by Ali (link)
Genre crossover, slash/cest, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Taylor/Tommy Joe Ratliff, Zac/Kate, Zaylor
Length 68 chapters
Status Completed (first in the SNAFUBAR series)
I was hesitant to read this story at first, because of the pairing. I do like a few of Adam Lambert’s songs, but I’m far from being a part of his fandom and have very little interest in Tommy Joe Ratliff. But I thought it was such an odd pairing that I couldn’t keep myself from checking it out just to see if there was something there to interest me, and I was pleasantly surprised.
While I certainly didn’t come away from the story more of a Tommy Joe fan, I was able to see how a relationship between him and Taylor (as they were portrayed in the story) could happen. I also really, really enjoyed Ali’s portrayal of Taylor’s history and his struggle with his sexuality. It rang very true with how I see him, and I found myself crying as I read certain chapters. It’s not often that a story these days can make me cry.
That said, I wasn’t entirely happy with the way that Taylor and Zac’s relationship was portrayed. At times, I found myself feeling much more for Zac than I did for Taylor. Zac may have acted like a brat at times, but in the end, he was very mature about it and obviously did want to just work things out–whether that meant being together or just being brothers. As much as I did feel for Taylor, it was sometimes hard to care about his plight when he brought so much of it on himself. Speaking of characters who aren’t usually likable, Alex Greenwald was, at times, my absolute favorite thing about SNAFU.
It would have been silly to expect a happy ending from SNAFU. Although I could see it going many different ways as the end approached, none of them were happy and I had to make my peace with that. I wasn’t really prepared for such an open ending, though, but it made more sense when I knew there was going to be a sequel. That sort of open ending on its own, with no promise of more story to come, would have been even less satisfying than it was–which, truthfully, wasn’t very.
SNAFU is the sort of story that I find myself very torn about. Even when it upsets me and leaves me longing for something different than what it has delivered, I still want to keep reading just to see how its all going to play out.
Review by Bethany (website)