by Miss Renee (link)
Genre crossover, drama, romance, religious/supernatural
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/Carrick, Zac/OFC
Length 6 chapters 15 parts
Status Unfinished
I started reading Things Left Unsaid back when it was posted, excited to see a fic featuring Carrick that I hadn’t written, but I’m sad to say I dropped it quickly because I couldn’t make sense of the large cast of characters and slightly supernatural-seeming plot elements. Giving it a second chance, I’m afraid to say, didn’t help very much.
The story begins with one original character in a coma and the revelation that some of the healthy characters are part of some strange prophecy. Later chapters reveal hints that their religion is Mormon or something loosely based on it. This goes a little further toward explaining why they all live in this big compound together, though how the Jonas Brothers and an original character based on Zac Efron became involved is more difficult to say. I’ll admit, I skimmed over most scenes containing them, as their plotlines hardly seemed to intersect with the Hanson plotlines at all.
As for the Hanson plotlines, they are for the most part fairly straight forward, when the religious aspect isn’t brought up. Isaac’s long hidden affair is about to be revealed, while Taylor and Zac both have some drama brewing with their wives, who are obviously based on their real life wives. Miss Renee seems to get their names mixed up a few times, which doesn’t help with the overall confusion this story leaves me with. Zac and Carrick’s budding relationship is one of the few bright spots, although Carrick himself might as well be an original character, sharing only a few characteristics with the real deal.
Ultimately, no amount of re-reading will help this unfinished story to make more sense. Miss Renee leaves a lot left unsaid in Things Left Unsaid. She might have planned to reveal these things eventually and sort out the tangled plot that begins in medias res, but maybe not. As it is, even the few moments of really great dialogue don’t do much to lessen the confusion of this muddled plot.
Review by Bethany (website)