by Bethany (link)
Genre cest, scifi, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/Nikki, Taylor/Natalie, Zac/Kate, Zaylor
Length 25 chapters
Status Completed
I stumbled across this story by accident after seeing a post about it on Tumblr. I immediately sent the author a message, asking her if it was a new piece of work. As it turned out, it wasn’t – in fact, the story had been written before I was even involved with the Hanson fandom. The reason for this preamble is that, if you’re rolling your eyes and thinking ‘but I read that years ago’, well, sorry. As usual, I’m late to the party.
The opening chapter takes place within familiar territory: it’s the day of Zac’s wedding and, as Hanfic tradition wants, the boys are struggling to cope with their conflicting feelings for each other. But when Zac wakes up the next day, everything is different – really different.
At this point it’s impossible to say anything more without giving away some of the plot so I’ll stop here. What I will say, however, is that this is the kind of story that you’ll need to approach without any preconceived ideas: is it sci-fi? Is it time-travel? Do the characters live in some kind of LOST-like alternate reality? If none of these options appeal to you, then take my advice and carry on reading anyway. I predict that you won’t be able to stop until you see ‘The End’.
In her introduction to the story, the author states that this 25-chapters long Zaylor fic drifted away from its initial sci-fi inspired idea into “fairly predictable sappy romance territory”. Maybe the territory is familiar – a classic Zaylor romance – but there’s nothing predictable or sappy about WDH. On the contrary, this is a story that kept me glued on the edge of my seat as I followed the same tortuous path of Zac’s state of mind in a classic episode of major reader/character identification.
Hanson songs are often a source of inspiration to fics, and “Georgia” features heavily in this story. No doubt, the author’s alternative interpretation of the lyrics will make readers look at the song in an entirely different way from now on; but if there is a piece of Hanson lyrics that sums up Zac’s state of mind in this story, it’s a line from “Hand in Hand”: ‘Can’t find the bridge from my mind to reality.’ Fortunately, such bridge does, eventually, materialise and the story ends in a way that satisfies without appearing contrived, leaving a reader still wondering about what really happened for a long time after turning the final page. If you ask me, that’s exactly what a good story should do.
As a fan of this author, I shouldn’t be surprised at her ability to deliver a tightly-plotted story revolving around everyone’s favourite ship, with fully-fleshed supporting characters who often get the best lines (this Isaac is terrific). But while her subsequent writing tends to be firmly anchored in reality, WDH is an experiment that successfully blurs the lines between genres, adding an element of ‘weird’ to a story that is ultimately still mostly canon. In any case, irrespective of what genre it actually belongs to, What Didn’t Happen is a truly engrossing, spell-binding story.
Review by Paola (tumblr)