by Stephanie (link)
Genre het, romance, drama
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length prologue, 42 chapters and epilogue
Status Completed (first story in The Cleo Trilogy)
I had just joined the fandom when this story became a hit, and despite my general apprehension and distrust of highly popular things, I tried to read it. I only read a few chapters before deciding that it just wasn’t for me. However, in the spirit of fairness, I decided to reread it and see if how I feel about it at twenty-seven is different from how I felt about it at fourteen.
Sometimes I consider putting together a hanfic cliche bingo card. If I did, it would take only a few chapters for So, There Was This Boy… to hit the jackpot. The narrator, Cleo, begins the story with an introspective prologue, insists she’s very average looking, has grown up best friends with all three Hanson boys, was hired to be their tutor and assistant, and within the first dozen chapters has kissed both Taylor and Zac. It’s a pretty impressive list, and the sort of thing I would expect from a much younger author than Stephanie. Her age gives her a little more perspective and writing skill that keeps the story from being completely unbearable, but there are still grammatical errors and moments when Cleo sounds even older than I think she’s supposed to sound, and times when she sounds much younger.
All those complaints aside, So, There Was This Boy… is not the worst fic I’ve ever read. The thing I struggle to remember about these early stories is that they aren’t cliche. They created the cliches. Stephanie filled this story with all the sort of angsty, romantic fantasies a young fan could want, and just a hint of sexuality. There were even moments that brought tears to my eyes. So, There Was This Boy… is not perfect, but it does pull off several popular tropes fairly well, and I can see why that makes it so attractive to fans of those tropes. As for me, I didn’t like those tropes at fourteen, and I’m not much of a fan now, either.
Review by Bethany (website)