by Monica Geist (link)
Genre drama/angst
Pairings none
Length 39 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed (with sequel)
There’s a reason that “torturing Taylor” became such a meme in this fandom. From the very beginning, perhaps because he looked like such a perfect little angel, fans practically delighted in finding ways to cause him trauma in their fics. To See Beyond The Surface is no different, but it does throw in one unusual element — a character that can only be described as a Gary Stu, despite the story not being slash.
The Gary Stu in question is just as tortured as Taylor, having chosen to hide in a cabin in the woods after a horrible accident left him disfigured and ended his medical career. You can guess, then, that it’s another accident that causes him to cross paths with Taylor during a camping trip. It’s an over the top and contrived scenario, but the medical details seem, to my untrained eye, accurate enough.
The story moves in stops and starts, sometimes seeming completely stalled. Once things finally do start moving, around the halfway point, the pace is pretty steady. It is, not surprisingly, a story about looking beyond the surface. The moral message of it is pretty heavy handed at times, but at least Monica had a light touch with the romance. What little bits of romance are there are nearly essential to the plot and don’t take away from it at all.
To See Beyond The Surface is quite a heavy handed story, although the bond between Taylor and Jason did get to me at times. Leaving the Hanson part out, the plot could belong to the sort of young adult novel school libraries are filled with. It is strangely formatted, though, and rife with grammatical errors and strange, repetitive turns of phrase. Still I can’t helping that with a little more finesse and editing, Monica could have really been onto something here.
Review by Bethany (website)