Tuesday, June 9, 2009

AdminRec: Them Cotton-Pickin' Twilight Folk




moon.witche's


My first thought when I saw this in an author’s favourite’s list was: Twilight the Western.....? Seriously?



I had to click. Even if it was just for the lulz.



But it wasn't silly. In fact for the first eleven chapters I sat on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, desperate to know what exactly had happened in Edward's past to turn him into the shy, silent, brooding, (hot?) cowboy that cowered away from living his life.



The story starts off with Charlie, the Sherriff of a small frontier town called Forks (surprise!), waiting for his teenage daughter to arrive on the coach. Across the street, a tussle breaks out between the Cullens and the Blacks. People are thrown through windows, punches are landed, guns are drawn, and threats are exchanged. And the beginning of the mystery behind silent, brooding Edward Cullen is introduced.



From there the story takes off into what is one of the most touching and genuine romances between Edward and Bella I’ve read.

What I found most pleasantly surprising about this story was how well the parallels with the canon worked. Parallels are hard enough to work into a modern AH story without being cliché and over done. Bella’s slow obsession with Edward, and with discovering what happened in his past is possibly the best AH parallel I’ve read. I’m continually surprised that how much the early chapters feel like the early chapters of the book without feeling awkward or completely plagiarised. Also, there was no Volvo.



The author has also done a very good job of not falling into the stock character traps. At least, not completely. Rosalie is one of my favourite characters in this. She is brash, a little rude, violent and intimidating. But, upon seeing the change in Edward that is brought about by Bella, she does what she can to encourage them in her own, abrupt way. I also enjoy James. He has this small part, in the background, and everything about him seems to shout, “Bystander!” This has me convinced that he is completely evil and somehow responsible for...



Well, I don’t want to ruin anything.



What I can say is that sometime in the past there was an altercation involving Edward, Jacob, and James. The results of this altercation caused friends to become enemies, and two families to become so volatile towards one another that the entire town is affected. Upon Bella’s arrival to town, she attempts to form friendships with both families, but quickly realizes this isn’t possible.



Jake in this story is something of an enigma. It would be very easy to cast him, and the rest of the Black family, as the villains but I somehow can’t quite bring myself to do it. And I like that even more. I’m naturally disposed to think of Jake as the one at fault but fuzzytomato makes it difficult in this one. I truly sympathesize with how things must look from his point of view, and cannot say that I wouldn’t also hate Edward were I him.



And, as stated earlier, I really want it all to be James’ fault somehow.



I can’t say much about Edward as I don’t want to ruin anything. When we first see him he is weighed down with guilt, a sad broken young man who is scared to open himself up to living, clinging desperately to a piece of his past that is impossible to forget.



The one thing I couldn’t take seriously in this story, which truly brought me the laughs I had originally thought it would be full of, was anytime Carlisle was referred to as Pa by one of his children. Especially Alice. Made me giggle every time. But other than that, everything that I thought would be campy or ridiculous was actually engaging and original yet intelligently reminiscent of Twilight.

So, everyone get your pink leather chaps, I know you've been waiting for an excuse, and let One Day Out West, carry you off into the sunset, preferably with guns a blazin'.
moon.witche has found writing a rec so very different than podcasting one and hopes she lives up to the standards that came before her. Probably not. moon.witche also finds it very strange to refer to herself in the third person. heh.

5 comments:

  1. I was just thinking today that I'd love to find a good All Human story that centers around the Cullen family against the Black family, so this sounds like it's right up my ally. The Cullen kids calling Carlisle 'Pa' made me chortle a bit too, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Cheers for the rec, I never thought I'd be interested in reading a goold ol' Western but this sounds really interesting!

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  2. cuteangiek thinks that moon.witche did a great job. she also believes that moon.witche completely lived up to the standards set by those who came before her. cuteangiek is very grateful for this post and thinks it is fabulous. cuteangiek says thanks much. cuteangiek shall be sharing this recommendation with her friends. cuteangiek shall now be freaking out on her son who won't leave her alone. the end.

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  3. I've been waiting for this story to get noticed. I'm so happy it's finally gotten a rec!

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  4. Dearest TLYDF:

    This is THE SHIT!
    I just discovered you when I returned to the Twilighted forums today after months of general bitch.
    I have a few questions for ya.
    1. Wanna link up? (I maintain my own, unfortunately family-friendly, little blog, which will soon be featuring fan fiction reviews every week.) email at peacelovetwilight@gmail.com if you're interested. ;)
    2. How do you choose guest bloggers? Because you KNOW you want to pick me. :D

    -Anna
    http://peacelovetwilightblog.blogspot.com
    PeaceLoveTwilight on Twilighted

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  5. did i just fall down the rabbit hole? did i take the red pill? go through a wardrobe? fall into a rip in the space/time continuum?

    I am immensely flattered.
    Thank you.

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