#lilyjames

Portrait of Pamela Anderson inspired by the Pam and Tommy series - today is the last episode of the show. It’s been a very good series and also, Happy International Women’s Day!

Fanfiction: Beautiful Contradictions 

Author: drowning goldfish

First point of discussion, I feel like at this point in the marauders fandom it is a general consensus that James’s parents are the best people to walk the earth, however in this fanfiction their characters are written very differently. For example, they have set strict expectations for James, like the only suitable occupation for him to have would be to be an auror, and even though they’re not blood supremacists, Sirius himself even pointed out that they might be wary of Lily because she was muggleborn. I am not taking off any points for that because it is within the author’s full artistic liberty to shape the characters however they want; it’s just something that I wanted to point out.

Now, time for me to nitpick ;) I felt that James and Lily were entirely too sappy in this fic, especially for 2 seventeen year-olds, I just felt that the way they were written didn’t entirely vibe with the story and because of that there was some dissonance in how it was read and how it flows.

I will say that this has the foundations of a good Jily fic but I found it lacking in certain areas, one of these would be how the Marauders as a group were portrayed. For example, I can probably count on my hands how many scenes Sirius was in, Remus barely has any lines, and Peter is practically non-existent. In terms of “The Marauders”? There were no “Marauders,” just four separate people who were said to be friends, but this fic actually makes me dubious about them being friends at all.

Rate: 4/10

Most memorable scene: Marlene tells Lily that she is apprehensive to support her relationship with James because not only does she think James will hurt Lily, but that Lily is going against everything she ever believed in by dating a Marauder.

Fanfiction: Lily Evans, Chaser

Author: Lobotomised

This is different from the usual Jily fanfictions in the sense that Lily is the one chasing James instead of the other way around. In this fanfiction, Lily realizes that she likes James but he has already gotten another girlfriend. Appearances are made by an overprotective Sirius Black and Wise Remus who gives out Sage advice. It was a nice fic overall, I just feel that it wasn’t one of my favorites. It was just missing that special kick, I don’t mean to give out any hate at all, it just didn’t stand out to me much? Like it was a good read i guess but I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story or the characters.

Rate: 5.0/10

Fanfiction:I love you (ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?) and its companion fic Butterbeer Bludger and Other Disasters For All Gryffindors and Ravenclaws Involved

Author:lizardcookie

This is a fanfiction about James and Lily where they have a friends with benefits relationship in the summer before their seventh year. This is the shortest Jily fic I have ever reviewed so far, only about 20-30k words but it pacts quite a punch. James and Lily are head over heels for each other but they just. cannot. admit it. SO MUCH ANGST! ft. overprotective best mate Sirius in trying to stop James’s feelings from getting hurt.

This is a series on Ao3 so if another addition does pop up, I am definitely going to read and review it!

Rate : 9/10

Most memorable scene: Sirius confronts Lily about messing around with James’s feelings as she’s literally trying to sneak into James’s bedroom window ;)

Also, please follow me on TikTok @maybeestellaespresion where I post a lot more marauders content!

Fanfiction: Death and Other Inconveniences

Author: asteriae

Death and Other Inconveniences is not so much of a teen love story, instead it offers a more detailed view of the wizarding world in war through the lens of a group of teenagers coming into their own, struggling to find themselves, and grappling to do the right thing when they themselves are not sure what that is yet. The story of Lily and James are integral to this fanfiction but I feel that the author uses them more as a vehicle to portray the up and coming changes in the magical society. This fanfiction touches up on issues such as the flawed ideologies of Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore starts recruiting his child soldiers to deploy in this war very early. James and Lily and the rest of their classmates are literally teenagers being thrown in this war for “the greater good.” As the war starts really swinging into gear everyone must come face to face with what they think is the right course of action and what they think needs to be done in order to win this war. Lily herself, especially struggles with this in terms of her fears, wanting to retain her morals, and still wanting to contribute to making the world a safer place, just unsure if the Order is the right way of doing it.

This story highlights their moments of blissful adolescence: Lily and Remus discussing relationship problems, Sirius being a drama queen, secret snogging sessions in broom cupboards, and sneaking out to the pub every so often. In the end, all of these characters have to make a choice meant for people far older than they are, but no matter what they choose, they will have to live with the decisions that they have made.

This fanfiction is a masterpiece in its own right.

