Of course, I highly doubt that Joey experienced even a tenth of the drama that teenage orphan Destiny experiences. These parts of the plot are so improbable that all I can do is shake my head at them. This is clearly the story of someone who wanted to escape from their own life but was still too young and innocent to write anything believable about the world outside of their own experience. I can at least give Joey credit for not exaggerating the little bit of romance in Label, but with everything else exaggerated and an OFC featuring so prominently, that’s little condolence.
Review by Bethany (website)