red_day_dawning (red_day_dawning) wrote in lupin_snape, @ 2009-09-01 00:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | project: august 09 rec event |
Some of my favorite snupin stories...
There are so many wonderful snupin stories and pictures it is really difficult to select just a few. I'm going to focus on two authors who seem to me to exemplify the best of snupin, and also two recently posted/completed stories you might not have had the chance to read yet.
busaikko (busaikko's website):
Several of busaikko's stories have already been mentioned - I'd like to add a couple more.
For me, the stories of the R and D series exemplified the very things that cemented my love of snupin. The passion, long repressed, the power and intensity of that connection that exists between Lupin and Snape, their similarities and their differences, and oh, the potential for heartbreak, is so superbly written by busaikko. Such excellent writing, such wonderful reading.
My favorite of the series is The Bad Year, although I must admit 'favorite' seems a peculiar way to describe a story that feels as though it will slay me, it is that unbearably moving.
The Bad Year by busaikko.
Rating: pg-13
Warning/s: infidelity
Summary: Adultery and its aftermath.
I try and avoid infidelity stories - I'm so glad I wasn't frightened away from this one! The story unfolds as Severus is trying to deal with the consequences of infidelity, and it is one of the most moving pieces of writing I've come across. Love pervades every sentence, love is saturated into every word, and yet this is not a fluffy or sentimental piece. It is anguishingly, heart-breakingly moving, simultaneously gritty and moving, and some of the finest quality writing I've read.
busaikko's writing is so good, I'm forced to re-asses the story categories I prefer. Just as I'm not fond of infidelity fics, m-preg just isn't my cup of tea. But....
Jerusalem by busaikko.
Rating: nc-17
Warnings: m-preg
Summary: Written for the snupin_santa prompt: "Post-War AU where Remus wants to have a child; Severus has reservations."
Like the above the story, Jerusalem is so gritty and beautiful and moving. I love Severus' harshness, so sharp and cutting, and the way that busaikko combines that with such an unexpressed depth of passion and feeling.
Even the Moon by busaikko.
Rating: R
Warning/s:
Summary/from the Author's Note: I started a story which divorced. The humorous beginning I took out and tweaked into the story R&D (Master and the Wolf Fourth Wave, Challenge #78). I realized that the Snape/Lupin pair I had in the remainder were not the same guys but hating to kill all that typing, I tried making a story out of the angsty ending. The plot bunnies here were extrapolating "pity sugar makes it ineffective" and getting in the head of a character whose verbal expression and thoughts are at a terrible angle to each other.
I love the Severus in Even the Moon. He's a man who feels so very strongly, and yet acts without any hint of sentimenatlity - it's an utterly alluring combination, and I'm besotted.
schemingreader:
This Might Take Me a Little Time by schemingreader.
Rating: nc-17
Warning/s: none I can think of
Summary: Snape begins to suspect Lupin is dating him just to get access to his fantastic personal library.
Another of my all-time favorite snupin stories. In the top five, for sure. It has Snape and Lupin and BOOKS (my no-longer-secret quirky kink is snupin + books). And it contains some of the very best lines I've ever read in any fiction of any kind.
Schemingreader's divine gift is for portraying a gorgeously awkward and vulnerable yet snarky Snape, and for beautifully handling that glorious flow of dominance and submission that seems to characterize the very best snupin fics. (To clarify: I don't mean the dominance/submission of BDSM, but the flow and dynamics within a relationship.) It's touching and moving and utterly beautiful, so unspeakably sexy:
Every moment of it, the slap of Lupin's balls against his thighs, the feel of Lupin's hot breath on his neck when he leaned forward, and always, the breaks for passionate kisses, felt like a tribute to Lupin's skills as a researcher. He had created some sort of index to Severus' body, and was in the process of cross-indexing--see under pleasure, see under arousal, see under intimacy.
What this writer can do with words... This story is one of the best pieces of erotica I've ever read. There, I can't think of any way to better convey my appreciation of this story's brilliance.
Reintroducing the Wolf by schemingreader.
Rating: NC-17
Warning: BDSM
Summary: Remus Lupin has a new job teaching large animal biology at Hogwarts University in Wisconsin. His difficult but attractive former high school classmate Severus Snape already teaches history there. It takes their graduate students' clumsy machinations to bring them together. (Non-magical alternative universe.)
Yet another of my all-time favorite snupin stories. I've re-read it so many times, I'm sure it's imprinted on my mind. Severus is so wonderfully snide and snarky, prickly and defensive, with hidden vulnerabilities and insecurities, and so divinely, perfectly submissive in bed. – and Remus is maddeningly good-natured and tolerant, strong and self-possessed. Their dialogue is so hot and witty it crackles, and their sex is bone-meltingly good.