Rate: 10/10

Fanfiction: Turning Tables

Author: scared of clouds

This is the second fanfiction that I am reviewing by scared of clouds. This is the same author that wrote New Year  which I have previously read and reviewed. Upon first reading this fanfiction, it made me realize that this is the first fic I read where the story doesn’t immediately start when the characters are at Hogwarts/going to Hogwarts. Like in most other fics I read, the story starts when James and Lily are at school or it’s the beginning of a school year, but in this one, the events actually kick off during the summer before the marauder’s seventh year  so I thought that was a fresh change.

I am also pleased to report that this fanfiction has given us quidditch!Sirius. All of you guys who read my posts know how much I love me some quidditch player Sirius! And! His position on the quidditch team was a beater! It was just perfect. This author said gothjock representation.

As for Jily’s storyline within this fic, it was very sweet, very filling. I just wish there was more pre-established relationship/pre-dating angst, you know? Because for me, I feel like the angst before James and Lily are officially dating are what really makes it a James and Lily fanfiction ( in my own humble opinion) but the rest of their storyline was phenomenal, I assure you.

I also really like how involved the characters of Lily’s parents were in this story. Like the use of Lily’s parents in this fanfiction and how they interacted with other characters really added depth and dimension to this story and I really liked it.

This fanfiction also said Young!Peter rights and especially with how the author wrote him, I am inclined to agree. Usually in most Jily fics that I read, Peter is the bumbling, meek, token fourth friend, but in here I actually feel that he was a real person. He had his shining moments just like everybody else in the story and I was particularly touched by the thoughtful gesture of house solidarity that he made during the match for the quidditch cup.

Rate: 9.33/10

Most memorable scene: When talking to Lily’s dad about getting married, James straight-up tells her dad that this is the 20th century and Lily makes her own choices and doesn’t need her dad’s permission to get married. However, James does say that even though he is not asking for permission, he is asking for his approval.

Now that? That made me swoon so harddd. It puts every other father/potential-son-in-law talk to absolute shame.

Fanfiction:A Month of Sundays

Author:marziipan

A fanfiction of only roughly about 70,000 words, but it contains multitudes. (source for my word count statistic comes from ff.net) It is short and sweet and it only took me one day to binge-read it all. My overall reviews for this fanfiction is very positive. 

Now here are my comments of critique: First things first- In this fic, Sirius is not a quidditch player, which I gripe with so hard. Yes, I know that Sirius wasn’t canonically a quidditch player, but come on? I can hardly see Sirius in the quidditch stands when I know for sure he would be in the thick of the action of the game. You all should probably know by now that I love to read it when Sirius is kicking major butt in the quidditch pitch. I mean this is me reviewing Lily and James fanfiction PART 15 after all.

I also wish that there were more reflections or in-depth descriptions of Lily and James’s feelings towards one another. What was already in the story was brilliant of course, but there’s always room for improvement you know?

I really liked Lily and Remus’s friendship, especially how he was sort of like a confidant to her when Lily told him that she fancied James.

Rate: 9.1/10

Most memorable scene: Lily tells James that she’ll go out with him on St. Glinglin’s day. Silly James thinks it’s a real holiday but it’s just Lily’s way of saying “when hell freezes over.”

Fanfiction: Edge of Seventeen

Author: micster

Okay, so I was really excited to read this fic because it was suggested to me by someone from tumblr, so if you’re reading this, I am eternally grateful. Please feel free to send me more fanfictions because all your recommendations really warm my heart.

Anyways, to start off this review, this fanfiction fully takes place in sixth year which means that seventh year goes fully unexplored. I understand that this author has full creative liberty with this work so I am not taking off points for that, I just wanted to get it off my chest. 

I love the elements of this fanfiction where the author sort of meshed the real-life muggle world events of that time with the wizarding world, for example the tense relations between Ireland and England and how exactly that translates into the Ministry of Magic. I also love all of the references to music of that time and how all the characters are so invested in it, it gives this story a real three-dimensional vibe. The Lily and Sirius friendship here is top tier, those 2 are literally my favorite BroTP and this fic sure did them justice. In terms of other character relationships there was Wolfstar but they did break up over “The Prank,” and I am saddened to have read that they did not get back to even regular close friendship terms before the fic ended. In terms of Jily, I felt that I was kind of left wanting. Like I loved the dynamic between them and I understand they had their heartfelt moments but I needed more you know? Like where was the spice? I need more emotional angst and feelings. Also, James and Lily kissed before Lily even realized she had feelings for James. I’m not talking about sexual appeal or lust, I’m saying Lily kissed James because she wanted to but had no idea it was because she was romantically attracted to him? So it was? weird?? to me, i guess. Anyways, overall, I really wish there was just more to the fic, more content, more emotions- just more.

