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As Yet Untitled

by Jen and Raini (link)

Genre het, drama/angst, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 30 chapters
Status Completed

As Yet Untitled is one of those stories that clearly had quite a bit of a following in its time, but for whatever reason, didn’t retain popularity to this day. What that usually means (and it holds true in this case) is that the fic would only appeal to younger readers, and as our tastes matured, we lost interest. While Jen and Raini are neither especially talented or untalented writers, As Yet Untitled is clearly the product of two teenage minds.

Like so many stories, this one begins with the main character, Celeste, being forced to move to Tulsa. In this case, it’s because of the tragic murder of her parents, which I suppose is at least a unique turn of events. Celeste seems to vacillate wildly between being terribly depressed over this and other tragic events (one of which is in an un-archived chapter, which leaves me relieved not to have to read it) and totally unaffected, living a normal teenage life centered around fashion and boys.

Celeste is a contradiction in a lot of ways. While she is obsessed with fashion, based on how many times she describes their outfits and how cute all the girls look, she’s also convinced she’s unattractive and unworthy of Isaac’s affections. And she’s an ROTC member, with a penchant for beating up any girl that tries to interfere with her relationship. It all makes her a really annoying character to read, which is a shame since the entire story is from her point of view.

Between the fashion focus, over the top angst, catty female characters and more, As Yet Untitled is perhaps an ideal example of the sort of teenage drama romance that ran rampant in the fandom during these early years. If this was their goal, Jen and Raini certainly succeeded, but somehow I doubt that’s what they were going for.

Review by Bethany (website)