Name: poppunkpadfoot (Signed) · Date: 02 Mar 2020 03:54 AM · For: let the golden age begin

Hey Joey! I'm here for CMDC round 3! 

 

I really liked what you did with the idea of "wrong owl" here. Florence receives an owl that was intended for someone else, but rather than it leading to some dramatic misunderstanding or a romantic tryst or something, it leads (somewhat indirectly, but still) to a scientific breakthrough. I thought that was a really interesting approach to the challenge and it worked really well.

 

I really enjoyed Dr. Andrew Brocklehurst and how committed he was to his invention, to the point of basically throwing out the partner he'd been working with and throwing himself behind Florence instead. That scene where Henry was being a jerk and Dr. Brocklehurst and Florence stood firm against him was one of my favourites. I kind of like to imagine that the incomplete/incorrect potion he insisted on taking left him permanently disfigured :P which I guess is very rude of me, but oh well.

 

I thought the dialogue was really good, I wasn't sure going in exactly when this was set but I definitely got the sense that it was the Olden Times. So when I got to the A/N at the end that said 1896 I was just like, ah, that checks out! So I thought that was spot on.

 

Great work Joey!

 

-Kayla

Name: RonsGirlFriday (Signed) · Date: 25 Dec 2019 01:56 AM · For: let the golden age begin

I love fics like this exploring minor characters and/or wizarding history. I thought this was a nice little extended vignette about the perfection of Polyjuice Potion, and it's so fun to write fics like this with challenge prompts. 

 

Wow, Henry seems very prone to overreacting and anger, no? But I loved that Dr. Brocklehurst took Florence on as his new partner and that she proposed a change of scenery for the momentous occasion of their perfecting the potion. I wish I knew more about them!

Name: MadiMalfoy (Signed) · Date: 11 Jun 2019 05:17 AM · For: let the golden age begin

Hi Joey! I'm here with your extremely belated entry review for the Prefect's Four of a Kind Challenge! :) 

 

You mentioned that this was your first time writing anything before the beginning of the 20th century in your author's note at the end of the fic, but I honestly couldn't tell! And of course you took this challenge a step further by weaving it into your "Things Change" universe -- bravo! The premise you create here is so interesting and fills a void I didn't know I needed in my potions-loving heart! Such a cool take on human Transfiguration but with potions instead, plus it draws in scientific procedures from that time (aka testing yourself) and the ethics of this kind of work too. You do a great job weaving all of your prompts together so seamlessly I definitely appreciated your authors note explaining all of them even as I'd gone back and checked before reading this in the first place. The tone throughout is very suspenseful and yet with the word limit we imposed doesn't feel rushed at all. 

 

Great job, Joey! :) 

~MadiMalfoy

Name: starbuck (Signed) · Date: 13 Apr 2019 04:50 PM · For: let the golden age begin

hey joey! i'm here with your challenge review ^_^

 

i really enjoy reading about bits of wizarding history - it's always so itneresting to see people's takes on how certain things played out and especially the way writers imagine things someone else wouldn't even think about much.

 

the way you incorporated the wrong owl in this was very cool - it gave us a chance to meet florence, a woman who is obviously intelligent and awesome and whose own brother doesn't think much of her. but then she stands up for herself and doesn't let him boss her around and tell her she can't do something or that she's not able to properly participate in the creation of the potion. i loved how she proved him wrong, her idea making the potion possible, but i also loved how dr. brocklehurst wasn't at all amused by henry's dismissal of florence's ideas just because she's a woman!

 

thanks for participating in juls' and mine challenge!

 

kris