Rate:8.3333/10

Most memorable scene: Dorcas tries to warn Lily from being friends with Sirius because he’s a “Black” but Lily point-blank tells Dorcas to “never say that shit to my face ever again.”

Fanfiction:Buried Treasure and Transmogrify

Author:Rienna Hawkes

This fanfiction took me on so many ups and downs, it felt like a rollercoaster that I never wanted to get off of. To be honest, it was a very quick read for me because I loved it so much, I was practically obsessed.

The overall tone for this work is geared towards more adult readers, there are a lot of mature themes. With that being said, there is plenty of smut here but it’s also not just the smut that makes it inappropriate for younger audiences, so if you’re a bit on the young side, maybe just put this fanfiction towards the end of your list. But back to the smut? Oh yeah, Sarah J. Maas could never, ACOTAR has nothing on this!

Anyways those of you who have been with me since the beginning know that I always put spoilers in my reviews but I’m just gonna say it again because what I am about to tell you is a real doozy. Still here? Okay. In this fanfiction, Lily and Snape’s relationship was way more than platonic. Yep, you read that right. Now the story has established that Snape and Lily have slept together before the actual story takes place so while there was no real Snily smut, even the Snily interactions that were written in still made me want to barf. Obviously when James finds out this was a GINORMOUS hurdle for him to overcome and it’s one of the story’s main plot points. This also affects how James and Lily got together so this fanfiction takes on an unorthodox approach in the hows and whys of the start of their relationship.

I understand that not everybody thinks of the Marauders’ story in the same way that I do so even though Sn*pe and Lily used to be together, I’m not going to hold it against them and honestly, I think the author makes up for it later on.

Now to shift the attention to Sirius- he starts off as a downright asshoie. The good thing about this was that he had a lot of room to grow in this story, and the character development towards the end was simply *chef’s kiss*. He and Lily become friends while they were both mad at James and that was super fun to read.

If I had to describe two words to describe the characters in this fic, it would be: inner turmoil. There are lots of it. Also, I don’t know what was in this story but I’m pretty sure it was crack because for the life of me, I could not put this fic down, like I was literally addicted. Also this author said Regulus Black representation.

Rate: 9.7/10

Most memorable scene: Lily and Sirius haphazardly cover the interior of the Shrieking Shack with Christmas decorations.

A memorable quote: “Sirius may be able to charm every other girl living (and some dead), but he couldn’t charm Lily. As James recalled, it was Remus he had to keep an eye on (four hour patrols indeed).

P.S. Chapter 15: “A cold, gray Sunday” is my favorite :)

Fanfiction: All Right, Evans?

Author: CokeBottleK

This fanfiction picks up in sixth year and only covers their sixth year and unlike canon and other James and Lily fanfictions, they actually start their romantic relationship in sixth year whereas in canon and in other stories, we know that James and Lily actually get together in their seventh year.

As for my overall thoughts on this fanfiction, I thought that James and Lily got together too fast, like there wasn’t enough build-up or romantic tension before they got together. I felt like 15% of this fic was them warming up to each other and the other 75% was just James and Lily creating more problems for themselves in trying to navigate a secret relationship. Yes, these two have a secret relationship that they try to keep secret from their friends. ( They’re idiots but I guess that’s why we love reading about them.) I wanted more tension before they became a couple. I want to be on the edge of my seat reading that teenage romance angst where Lily is just slowly starting to realize she actually has positive feelings for James, so I felt that this fic just didn’t give that to me.

Also, Sirius wasn’t written as a quidditch player in this story which really ticked me off because he is literally the definition of a jock goth. Like how do so many people just forget that he was on the quidditch team?

Some of the things that I did like were Sirius taking a muggle studies class and being fascinated with the muggle postal service system. James and Lily went out on a not-date when Lily was still in denial for her feelings for James.

There is minor character death in this to really showcase the upcoming wizarding war, There was also a lot of smut, but good smut though. My previously mentioned comments still stands, but I still had fun reading this.

