by Lis (link)
Genre drama/angst
Pairings none
Length 11 chapters
Status Unfinished
When Hanson “returned” in 2000, Zac seemed like a different person entirely; not surprising, considering he’d turned into a teenager. And not just any teenager, but a sullen, even sad and depressed seeming one. I Am is one of many stories to tackle this new Zac, and approach the idea of him indeed being depressed and unhappy with the band and the fame. Not an entirely original concept, but one that’s fairly compelling anyway.
I can’t say that I Am does a great job with the depressed Zac trope, though. He mostly comes off as whiny and immature, or paranoid and overreacting. It’s not that he’s really wrong with what he thinks and feels, but Lis’s depiction of it is difficult to relate to. Taylor is even harder to relate to at first, but as the story goes on he develops more of a well rounded personality and even gets to narrate a bit. The other narrator Aveline, who comes in about halfway through, is a bit more well-developed, although her family story is fairly cliche.
I’m usually not a fan of stories that suddenly add new narrators partway through, but in I Am‘s case, I actually think it works. The story becomes, I realize, more about mending the entire family than just mending Zac, and it provides a more well rounded picture of the situation to see more than just his perspective.
Sadly, like so many old stories, I Am was never finished. It does, at least, reach some tentative resolution just before Lis stopped writing it, and that makes it feel like enough of an ending for me. It’s a little slow moving at first, but more happens in those eleven chapters than I expected at first.
Review by Bethany (website)