by Leigh and Amy (link)
Genre cest, drama, horror/thriller, romance
Pairings Isaac/Natalie, Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zaylor, Zaylor/OFC
Length 29 chapters
Status Completed (with unfinished & unavailable sequel)
There are times in every fan fiction reader’s life when it really pays to be proven wrong. I am willing to admit that this is one of them.
Look to the Stars had been recommended to me by several friends. They were not just recommending it – they were raving about it. Not many hanfics produce that kind of extreme reaction, so I was curious to find out why this one was so special, after all.
I will readily admit that it certainly was not love at first sight. My problem with Look to the Stars, right from the outset, was that it combines a rather disturbing story idea with a canon setting. I am not a fan of canon at the best of times, and I struggle to remain interested in anything involving wives, parents, and ‘the band.’ I don’t have a problem with ‘cest’ and I am not afraid of reading something controversial or explicit, but I prefer to imagine this sort of content from the imaginary distance of an AU setting that acts like a disclaimer saying ‘it’s ok to read this kind of stuff because we all know it’s not real.” As such, I was rather uncomfortable with the idea of real-life Taylor and Zac going through a truly harrowing ordeal involving a kidnapping imprisonment in a dungeon. I was, however, willing to step outside my comfort zone and trust the judgement of a couple of friends who kept insisting I should persevere, especially as they are, in turn, authors of some of my favourite hanfics.
And so I carried on. And I’m very glad I did, because by the time I was one third into the story, I could not put it down. It just kept getting better, and all my doubts and concerns about the ‘sick’ theme of the story were soon put to rest: the authors of Look to the Stars did not allow their fiction to become a vehicle for gratuitous sex and cheap shock tactics – as it could easily have been the case in the hands of a less accomplished writer.
From a technical point of view, while the writing didn’t blow me over at first, it noticeably improved with each chapter, and by the time I was half way through the story, I felt as if I was reading a published piece of work. I am talking about polished writing, in which every sentence beautifully follows another, every descriptive paragraph becoming more lyrical as the story goes on. Had it not been for the occasional Hanson ‘canon’ references, I could have easily been fooled into thinking that I was reading a published novel. But even the canon side of the story is a lot more subtle than in most other hanfics: for a start, the wives and girlfriends – Natalie and Kate, as Isaac is still single in the story – are portrayed as human beings rather than the usual controlling, conniving harpies favoured by a lot of writers. That in itself is one of the main reasons I liked this story: too often, a fictional Natalie or Kate is clearly just an excuse for the jealous, delusional rantings of a disgruntled fan. But Look to the Stars, Natalie is a sympathetic character and her suffering is not filtered by a sort of skewed karmic justice that has the lucky, privileged wife get their comeuppance, like the baddie in Hollywood blockbuster. On the contrary, her pain feels so real that we cannot but relate to it. What would you do if your husband one day just disappeared? How can we judge her when we haven’t experienced the prolonged agony of waking up every day, not knowing if he will ever come home? And so the reader is drawn into another layer of emotional involvement – this time not just with the victims, but with those left behind. Not many fictions achieve that. Most never even try.
All good things come to an end, and by the time I reached the last, moving, heart-wrenching page of Look to the Stars, I would have sold my soul to the nearest crossroads demon to have some more. But at the same time, I was glad to know that there is no sequel to this fiction: I wouldn’t have wanted to see such an original, challenging piece of work take the usual path of most canon hanfics and fall into the predictable pattern of love triangles and family conflicts. The authors wrote a stunning conclusion, infused with so much love and beauty that, to me, it can only really be interpreted as a happy ending. I am happy to leave it at that.
Review by Paola (journal)