Hating the Weather by Rivkat
Aug. 31st, 2013 02:59 pmI just finished reading Hating the Weather by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rivkat. IMO, the rec/review I'm about to give has vague enough spoilers that I wouldn't call them spoilers, but if you're worried about such things, this is a thorough rec/review.
Alternate Links: AO3 & Dreamwidth
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this fic is that the author didn't shy away from Dee wanting to be/enjoying the strength of being in a male body.
I've read a lot of genderswap fics where it seemed to me that the author wanted to make a statement about how women are equal to men, and while I think it'd be nice if women could be treated with more respect and that there would be less misogyny and male chauvinism, the truth is that men have superior strength, whether we like it or not, and in the world that Sam and Dean live in, physical strength and size is extremely important.
Rivkat also wrote the fic from Sam's POV, and the majority of genderswap fic I've read is from the genderswapped individual's POV. There were times when I was reading that I wished I could be in Dee's/Dean's head, but the fact that it was from Sam's POV gave the story an edge that I really enjoyed.
The pronoun changes (used in Sam's POV) were jarring at times, but it was how Sam felt, and he was fighting the fact that his sister had changed so hard that he refused to see how well Dee was adapting. Not that Dee was totally enthused about the whole thing and didn't miss her female body, but canon Dean is adaptable to situations whether he likes the situation or not, and I felt this story showed that so well. Sam's refusal to accept that his sister was now male also fit his character in so many ways.
The author weaved canon throughout the fic in a way that impressed me as well. Sometimes things happened according to canon, other times it was slightly tweaked, and sometimes things were just plain different than canon. But I liked that not all the changes were simply for the reason that Dean had grown up female and was now in a male body.
The fic was so smooth in places that the jarring changes and ways that Sam's headspace went really made this fic unique. I almost wish this fic could have been longer and that we could have seen a bit further into the future, but again the ending fit with the rest of the fic in that jarring way that was somehow satisfying and perfect just the way it was.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes genderswap, is okay with Sam/Dean (there's no Sam/Dee, BTW), and would like to read something refreshingly different.
~Maya
(Crossposted from LJ)
rivkat. IMO, the rec/review I'm about to give has vague enough spoilers that I wouldn't call them spoilers, but if you're worried about such things, this is a thorough rec/review.Alternate Links: AO3 & Dreamwidth
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this fic is that the author didn't shy away from Dee wanting to be/enjoying the strength of being in a male body.
I've read a lot of genderswap fics where it seemed to me that the author wanted to make a statement about how women are equal to men, and while I think it'd be nice if women could be treated with more respect and that there would be less misogyny and male chauvinism, the truth is that men have superior strength, whether we like it or not, and in the world that Sam and Dean live in, physical strength and size is extremely important.
Rivkat also wrote the fic from Sam's POV, and the majority of genderswap fic I've read is from the genderswapped individual's POV. There were times when I was reading that I wished I could be in Dee's/Dean's head, but the fact that it was from Sam's POV gave the story an edge that I really enjoyed.
The pronoun changes (used in Sam's POV) were jarring at times, but it was how Sam felt, and he was fighting the fact that his sister had changed so hard that he refused to see how well Dee was adapting. Not that Dee was totally enthused about the whole thing and didn't miss her female body, but canon Dean is adaptable to situations whether he likes the situation or not, and I felt this story showed that so well. Sam's refusal to accept that his sister was now male also fit his character in so many ways.
The author weaved canon throughout the fic in a way that impressed me as well. Sometimes things happened according to canon, other times it was slightly tweaked, and sometimes things were just plain different than canon. But I liked that not all the changes were simply for the reason that Dean had grown up female and was now in a male body.
The fic was so smooth in places that the jarring changes and ways that Sam's headspace went really made this fic unique. I almost wish this fic could have been longer and that we could have seen a bit further into the future, but again the ending fit with the rest of the fic in that jarring way that was somehow satisfying and perfect just the way it was.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes genderswap, is okay with Sam/Dean (there's no Sam/Dee, BTW), and would like to read something refreshingly different.
~Maya
(Crossposted from LJ)
