by Shimmer (link)
Genre het, drama/angst, romance
Pairings Taylor/OFC
Length 18 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed
This story begins with an off-putting, aggressive disclaimer, the type that tends to put me off a story thanks to the author’s sense of self-importance. That said, Don’t Kiss Me Goodnight was popular–popular enough to earn a spot in a newspaper article about hanfic. A story that can live up to all that hype is pretty unlikely.
From the very beginning, it has a few strikes against it. The main character, August, is a shameless self insert, complete with gratuitous descriptions of her appearance and clothing. On top of that, the entire, pointless first chapter takes place in a mall and involves the ubiquitous red jellybeans.
In between all the author’s notes, surprisingly little plot ever manages to take place, but what does happen is just as cliche as the brief first chapter leads me to expect. August is the victim of abuse, and Taylor is inexplicably drawn to her–so drawn that he manages to finagle her a staring part in their next music video. Naturally, the two fall in love, and you can imagine what sort of teenage drama follows.
While this plot might have been fairly unique in its time, it’s so thin (with some bits glossed over to good effect and others just glaringly missing) that I don’t find it engaging at all. Likewise, Shimmer’s writing varies from sophisticated and distanced to breaking the fourth wall in the most awkward fashion possible. Still the ending is a somewhat touching and poignant montage, showing that Shimmer does have some talent for writing and plotting, even though her execution is largely lacking in finesse. What I can say for Don’t Kiss Me Goodnight is that it was likely a big trend-starter, even if many later iterations of the same plot are much, much better.
Review by Bethany (website)