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					none so blind by lj maas http://xenite.simplenet.com/fanfiction/b/Blind.html SYNOPSIS: A sudsy uber-drama spanning two decades in the lives of Torrey and Taylor. After years of being there for each other through thick and thin, two best friends part in difficult circumstances. They are reunited when Torrey's daughter Jessica threatens to turn out as wild as Taylor in her early days. Torrey calls on Taylor, who she hasn't spoken to in 17 years, to try and put the girl back on the right path. In the process there is a rekindling of friendship, and a re-examination of unrequited love. NANCY: I'll admit it. I read this story from start to finish in one sitting. Soap opera. There's something so compelling and lavish about it that just GETS to you. BUT, this story should have been about three chapters shorter and could have been a lot sharper with a vigilant editor on board - one can only hope that the "publishers" of this story will see and act on that. (But I'm not even going to get started on that.) EWOK: I canNOT keep track of which is uberGabby, which is uberXena, and where the damn kid came from. NANCY: She keeps calling Taylor the "dark haired woman". But yeah, the daughter is a little too coincidentally almost a carbon copy of Taylor, and gay to boot. I shall call her "Mini-Taylor"! And yet, she's Torrey's daughter, and no relation to Taylor. We can't even put that down to Covington kissing cousins syndrome :) EWOK: A little too handy that Stephen The Sperm Donor is out of the way in time for the happy Lamaze-and-childbirth sequence. NANCY: Everything is very convenient. I think the writer thought that the two main characters were causing each other enough shit already, she didn't need to add to the mess! EWOK: And yet, it's lacking the elegance of simplicity. NANCY: Hmmm. I think what it does have is strength of character. At least the character of Torrey. There's a depth to her that surpasses your usual uberfic. A lot of it might be a bit cliched, the whole you-don't-know-your-mom-like-you-think-you-do stuff, but there's a lot of little quirks that I really liked. The Tai-chi, the innocence mixed with a kind of world-weary sense of humour, loyalty... EWOK: I don't want to know that much about my mother, thanks. NANCY: Well Ewok, I hate to say it, but when you were just one step up from a furball, your mother used to hunt down wild deer, skin them, and drink their blood. EWOK: *beaming* And they say it's nature not nurture. NANCY: Well, here we have the ultimate nurture tale. The uber hurt/comfort saga extraordinaire. A tad self-indulgent, but I was actually quite hooked nonetheless. It did have some really cringeworthy moments, e.g. quotes from sappy Savage Garden songs... EWOK: A tad? A _tad_? *shudder* NANCY: That's bizarre, Ewok. Usually your sappiness tolerance is a lot greater than mine :) EWOK: I have my limits. NANCY: Straight after the Savage Garden song comes this: excerpt: Taylor couldn't be sure she even heard anymore of the song. After hearing the words of the chorus she became lost in the memory of a smiling face and sea-green eyes. Not a good thing to happen whilst driving I'm thinking. EWOK: Oh god, the soaring music, the teary eyes, the montage of scenes ... Hollywood, here we come. NANCY: Cynic! When I think of this story I'm struck by the images that really stood out; the two women seamlessly slipping into a Tai Chi routine after not seeing each other for 17 years, the descriptions of Taylor's sculptures, the funny story of them getting the Tazzie Devil tattoos...I was able to skip past the cringeworthy moments and see some intricate detail. EWOK: Guess I left my rose-coloured glasses at home today. Sometimes you're in the mood for John Hughes, sometimes you want ... hell, Martin Scorcese. NANCY: No Scorcese here, this is Nora Ephron all the way. But I must have been in the mood for suds. 7.5/10. EWOK: 4.5. I think I'll pass on what she's having.