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crack_van2004-11-14 08:07 pm
sophiap.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-11-14 08:07 pm
All Fall Down by Wintertime (R)
I warned you all that I'd be reccing a few fics by this author this month. This is the one I've been dying to rec, and now that it's no longer a WIP, here we go.
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Author on LJ: always_winter
Author Website: http://www.geocities.com/ofmoonbeams/
Why this must be read:
Hold on
Hold on to yourself
for this is gonna hurt like hell.
--Sara MacLachlan, "Hold On"
That's the epigram for this 40+ chapter fic, and it serves as fair warning. Or, as the author herself says about the characters: "Some won't make it out unscathed. Some won't make it out at all."
"All Fall Down" is one of the darkest, most painful CSI fics I have ever read. How dark? How painful? Well, imagine for a moment that Jerry Bruckheimer decided one day to turn over creative control of the show. To Tim Minear. That about sums it up.
The story starts with Grissom being accused of raping a former student some years in the past. Things just go downhill from there, as the team faces not only one of the best fanfiction villains ever created, but an old nemesis, and the worst enemy that people can ever hope to have--themselves. Even though the main villain does some truly horrible things to beloved characters, the true source of the pain in this fic is the fact that many of those beloved characters decide, say, and do things that they will later have great cause to regret. Some of these things are done or said with the best of intentions. Others are done out of weakness, frustration, pettiness, or selfishness, which only makes the regrets that much greater in the end.
Another thing that the author does very well is the way she shows how murder can affect those who are left behind to pick up the pieces. In the world of CSI, murders might provoke horror, outrage, sorrow, or disgust, but they are primarily seen as puzzles to be solved, hopefully at the 55 minute mark. What "All Fall Down" does is to show that even when (or if) a murderer is brought to justice and his or her reasons for killing are understood, there is no such thing as closure, not really. Nothing and no one can ever be the same again.
Even though they are very different stories, I can't help but compare the experience of reading "All Fall Down" to that of reading Kat Allison's dueSouth masterpiece, "The End of the Road." What the two stories have in common is that there comes a certain point in each story when you realize that even if hosts of angels were to descend from the skies singing the Hallelujah Chorus, there can be no such thing as a happy ending for the main characters, not if the author is going to play fair.
If you are only going to read one of the fics I recommend this month, make it this one. It's gonna hurt like hell, but you'll be glad you read it.
All Fall Down
Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Grissom/Sara
Author on LJ: always_winter
Author Website: http://www.geocities.com/ofmoonbeams/
Why this must be read:
Hold on
Hold on to yourself
for this is gonna hurt like hell.
--Sara MacLachlan, "Hold On"
That's the epigram for this 40+ chapter fic, and it serves as fair warning. Or, as the author herself says about the characters: "Some won't make it out unscathed. Some won't make it out at all."
"All Fall Down" is one of the darkest, most painful CSI fics I have ever read. How dark? How painful? Well, imagine for a moment that Jerry Bruckheimer decided one day to turn over creative control of the show. To Tim Minear. That about sums it up.
The story starts with Grissom being accused of raping a former student some years in the past. Things just go downhill from there, as the team faces not only one of the best fanfiction villains ever created, but an old nemesis, and the worst enemy that people can ever hope to have--themselves. Even though the main villain does some truly horrible things to beloved characters, the true source of the pain in this fic is the fact that many of those beloved characters decide, say, and do things that they will later have great cause to regret. Some of these things are done or said with the best of intentions. Others are done out of weakness, frustration, pettiness, or selfishness, which only makes the regrets that much greater in the end.
Another thing that the author does very well is the way she shows how murder can affect those who are left behind to pick up the pieces. In the world of CSI, murders might provoke horror, outrage, sorrow, or disgust, but they are primarily seen as puzzles to be solved, hopefully at the 55 minute mark. What "All Fall Down" does is to show that even when (or if) a murderer is brought to justice and his or her reasons for killing are understood, there is no such thing as closure, not really. Nothing and no one can ever be the same again.
Even though they are very different stories, I can't help but compare the experience of reading "All Fall Down" to that of reading Kat Allison's dueSouth masterpiece, "The End of the Road." What the two stories have in common is that there comes a certain point in each story when you realize that even if hosts of angels were to descend from the skies singing the Hallelujah Chorus, there can be no such thing as a happy ending for the main characters, not if the author is going to play fair.
If you are only going to read one of the fics I recommend this month, make it this one. It's gonna hurt like hell, but you'll be glad you read it.
All Fall Down
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It even has its own support group at
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All Fall's villains... I they rival Carpathia in quality, and just about surpass him in evilness.