Set initially in a (non-magic) US University, Severus and Remus are both academics in Gay and Lesbian Studies at "Hogwarts University". There are little cameos by familiar characters - one gets glimpses of Minerva, Flitwick and Neville, and there's this wonderful secondary pairing going on in the background, between Luna and Hermione. I love this Hermione - neurotic and sweet and fretful, anguishing over Snape's lack of romantic opportunities, and this Luna, dreamy and relaxed, yet so clued in. Between them Hermione and Luna get the funniest lines, and yet the focus of the story is unequivocally the building intensity between Severus and Remus as they circle closer to each other. And the sex is searingly, marvelously hot!! It is beautifully structured and written, and that final scene with the (natural) wolves in Yellowstone National Park is so evocative.
It's funny and delightful and moving – and the sex is hotter than hot. I could not recommend this story highly enough – it is brilliant!!
Stages of Courtship by schemingreader.
Rating: nc-17
Warning/s: Sex happens and the pairing is Snape/Lupin
Summary: none given
"You want to hold my hand and kiss me because I'm loyal and brave?"
Remus nodded.
"What will you do if I'm also clean and thrifty and well-prepared?"
Who wouldn't fall in love with schemingreader's Snape and Lupin? I'm utterly besotted. So it's no surprise that they have fallen for each other. They're both broken and imperfect, and together they're perfect and whole. Like mismatched pieces of odd shards and fragments, fitted together awkwardly to beccome something new and wonderful.
"I've done horrible things."
"I am a horrible thing."
"Shut up."
Snape kissed him again, liquid, amazing, so that he could hardly breathe.
"I will have you," Snape said in a low voice. "I will have you, at last." Snape had Remus' shoulder in his hand and kissing his neck. "Don't try to tell me that you aren't worth having."
Guh, love it. If ever (and I don't believe I ever will), but if ever I lose my passion for snupin, all I would have to do is read a schemingreader story to fall in love all over again. Instant love potion. So, if you'd like to fall in love with snupin again, go and read this one.
Two new (or newly completed) stories:
Red Serpent by skitty_kat. (Link to skitty's Red Serpent tags.)
Rating: R
Warning/s: death, destruction, sex, violence, torture and a gratuitous explosion or two. Yikes.
Summary: Remus Lupin is a spy, one of British Intelligence's finest, and this may be his most deadly mission yet. Armed with only his native wit and courage and assisted by the enigmatic and magnetic Severus Snape he must penetrate deep into Communist Russia to bring down the powerful Lord Voldemort.
Status: Complete (12/12).
Red Serpent is set in a Fleming-esque Russia prior to glasnost and perestroika. Glamourous super-spy, Remus Lupin, is sent to investigate the disappearance of fellow-spy Sirius Black. Black's mission was to investigate the arch-villian Tom Riddle, and to explore the possibility that one of his disillusioned followers, Severus Snape, could be persuaded to defect. While he was on the mission and negotiating with Snape, Black has disappeared, and Remus is sent to investigate Snape's involvement in his disappearance and to attempt to successfully complete Black's mission. And of course, Lupin has no idea he is about to enter territory dangerous to him personally, and that his own orientation may be subverted.
Glamourous sophisticated super-spy Remus Lupin definitely has his unsophisticated, non-glamourous moments; although his prior successes may be attributed to his cool, smooth demeanor and lightning-sharp wits, the Remus we see is often out of his depth, utterly raw and transparent, and played like a puppet by the villians (and by Snape). But he handles the end of the mission with James Bond super-spy style. And the love interest, the beauty in distress whose loyalties and agenda are suspect, is none other than a sulky, ugly, bitter, greasy-haired, cynical, unpleasant and utterly appealing Severus Snape. Whose loyalties and agenda are suspect.
Red Serpent is great fun to read, a perfect combination of humour, romance and super-spy adventure. Recently completed, each chapter has brilliant illustrations, and there's even a "Dvd extras" bonus chapter. Read and enjoy!
A rec that I hadn't planned for (because I only read the story yesterday) is from lupin_snape's Retro Fest:
Recovery Position by undunoops. (Link is to parts 1 and 2, follow the retro fest tags to find the other chapters.)
Rating: nc-17
Warning/s: Drug use in Chapter 2, self-medicating drunkenness, and general thick-headedness throughout.
Summary:Retro Fest Prompt 44. OotP era- "Moony, you alright? I heard you groaning and--CHRIST! Shit, Moony, sorry, I didn't rea--wait...is that SNAPE?!"
Status: complete (12/12)
This story is so wonderfully, beautifully written - I am all admiration and awe, and more than a little teary-eyed. It works so very well - Severus' voice is brilliant and original and still in character. Remus is wonderful, strong and self-contained and loving. I love the way that he cares for Severus.
This story is utterly riveting and terribly moving and I can't find the words to give it sufficient praise.
Note: If any of these reviews look familiar it is because they are famiiar - I've shamelessly plundered from some my reviews at snapedom and bottomsnape.