Smutmas recs

[emmagrant01]

The reveal is coming soon, but I thought I'd slip these recs in under the wire. Mostly H/D, and I haven't had a chance to read nearly as many fics as I'd like.



Take Your Silver Spoon and Shove It. One beautiful mindfuck! I love things like this that are designed to make you think. I like the way it's written too -- dreamlike and disjointed, just as you'd imagine it would feel like to someone with very limited understanding of the world. I wanted a bit more at the end, just to point me in the right direction about what was really happening. But a few people have said it becomes more clear on multiple reads, so I need to try that.
Author guess: ??? prurient_badger

The Truth About Strawberries. Probably my favorite of the Smutmas fics I've read so far. This one gripped me from the start and held me all the way through. I loved the H/D interaction in this, and the sense of quiet desperation Draco felt. It felt very much like it came out of canon, which I appreciate more and more these days. The drunk scene was perfectly played, and the ambiguous ending gave it just enough angst to make me a very happy girl!
Author guess: ella_bane, dacro? mizbean

Mother of Pearl. Awesome, awesome story. The premise of the plot was just fantastic, and Harry's obsessiveness over learning what had happened in Draco's past was so canon. I know I'm in the minority, but I have to say the ending bothered me. It seemed to blow the whole moral of the story out of the water. But then again, maybe that was exactly the point the author was trying to make. Maybe I have too much faith in Harry's character, you know?
Author guess: The popular opinion is geoviki, and I've gone back and forth on it -- but that's my best guess at this point.

Catching Up With the Past. Really inventive, with a devious, well-developed Blaise and hot smex. And set in Italy! I love awkward Harry, and this one is a lovely one.
Author guess: ??? ailil

Last Man Standing. Hilarious! Reads like a teen sex comedy (think American Pie set at Grimmauld Place), with comedically exaggerated characterizations and plot devices, and lots of witty banter. Hermione, Ron, and Luna are particularly pointed fanon versions of themselves -- a great bit of fandom commentary. Everything that plausibly (or implausibly) could go wrong for poor Harry in his on-again, off-again quest to get laid, does go wrong. My only quibble was that some of the dialogue went on a bit long, which would be perfect in a screenplay, but is a bit repetitive in print. A fun read!
Author guess: I actually do know who wrote this one, so I can't say it here. ;-) mijan

The Philosophy of Paper Umbrellas. Best witty banter between Harry and Draco I've read in ages! I loved this pace of this one. The build-up to the first kiss between Harry and Bill was nnngghhh. My only quibble was that the spanking scene threw me out of the story a bit -- it just seemed to come out of nowhere. But it was done at the request of the recipient, of course, and it isn't easy to pull kinks like that off.
Author guess: furiosity? empathic_siren

Still to read, but highly recced by others:
Brave New World, which people seem to think was written by silentauror
Under the Cold, Wan Moon by slytherincess