Rate:6.8/10

Most Memorable scene: Lily absolutely goes apeshit on the slytherins who tried to gang up on her in the corridors. She sends them all to the hospital wing and later Dumbledore sort of calls her a hero.

Most memorable quote: “But its your fault she decides she likes me because she sees the house and figures out we’re rich.”

Fanfiction:Love and Other Tragedies

Author: Fancyeyes

I Honestly don’t even know how to begin describing this. The first thing I have to tell you is that this story starts out with Sirius dating Lily. That is the first major hurdle you have to jump over in order to proceed with this fanfiction, if you do jump over this hurdle, good job! Because there’s about to be a whole lot more.

I will take this description straight from the author’s notes themselves- “this is a very backwards way of explaining what happened during the marauder’s era.” And I could not agree more. This is not your typical Jily fanfiction. Foreword warning, there is a lot of smut in this and there isn’t a typical build-up of romantic tension between James and Lily that will culminate into a relationship, as one would expect and as one would typically see in most other fics.

Now I don’t want to say it was completely bad, because it wasn’t. I decided to give this story a go despite my previously stated misgivings and I was pleasantly surprised by the writing flow of the narrative keeping me enthralled. It’s like in a math test, you still got the right answer even though you used the wrong formula and you don’t know exactly how you got there. Or like how you solve a problem by creating a bigger problem that cancels the first one out. This fanfiction is like the lovechild of Looking for Alaska,Catcher in the Rye, and Riverdaleall together. I will say this though: The author of “Love and Other Tragedies” could write Harry Potter but JKR could not write Love and Other Tragedies.”

Rate: I’m feeling fifty-fifty on this one so I’ll give it a 5/10

Most memorable scene: In a Defense Against the Dark Arts demonstration using the polyjuice potion, Lily participates in this demonstration where there are several other copies of her. James is the only one who can pick out the real Lily solely based off of her idiosyncrasies.

Fanfiction: Resolution

Author: WeasleyWannabee

If you want to read a Jily fanfiction that has a lot of the commonly seen Tumblr tropes, then this is the fanfiction for you! Overall, I thought this story was well-written and a fun read. This fanfiction has the trope of James having a different girlfriend before he and Lily get together and it also has the trope where Lily has a different boyfriend before her and James get together. And actually, what’s interesting is that James actually encourages this relationship because he wants to prove to himself that he got over his feelings for Lily. But, spoiler alert! We all know that he has not, denial is not just a river in Egypt. Angst and feelings galore! The character developments in this fanfiction just get juicier and juicier.

One of the things that I have noticed is that this fanfiction doesn’t have a heavy deatheater involvement. I know in other fics, fighting off deatheaters and dueling voldemort sympathizers in the Hogwarts corridors are major plot points but this only has scenes of minor incursions by the Slytherins and brief mentions of attacks through the Daily Prophet. And I’m not saying this is a bad thing, its just something that I’ve noticed.

Also, I want to point out that Lily has a sort of “pick-me girl” attitude for some parts, like I know Lily is a 16/17 year old who’s a teenager and is still growing in life but in some instances she openly says she’s “not like other girls” because she looks down on gossiping, she quits a snowball fight because she got hit with a snowball (childish in my eyes), says “acting like a girl” as an insult, and after spending time with her dormmates she says she “fulfilled her silly girl quota for the day.” I mean internalized misogyny much? I said before that I won’t hold it against this fic because Lily’s still an impressionable youth so I won’t take points off, but still.

Now the good parts of this story are like REALLY GOOD. Lily’s friendship with both Remus and Sirius are fantastic. Sirius listens to Lily’s woes about love and they get drunk together. I love Remus’s little quips, witty one-liners, and his amused expressions at his friends’ antics. This author is a god at depicting the sexual tension between James and Lily! It’s impeccable and I’m going to put this fanfiction in the Jily hall of fame for that. I loved the point in the story where the title starts to make sense, it’s the most satisfying thing in the world. This fanfiction makes my heart yearn for the simple happiness of sharing a smile with another person, if you guys want to fall in love with two other people falling in love with each other, then I highly recommend that you read this fanfiction.

There is a lot of second-hand embarrassment though.

Rate: 10/10 :)

Most memorable scene: Remus and Sirius both give Lily a kiss on each cheek at the same time in celebration of the New Year <3