Today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic (sponsored by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Favorite Novellas/Short Stories”. I don’t really read that many professionally published short stories or novellas; if I didn’t stray from the topic, it would basically be “novellas and short stories I have read”. It wouldn’t even have ten stories on it. Most of the novellas and short stories that I have read are fanfiction, so I will be writing about my favorite fanfiction stories today instead.
I typically only read fanfiction in a few fandoms, mostly books written by Veronica Roth and Marie Lu, but here are the ones that I like a lot, in no particular order.
Young Elites Fandom:
- The White Rose by Idestroyedtheworldoops – at 84,873 words, this is not a novella, but it’s the only Young Elites fanfic that I read and liked. It is an interesting take on the story: what if Adelina met Magiano as she escaped from prison and never became part of the Dagger society? It diverges from canon in a couple of other ways (Violetta is gay and never gets with Sergio) but I liked it overall. I’m currently working on a Young Elites fanfic that will probably be around the same size, but it’s a completely different concept.
Legend fandom:
- Detention Legend by readandwrite – this is a cute little AU where Day and June meet in detention at high school. The writing isn’t perfect, but it’s probably the best one in this fandom that I’ve read up on Archive of Our Own (AO3, which is where I mostly read, and exclusively publish, fanfics). Other than the ones I’ve written, but I’m not one to judge my own fics (because if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t write it).
Divergent fandom:
- Divergent FourTris One-Shots & Short Stories by FourTrisHEA – these are several short Divergent stories. I particularly like the Camping & Roughing it chapters, where Four is a professor with a crush on Tris… and who does he just happen to run into on a camping trip with his friends?
- The Third Pedrad by bornafluffychild – the story says that it’s not finished, but it is. This is also not a novella (123,204 words). It is a story where Tris grows up in Dauntless as the adopted daughter of Hana Pedrad, so she’s basically Zeke and Uriah’s sister. She meets Four (of course) and when they start to like each other, that brings up some complications, since Zeke is very protective of his sister.
- Becoming Determinant – Tobias’ Story by Windchimed – the first book in the Determinant series. This one follows the events of Divergent from Tobias’ perspective. It may have been part of my inspiration for Saving Adelinetta, a Young Elites fanfic that I’m writing from Magiano’s perspective (still a work in progress). Becoming Determinant is 132,807 words.
- Determinant: One Choice Will Change Everything by Windchimed – this is basically an alternative to Allegiant. If you hated the ending (darn you chapter 50!) then this is a much better one. Novel length, 165,005 words.
- Prior Rings by Windchimed – I haven’t read this one in a while, but I remember enjoying it. You should probably read her Determinant story before this one. This is also not a novella (150,125 words).
- Online Friends (Divergent) by FourTrisHEA – this is a cute little novella where Four and Tris meet in a Game of Thrones chat room. It was my inspiration for another work in progress I have, Gamers. But you should read this one if you like Divergent fanfiction.
- An Unexpected Christmas Eve by springberry – this is a short story where Four and Tris get stuck in a cabin together on Christmas Eve. Springberry is also the author of the slow burn story Discoveries, which is currently unfinished.
- Shopping List by Windchimed – this is a cute short story where Four and Tris meet in a grocery store.
I’m sure that I could list more good fanfics in the Divergent fandom, but these were the ones that I had bookmarked or stood out in my memory. There are also a couple of good Legend fanfics that I found on fanfiction.net (I think) but I can’t remember which ones, and I’ve found that, even though there’s more stories over there, there’s also a lot more junk, which is why I read on AO3 for the most part.
Postscript: Even though I chose to write about fanfiction this week, I have to mention that I actually did read a short story last week, and it was A. MAZ. ING. I bought the paperback version of Warcross, which has Life After Legend in it. It is worth the $.50 a page that I paid for it (I already have Warcross in hardback, so I pretty much bought the paperback only for those 21 pages). If you love the Legend trilogy and haven’t read it, it’s totally worth buying.
What an original take on this topic! Nicely done, Brooke!
Thank you!
I’m not much of a fanfiction reader but I am always so impressed by my (brief and fleeting) forays into reading it. People are so creative! (Also that people like. Write stories that are fully longer than Lord of the Rings. That is incredible. Seriously. I am just so astonished and impressed by fanfic as a concept that exists.)
Kelly @ Wandering Through Books recently posted…Favorite Novellas, Short Story Anthologies on My TBR
I think a lot of people dismiss fanfiction as crap, when a lot of it is actually very good. Some very successful authors, like Cassandra Clare and Marissa Meyer, got their start in fanfiction. Although there are plenty of stories that aren’t very good, because anybody can publish whatever they want, I’ve found that AO3 tends to attract some pretty good writers. When I find an author that writes something I like, I tend to read all of their work.
