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Tulsa 74132

by Sarah, Laurie and Melissa (link)

Genre het, comedy, drama, romance
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 44 chapters
Status Unfinished

These early stories are often hard for me to review. I can understand why they’re so popular; when hanfic was so new, it didn’t taken much to be groundbreaking and garner a huge audience. Tulsa 74132 was one of the very first hanfics, and as such, one of the most popular ones. It remains one that people talk about, but between a combination of not being able to find it and not quite believing the hype, I’d never read it.

It’s perhaps a little sad that I’m immediately struck by how well written Tulsa 74132 is. Okay, it’s not a literary masterpiece. It could use a tiny bit of editing (but couldn’t we all?) and the phrasing sometimes makes me cringe. Overall, though, the authors are far better than what I’ve come to expect from teenagers, and they occasionally land on a really nice turn of phrase.

But what about the content? There’s drinking. There’s teenage sex. There’s drama by the truckload. The story’s title implies a fair amount of genre savviness, and I’ve even seen it said that Sarah, Laurie and Melissa were attempting to write a parody of the sort of teen soap operas that were all the rage in the 1990s. Given their mocking of My So Called Life, Party of Five and Days Of Our Lives, I’m inclined to believe this was, to an extent, their intention. Whether they entirely succeed is another story entirely. Tulsa 74132 never quite turns into a shockfest that feels more like a TV special for worried parents than a fanfic. There’s a good balance here; teenage antics are balanced out by parental lectures and some of the most safe sex I’ve ever seen in any fic.

Another author once said that a big part of the appeal in Tulsa 74132 was the Taylor’s love interest, Gretchen, was a normal, imperfect girl. Of course teenage Hanson fans would love to imagine that Taylor could fall for an overweight tomboy. She had a point, but at the same time, Gretchen doesn’t really come across as a Mary Sue. Nor is she that nuanced of a character, either, but none of them are. Still, the story has a wide cast of female characters who all fit neatly into a few different stereotypes. The Hanson brothers, especially Zac, have the best characterization.

Ultimately, what makes Tulsa 74132 a classic is a combination of the fact that it was not only one of, if not the first, story to do some of the things it does, but it does most of them quite well. It’s the definition of a typical hanfic — a little drama, a little comedy, a lot of romance, copious nods to the boys’ fame, and of course, a cliffhanger with no ending in sight.

Review by Bethany (website)