Someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn't stolen.
Many moons ago, during my high school and university days, fanfi4.5 stars ~ [8.36/10]
Someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn't stolen.
Many moons ago, during my high school and university days, fanfic was where I lived. I couldn't really afford buy books and UK libraries didn't cater to the type of reader I was (predominantly romance)... so I turned to fanfic. I haven't read fanfic in a very long time, AO3 was just a baby website the last time I went looking for fanfic to read - it was that long ago. I read across multiple different fandoms, but I never read HP fic even though it was one of the juggernauts of fic content (and still is.) I liked HP but was never obsessed with it and didn't feel any significant pain dropping it in the dust when we all watched R*wling publicly join a cult. There's very little that would move me to enthusiastically engage with the canon HP universe in this present-day timeline.
So why now? Why this fic specifically? (TLDR: most likely FOMO)
Being an active member of the larger book community as whole, you're often fanfic adjacent, like reading authors who came up through fanfic (Sally Thorne, Christina Lauren, Freya Marske, Alexandra Rowland, Olivie Blake, Ali Hazelwood... to name a few), or seeing fellow readers reading fanfic, or authors marketing their books with fanfic-style tags, etc. But, fanfic communities are insular, it's rare for me to see specific recommendations or discussions about fanfic works because I'm not going looking for them. So when I started to see this fanfic being talked about outside of those insular fanfic communities, I got intrigued. Within a two-day period, I felt like I was seeing this everywhere. It is definitely an algorithm thing rather than some flowery fate put it in my path kind of thing, but the more I saw of it the more I needed to know what the hype was. The more I saw about how it engaged with the themes of The Handmaid's Tale the more I wanted to understand how someone could make a romance out of that type of relationship. The more I saw of it the more I was seriously contemplating reading a 1000+ page story about a ship in a fandom that have very minimal emotional attachment to. I figured I'd read a chapter or two and probably drop it and never think of it again.
If there were important things left unspoken, then perhaps tomorrow would come.
But, I got hooked. And, 3 days later I have finished the whole thing with lots of thoughts swirling around my brain about why this fic has a chokehold on so many people, what it is that author is trying to achieve by depicting a relationship like this, and how to sensitively and appropriately engage with all of that. And, I really don't think I am smart enough to even attempt that kind of analysis. In one moment I'll have a thought about the bravery it takes to write a story like this and how fanfic is really the only place than you can be brave with this kind of storytelling and the next moment I'll have a thought about how that bravery doesn't excuse the issues that arise from the themes explored here. And, the author is extremely aware of those issues because there are characters specifically written into the text to confront them, yet it ends up being this kind of futile thing because these issues don't evolve beyond what is required in service of the story and character arcs, e.g. love triumphs all however problematic that may be.
I always have to choose, and I never get to choose you. I'm so tired of not getting to choose you.
This is an extremely dark and depressing fantasy romance written in three parts, with varying timelines, and each part has a different purpose, which ultimately contributes to the overarching romance plot. And at this point I would like to stress dark and romance, if you're not interested in the themes that are often explored in books of this ilk then this story is absolutely not for you. However, if you're a fan of rip out every internal organ angst with content warnings (see links below) that should be taken very seriously and a romance that will occupy every single space in your brain then you should absolutely support this author's work. Even if you couldn't care less about HP.
~ Part One is a post-Order of the Phoenix dystopia where the wizarding war was lost, Draco did kill Dumbledore and the entirety of the Order are seemingly dead except Hermione. It takes much more from The Handmaid's Tale than it does from Harry Potter. HP provides the characters, timeline and magic system. THT provides everything else, including the very reason for this fic's existence in the first place and the reason for why this is so dark in theme. ~Part Two takes a giant swerve into military fantasy/enemies-to-lovers/forbidden romance through the use of flashbacks that provide context as to how the world has come to the point where THT is now a reality for these characters. This is how the TV adaptation of THT approached things too, however in the case of Manacled the non-linear plot is slightly more linear because we get chunks of timelines rather than versus timelines. ~ Part Three is a second chance romance, which sounds delightful but is really where the reader has to come to terms with what it means for these two characters to continue to have a romantic connection after everything that has happened.
He had no idea how to do anything but be a soldier.
The best fanfic authors understand how to get the best out of tropes and how to make those tropes incredibly moreish for the reader. Primarily because the trope and the ship is the reason that people turn to fanfic in the first place. I think there are some usual pitfalls of fanfic writing here too though like line repetition for emphasis, structural decisions that wouldn't be there if wasn't delivered in a serial format, meta-reader-insert-characters, etc. But this author has a really seasoned voice when it comes to writing, which is why I think this is such an addictive read. I think they engaged with the dark themes thoughtfully and carefully, whilst sort of successfully building a sweeping epic of a romance on the back of those themes. And cleverly, how much you believe in the romance by the time you get to part three is really down to the reader because the author absolves themselves of ever having to justify it. As previously mentioned, there is character specifically written into the story here that acts as the voice of the most critical reader, preemptively addressing all of the points that someone would pick apart in a review had they not been called out in the text.
The most interesting thing about this story was how much it has made me think and confront the things that enjoy about romance stories. If I were to perfunctorily list the events that these two people have to grapple with in order to have a happily ever after, it would be the anti-thesis of what I previously believed to be the contents of a romance story. And, oddly enough, I think that this is Manacled's greatest triumph.
If he's a monster, then I'm his creator. What did you think was the source of all his rage?
If you're interested in reading this story here are various links to different formats: Manacled on AO3 - all relevant tw/cw are listed in the tags and at the beginning please take note of these before reading SenLinYu's Linktree - here you'll find links to both mobi and epub downloads of the book Manacled Audiobook ch1-56 (spotify) - this is a partial podfic by Audiobook Warriors and Audio Dinos read by multiple people (to varying degrees of quality), I'm not sure of the details but at some point AW and AD split and the chapters discontinued on spotify. Manacled Audiobook ch54-73 (youtube) - AW have continued recording and uploading the missing chapters on YT and this is currently incomplete as they continue to sporadically upload. The final chapter and additional 3 epilogues have yet to be recorded/uploaded. Manacled Audiobook MP3s ch1-73 - all recorded audiobook chapters have been made available in one google drive and I assume this will be updated as the final chapters are made available...more
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