I know from writing fanfiction myself, that the more I write, the more I get into adding original characters, adding a little danger to make things more interesting, etc. I have one story that I’m working on with an original character as one of the POV characters, kidnapping, dealing with childhood abuse, etc. None of it is in the original canon world, but it’s fun to build on the world and make something new.
Creative take on this week’s topic! I don’t think I’ve ever read any fanfiction. I’ll have to look into some. Here is our Top Ten Tuesday
There’s a ton of it out there! I actually wrote fanfiction in high school without realizing it was a thing (it was about a music group), but then I started getting into it after I read chapter 50 of Allegiant.
Interesting take, and it’s cool to take a moment to highlight fanfiction. Much like indie publishing, it can have a bad rep sometimes. But not only is there plenty of high quality work available, but fanfantion allows for playing with stories in ways that just wouldn’t work for most original work.
It’s kind of fun not to have to let go of favorite characters too.
Fanfiction is definitely a great way to explore aspects of a work you weren’t quite satisfied with. I love Magiano and wouldn’t have minded seeing him more in the series.
I love Magiano too. Saving Adelinetta is written from his perspective :-). I’d like to finish it before NaNoWriMo this year, because I’m trying to win that this year with some original fiction.
Cool list. I like your spin on the topic. I don’t think I’ve ever read fanfiction. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the original stuff.
Aj @ Read All The Things! recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Short Stories Of All Time
It is hard to keep up with the original books. They just keep coming out with so many good books!
I only follow a few fandoms, and that’s probably why.
Interesting take on the topic. I was way into Buffy and Angel fanfiction – as a reader, but not a writer. I agree that it gets a bad reputation (no thanks to that 50 Shades crap) and I see why, because a lot of it is terrible. But a lot of it is also very good. If only Buffy was still on (as a show, I am ignoring the fact that the comics exist), there were some great stories I read that Joss could have used…or should, for a movie…
I’ve read that the people doing the shows aren’t supposed to be reading their own fanfiction for fear of lawsuits.
I’ve never read anything but snippets of 50 Shades and what I’ve read is pretty bad. It’s too bad that that is what people think of when they think of fanfiction… that and 12 year olds that have a long way to go before they can put together some quality prose.
I love that your wrote about fic! I haven’t read any for Divergent, so these will be excellent to scope out 🙂
Dani recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Novellas/Short Stories
I hope you like them if you decide to read them :-).
Ooh nice twist on this week’s topic!
Jo recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday #168
Thank you!
I don’t read a lot of fan fiction but I’m glad that you enjoyed all of these stories.
It’s not for everyone. There are so many good books out there that you have to really like a story to get into fanfiction of the story.
Ooooh I have always wondered if Life After Legend was worth it, I am glad to hear that it is! That’s one I very much want to read. I don’t read a ton of fanfiction, but I have read some from Divergent- mostly alternate ending ones, for reasons that I am sure you understand hahah. This is such a fun twist on the topic, love it!!
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…The 100 Episode 5×10: The Warriors Will
Divergent is what got me into fanfiction… although later I realized that the two novellas that I wrote in high school were fanfiction (band fanfiction).
This post reminds me that I need to read more of Marie Lu’s books. I read and fell in love with Warcross but haven’t tried Young Elites or Legend yet.
I haven’t met a Marie Lu book that I haven’t loved yet. I was a little hesitant about Batman because I’m not into superheroes, but I even liked that. It is probably my least favorite of her books, but it still gets 4 stars from me.
I’ve honestly only read a single Fanfiction and it was in the HP universe (Isolation) and it was phenomenal. So good that I haven’t wanted to read any others but I’ll get back into fanfic someday. 🙂 Great list!
It must have been a good story then. Maybe the author has written other works. You’d probably like them too (whether original fiction or more fanfiction).
Though I haven’t read any of these yet, I do love me some fanfiction! I’m especially fond of Death Note fanfiction lately 🙂
Lindsey @ Lindsey Reads recently posted…A Trip Down Memory Lane, Featuring… Books! {Top Ten Tuesday}
I’m not familiar with Death Note. But they have fanfiction on almost everything. And if they don’t, you can write it yourself!
Idestroyedtheworldoops here! Just found this post googling my username, appreciate the shoutout!
You’re welcome! Thank you for writing such a good story!