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Standing in the Shadows

by Becca and Nat (link)

Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 33 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed (with a sequel)

High school fics are hard to write; they can rely so heavily on teenage stereotypes that they just turn into parodies. Standing in the Shadows has a fair dose of teen movie stereotypes in the first few chapters, but it soon shifts from Hollywood to Claremore, Oklahoma, and becomes a little bit more nuanced.

The two female narrators, who I think are each written by a different one of the two authors, soon find their lives intertwined. This works well; it could seem like a coincidence, but Becca and Nat make it work. Unfortunately, the story focuses way too much on the two of them, with Zac playing only a supporting role (as eventual boyfriend to one of the narrators) and Taylor an even smaller role. While some might find original characters, especially ones with at least relatively interesting backstories fun to read about, I prefer a bit more focus on Hanson.

That said, the drama of the story stays at a pretty nice, low level–although the beginning Hollywood scenes are over the top and the random inclusion of Zac Efron makes me roll my eyes, this is just a typical, feel-good sort of teen drama. Aside from the fact that the focus on the OFCs just isn’t to my tastes, my biggest complaints are the (pretty numerous) grammatical errors and typos and the abrupt scene changes. While it may not be my favorite story ever, there’s enough in the plot to keep me curious about what the second story will hold.

Review by Bethany (website)