Name: Pixileanin (Signed) · Date: 17 Feb 2024 03:16 PM · For: what would an angel say, the devil wants to know

Hello! I have to confess that I’ve read this story a few times and never left words on it. Totally inexcusable! This is brilliant!

I love how you pulled us into the setting right away with the sounds of the clinking beads and the drab fog. Your descriptions are always on point, but I have to point out the wonderful “veritable cocoon of mystic sensibility” and the “single guttering candle”... and now I have to stop quoting,or that’s all this review is going to be. Can’t help it. When a language speaks, it needs to be heard. 

Love love love how Riddle has a spirit guide named Master Slytherin! Also, Tom’s smarmy compliments that urge Trelawny to do her best work in his presence. He’s so slimy, even with a few words.

Shunpike, with his stammering is adorably awkward, and here, you’re making me use the word “adorably” for mobsters. What is the world coming to? It’s the language. That must be it. I’m drawn into your words and now they’ve got me all tied up. Again, Tom’s manipulative nature shines through. He LOVES THIS, and I am on pins and needles, because when this axe drops, someone’s head is going to be under it. The agony of suspense is already killing me, and I’m (checks wordcount), not very far into this. 

So the super cool thing about this story is that you give us all the familiar things, transformed to this time, superimposed onto this AU Muggle world that still has ALL THE MAGIC, just in a different way, which makes it twice as glorious as before. Like Kreacher. And Snape as his secretary. Oh dear God, what are you doing here???

“Middle class morality”

There I go again. It’s the words, I tell you. All the little things that clue us in to what has happened in canon that has also somewhat happened here too. Snape’s watch, in particular, caught my eye. 

Oh, I love Queen Pandora Lovegood! But also, this high form of manipulation is dangerous, and hurts in all the ways. I feel so bad for Snape right now. 

Lady Serpents. 

“You are so troubled today, Mr. Riddle… I cannot hear anything except the screaming of your soul.”

I shouldn’t laugh. Not at this story, but I cannot help it, that is the absolute best thing for Trelawny to say! The. Best.

Something is up with this play. I can feel it. Oh. Oh no. You did not just do that. Heartless. Cruel. So very Tom Riddle of you. I don’t know whether I should applaud you or start throwing things. Maybe a little of both, at this point. Gah!

The betrayal is so complete. But here’s the thing that I love. Tom’s hubris gets in his way when he thinks he can confess what he’s done to Snape. Because even now, Love is still stronger than he is, and he cannot grasp that. 

Like a snake. That’s how Tom Riddle does it.  And he does end up going in a blaze of glory.

What a ride!

 

Pix

Name: MrsDarcy (Signed) · Date: 21 May 2022 12:28 PM · For: what would an angel say, the devil wants to know

This was magnificent Noelle!

 

I loved every word of it and Tom’s portrayal was so so interesting! I would have never thought of him and Snape as a pair, but it made so much sense  and was super hot, imo :’)

 

But why must Lily always break his heart! Poor soul.

 

It was really well written and the descriptions of London and the different places was really gritty and had great atmosphere. Loved the little details and names from canon sprinkled throughout, but also all the original stuff! 

 

Gah, so good!

 

<3 Beth

Author's Response:

Thank you so much!! I didn't know what to expect from a Tom/Severus pairing either, and I loved it and agree it was pretty hot. I sort of wish Tom had just seduced Severus near the beginning of the fic, and then maybe Severus would have ended things with Lily earlier, and we would have had a different ending. But I guess it's Lily's fate to break Severus's heart.

 

It took a lot of time to research this period of London, so I'm really glad to hear the descriptions and everything felt authentic. 

 

Thank you so much for this lovely review!

Name: Oregonian (Signed) · Date: 09 May 2022 12:30 AM · For: what would an angel say, the devil wants to know

Hi, Noelle.

 

I can see why this story won so many awards.  It is a marvelous job of storytelling, and I love how you weave so many canon characters into a story of London's underworld in the pre-World War One years.

For a story of more than 9,000 words, the reading went surprisingly fast.  Lots of introspection on Tom's part, but the story seemed fast-paced anyway.  I enjoyed seeing the ways in which the plot echoed the famliar canon and the ways in which it didn't.  I appreciated how you shrank Knockturn Alley down into one music hall, and I puzzled myself about how Tom's desire to build a motor car sales scheme might be a metaphor for something that the previous Tom Riddle did in the seven books.  Still thinking about that one....motor cars....

 

You have an excellent hand with details and description, as you always do, and a real affinity for the noir genre.  I expect this will turn out to be a favorite style, or maybe we will just end up saying in the future that this was "Noelle's Noir Period."  

 

Very good job.  I enjoyed reading it.  You're a great writer.

 

Vicki

Author's Response:

Hi Vicki!

 

I'm really glad to hear that the story felt fast-paced. I was going for that face-paced feel, I wanted it to feel like it was a train speeding up and speeding up until the abrupt ending.

 

Transposing the canon characters is SO MUCH FUN. I never was into AUs much, but after Breathing Underwater I'm loving the challenge of transposing all the characters into new places and times.

 

With regards to the motor cars: Tom in this story is very interested in all modern techology, and being on the cutting edge of technology. I think of this as a parallel to how in canon, Tom Riddle was very interested in pushing magic as far as it could go, as we see with the Horcruxes in particular. 

 

No one was more surprised than I was that I can write the noir genre. It is fun to do, though sometimes I really hate how dark it all gets. 

 

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this story! It means a lot to me :D