by Renee C. (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/OFC
Length 14 chapters
Status Completed
While especially short stories can be difficult to write well, I do admire authors who can tell a complete story in half (or less) the amount of chapters it would take me to tell the same amount of story. Renee C. is definitely one of those authors; her stories are rarely all that long, and Antidote is no exception, coming in at only fourteen chapters.
The problem, though, with such a short story is that often a lot of the actual story is told through exposition. In the first chapter, Renee tells us how bad Zac and Aislynn’s relationship is, and while their fighting backs that up, there’s little there to explain why it’s so bad. Maybe they’re just a bad match for each other, but I’d like to see a little more backstory to explain where and how things went wrong rather than just diving it at the end of the relationship.
Likewise, the new woman Zac meets, Grace, gives him her life story in just a matter of minutes after meeting. Like so many female characters in hanfic, her life is riddled with drama and tragedy. When the story’s told in just a paragraph, it becomes really cliche and loses a lot of emotional impact.
I suppose that is, overall, my problem with Antidote. It isn’t a bad story, but even the happy ending, leaves me longing for a lot more. I don’t feel like I’ve gotten to know any of the characters well enough to understand or appreciate their actions. A little more time spent both on developing the characters and editing the story would improve Antidote greatly.
Review by Bethany (website)