Jun. 2nd, 2018

FF Friday

Jun. 2nd, 2018 09:22 pm
cyphomandra: fluffy snowy mountains (painting) (snowcone)
Somehow recently I ended up reading almost all of Telanu's Devil Wears Prada femslash over about three days. I have never actually seen the film so all I have to go on is fannish osmosis plus dim recollections of the trailer, but lack of knowledge of canon has never stopped me before and I do at least know what Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep look like (although I was unable to picture the Nigel in this as anything other than the Nigel who used to be on America's Next Top Model).

So. Truth and Measure goes AU (Andy apparently doesn't leave Miranda in Paris, which would no doubt mean more to me if I'd seen the film) and then takes a definite non-canon twist by Miranda discovering that she is pregnant, and Andy, her assistant, is the first other person to realise this. It is over 270K of character interactions that manage to be detailed and focussed without being claustrophobic, and there's still a world outside the characters and some of the other people get to have their own agendas as well, especially Miranda's other children. It's tense and well-paced and I liked it. Having said that, the first third to a half - before Andy and Miranda get together (this should not come as a spoiler) did put me on edge with just how much Andy sacrifices herself for Miranda - her time, her space, her attention, her friends and family; she becomes an extension of Miranda rather than a person in her own right, which is what Miranda wants - the perfect assistant - and also what she needs, a loyal and devoted friend who cares for her as a person. The balance swings after they get together, both inside and outside their relationship, and the employer/employee thing stops being an issue, and some of it is being so closely in Andy's point of view, but it did bother me because it makes self-abnegation seem like the right thing to do. But it does tip. I found it interesting to subsequently read a short in both Andy and Miranda's pov where the skew is much faster and significantly more in Andy's favour, and it did make me more charitable toward Miranda in hindsight.

After the main story there are another nearly 20K of postscripts that cover the rest of the characters' lives (and beyond).

If you want more or if you prefer something less based on canon then there is The Lily and the Crown, an AU in which Andy is a shy botanist on her father's space station and Miranda is her new companion who is Totally Not the queen of the local space pirates, whom no-one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale etc. There is a published version of this using different names that is twice as long and that I haven't read - I like the story, but pirates are not really my thing even if they have spaceships. The botany is nice, though.

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cyphomandra

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