Endgame by Meghan O’Brien

Romantic (fan) fiction of the alternative nature is often just a bit of light reading, for girls who love to be girls*, but sometimes you’ll stumble on a romance with a setting which is too disturbing to carry the label ”light” even if its basically just another entertaining romance. Fortunately only a few of these “not so light” fic’s turns out to be real sad or depressing. Mostly the setting is just used as a way to give some background or motivation for the storyline and actions of the protagonists.

“Endgame” is based on the story of a rape and one of the scarier ones at that, but the rape it self is only the backdrop of the storyline and even when reference is made to the act its not too explicitly described. The story is mostly just a touching romance where the emotional development within and between the protagonists is the sole focus of the tale. One might say that the story is a bit one dimensional, but if you read enough (fan) fiction you get used to the fact that the romance and the road to “hot sex” or the “living happily ever after” is the goal that we never loses sight off.

If you can handle the setting you could joiner the party at Max and Lories place and see if Delaney has any luck with her pickup line; “”I’m really embarrassed to admit it, but I was standing over there,” I pointed with my finger, “in the corner, alone, wishing I didn’t feel so out of place and awkward. As much as it shames me to ask, I was wondering if you’d pretend to socialize with me for a minute or two until someone rescues you?”. Delaney has a lot of practice at picking up women, but no inclination to look for a relationship lasting longer than a night of hot sex – preferably with her in a dominating role.

Hannah on the other hand is the woman her friends think of as “the girl who was raped”, but Hannah feel’s that she has moved on and she is looking for something or someone that will give her the fresh start, let her regain her place in life and feel strong again. In the eyes of Max and Lorie, Delaney is not quiet what Hannah needs, and they are not subtle about telling Delaney to go look for her fun elsewhere, but Delaney really can’t get around to letting go of Hannah and their slowly developing friendship in the weeks after the party.

Well if you read the story you can make up your own mind as to Delaney’s personality – is she the single minded womanizer or just someone who as never found love before?

I guess that I should tell you that the writer has included a sample of Delaneys’s sexual encounters that portrait her as a sexual predator. If you are of a positive mind you could say that this helps to paint a picture of Delaneys personality, to me it’s a bit out of place in the storyline, but maybe the writer needed to let go of some hot steam.

* The quote “The best of light reading, for girls who love to be girls” was attributed to Jeanette Winterson on the cover of a lesbian romance from an English publishing house named Silver Moon Books years ago. I basically borrowed the wording and changed it a bit, but I want to own up to the fact that it’s really not my words at all.

http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/m/meghanobrien_endgame.html

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