by Alana (link)
Genre het, drama/angst, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC
Length prologue and 31 chapters
Status Completed
Although it was a bit more common back in the day, when he was the only Hanson old enough to write any serious romance about, Isaac fic is still a rare creature. Faithful gets bonus points for using Isaac as its main (only) Hanson, but unfortunately, the Ike of this fic bears so little resemblance to real life that it hardly counts as hanfic at all.
Alana’s prologue is one of the most awkward I’ve ever read; first it details the abuse Cassandra has sustained from her alcoholic father, then quickly wraps it all up by explaining that one day he changed his stripes. He’s still rather controlling, though, refusing to let her spend any time with her boyfriend Isaac. His father is an alcoholic, too, but Cassandra’s fathers objections mostly seem to stem from how much lower class Isaac is. None of that is very easy to swallow, but it is easy to see what the main drama here is going to be.
There are a few interesting twists and turns as Cassandra continues to disobey her father’s orders. I dismissed the one bit of foreshadowing Alana threw in, doubting anyone could write something so ridiculous. She proved me wrong, but managed to almost make it work, if the rest of the story wasn’t so rushed and easily resolved.
With stilted dialogue on top of a cliche plot, there’s not much to recommend about Faithful. Possibly its worst crime is that not only is the story’s Isaac unrecognizable as Isaac Hanson, but he’s the only real Hanson to appear in the story at all. Other than that, Faithful is hardly worse than most after-school-special style young adult novels, but that’s not saying much.
Review by Bethany (website)