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Hit So Hard

by Lisa (link)

Genre drama, angst
Pairings Isaac/OFC, Taylor/OFC, Zac/OFC
Length 20 letters and epilogue
Status Completed

When I posted that I would be reading Hit So Hard, a visitor commented that she had been thinking about that story a lot and was glad I’d found a link to it. I considered that a good endorsement; although, it’s likely that both the really good and really bad old stories stick in our memories. Still, I hoped for the best when I began reading it.

Epistolary novels are tough. It’s hard to convey a full story just through letters. Hit So Hard has the added bonus of the letters being back and forth between Zac and Taylor, but I think the author tried a little too hard to shove a lot of backstory into the letters. Perhaps the boys didn’t know all of those details about each other’s pasts, but it feels too much like the exposition is just being shoved in there for the reader’s benefit, not for Taylor or Zac’s. Still, what isn’t said yet in the first few letters does build up a lot of suspense. Just what has Zac done that has separated him from his family?

As the story went on, I began to suspect that I knew exactly what Zac had done, but I wanted to believe it wasn’t as horrible as I imagined. I was right, although the exact circumstances were a bit more creative than I could have thought of on my own. Points to Lisa for that.

I’ll admit, Hit So Hard is really, really creative — and dark — for a story written in the beginning of the fandom. It could use some polishing, though. There are quite a few typos and some grammatical errors that I can’t quite overlook even if the letters are supposed to be written by Zac and Taylor. The ending is admittedly a bit of prose that Lisa didn’t write, and while it’s good that she acknowledged that, it’s just too cheesy. The rest of the epilogue is a perfect ending to the story, though, so I hate that the last few paragraphs marred it a bit. Overall, it’s a quite short, but emotional and touching read that doesn’t suffer much for its few flaws.

Review by Bethany (website)