by Stephanie (link)
Genre het, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 40 segments
Status Unfinished
There was a strangely dark undercurrent to early hanfic, and it’s one of the things that drew me to it. Although I never read any of her fic back then, I was well aware of Stephanie’s rather infamous reputation, so it only seemed right to give her a try with this unfinished story.
The story begins in fairly innocent, stereotypical fashion–Taylor and a girl meet and soon they’re in love. Of course, there are copious amounts of personal and family drama for her, a clear self insert who even shares the author’s name. That’s true, too, of Isaac’s love interest, who happens to be carrying another boy’s baby. And then there’s Zac, who–again, in stereotypical fashion–is torn between wanting a girlfriend too and thinking girls still have cooties. Other than Stephanie’s surprisingly polished writing for someone I assume, based on the story’s content, to be a teenager, there’s not much to make the story stand out from the pack at first.
Unfortunately, the drama stays fairly predictable; teen pregnancy is the lowest common denominator, if you ask me. Isaac’s plotline is a little more interesting, since he isn’t actually the father of the child’s, while Taylor’s is fairly boring. Just as the decline into truly self-destructive behavior begins, Stephanie abruptly stopped writing Hold Me Now So That I Never Drown. While it is a fair bit better written than other stories of that era, and not quite as dark as I expected based on the author, the story still rarely strays from predictable territory, and so for that reason, I can see little to recommend it to readers today.
Review by Bethany (website)