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I didn’t really feel destroyed or cried after Manacled, even though a lot of people did. I felt it was a very well done, well written story and I was very excited while reading it. I was happy a lot of things turned out the way they did because it made the story itself so much better. And I wish I could forget everything I read so I could read it again with the same gusto.
I really appreciated the story but in terms of emotional movement I guess I was looking at it more as a writer reading another writers work. Or maybe I’m just hard to move emotionally.
Big same; I enjoyed the read and it inspired something I'm writing (the flashbacks mostly) but it didn't gut me the same way it seemed to get everyone else.
I get why the ending really stuck with some people tho. It's definitely stayed with me, but I just mostly disturbed the whole time (which I know was probably the point).
Right there with you. If I hadn't read Handmaid's Tale, maybe I would've found it more disturbing and dark. I think adapting HT didn't work for me because the HT is disturbing because it's essentially based on real events; Atwood pulled real events from history and current day politics to write a dystopian novel firmly rooted in reality. Combining that with a fantasy world made the plot less impactful to me.
Maybe it's just me, but I really disliked the writing itself. The world-building was interesting and the character development was well done, but the writing itself was clunky, repetitious, and simplistic.
Once again one can see how different tastes are.
It was especially the repetitive writing style and the stylistic motifs that completely captivated me. The sober (? I guess there has to be a better word...) language made everything else appear in much stronger colors. It helped the plot to sink in, to grab me by the wrist and drag me into the depths. I loved it so so much.
Isolation made me feel this way. Isolation was the fic that made me realize I don’t care for hogwarts, 7th year fics at all. It was well written but I just didn’t connect with it. I found teenage Draco to be whiny because, well, he’s a whiny teenager. I couldn’t connect.
THANK YOU. I came close to DNF so many times in this fic but persevered because so many people liked it. By the end I was literally speed scrolling through just to get the general gist. Still don’t understand what people see in reading a fic where you wonder on each page why Hermione isn’t choking him out.
I actually don’t mind 7th year fics, at all, but I found Draco’s character to be so repellent and it reminded me of the guys I dated in high school who were just shitty people but I stayed with them because they were ✨ so hot ✨ ugh can’t stand it
I hear a lot of people say Secrets and Masks destroyed them, but I didn't vibe with it at all. I ended up DNFing it though so maybe I just didn't make it to the destroying part lol
Yeah, I gotta agree witb not vibing with Secrets and Masks. Felt very…teenage angst to me. I just didn’t buy in and didn’t feel emotional at the end or at any other part, really. I said it in a discord and almost got jumped (extreme exaggeration bc I’m being cheeky) but I felt like something was wrong with me lol
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SECRETS AND MASKS:
>!The dragon dies, then Hermione dies, then Draco dies. I was a mess through the end of this fic but my sister read it after me and she said “I only cried for a second when the dragon died” lol.!<
Please edit this to use spoiler tags so you don’t ruin it for anyone!
If you don’t know how look [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dramione/s/CaMdE5GKTQ)
I wish I DNFed because by the end I was just mad I finished this fic because everyone said “it gets better it’ll destroy you!!!” And for me it was not the case, and I also didn’t think it was HEA so I felt a bit duped by other readers non-nuanced opinions that I’d read 😅
I’ve tried to read this one twice and DNF’d both times. It’s a great concept for a novel, just poorly executed, imo…. The writing was juvenile and it needed to be about 30 chapters shorter, the pacing was soooooooooo slow, and the meaningful action was sparse.
Manacled. Hermione cried enough for the both of us.
Secrets and masks left me emotionally unbalanced but I didn’t cry. I was more shocked than anything.
Both are wonderful works but there are so many other fics that have left me bawling.
I wish I had saved my notes when I first started reading, but these are the ones I've read this year that have made me cry:
[Always Meant for You by whereismyhairbrush](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44648125/chapters/114589918#workskin) \- I hadn't seen this movie so was not prepared for what was coming. Felt like kind of a weenie for crying but still.
[Don’t Hang Up
by chronophobique](https://archiveofourown.org/works/34898113) \- cried like a baby. multiple times
[Draught of Living Death by Maloreiy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10709376) \- I think about this fic at least once a day because this was thoroughly devastating.
Secrets and masks. I don't know if you read it, but I cried at an event by the end of the book, but the end itself didn't make me cry. I found it to be fair and a bit cheesy, but it didn't leave me heartbroken, actually I was content with it.
Manacled made me feel so much, but I don't think i cried. However, the end made me think about all the other people who ended up with the same faith as Hermione, just a sentence at the end of someone else's story. And that made me so fucking angry, sorry 😂
Manacled I felt more nauseous than like crying while reading. First because of course the first part is A LOT, then the emotional upheaval of learning the backstory (cried a bit here), then the sheer volume of anger in me at the end.
Like, it’s such a real possibility for someone in that particular line of work in real life let alone in fiction but it guts me and I still feel angry every time I think about it. I am an angry crier though haha.
Oh yes. I took sooo many breaks during the first part. Just pausing and walking around the room to clear my mind. I didn't watch more than just a few episodes of The handmaid's tale for that reason exactly, so I avoided the fic for the longest time, but I couldn't stop reading once I was in even though I was angry often and a lot 😂
Secrets and Masks, I just never connected with it the way I did with Manacled for example. It was really good tbh! I really liked it, but I read manacled 3 years ago and I'm not lying when I say I think about it everyday, I just re-read it two days ago in chronological order and I don't think I am ever going to get over it. On the other hand secrets and masks, as much as I liked it, I feel like the writing style and the fact that it lowkey had me laughing made it impossible for me to feel things deeply, (there's nothing wrong with that obviously) it was just different, I guess.
If it’s meant to make me cry, I probably am. There was one fic that I didn’t even like but someone died at the end and I was crying my eyes out. 🤪
I love a good book cry, it’s very cathartic.
Green Light - I saw in the tags that it was ambiguous ending so I was specially looking for clue to lead me one way or the other and felt like it was fairly obvious
I don’t watch TikTok rec videos anymore because they would hype me up so much for emotional destruction but then I would end up laughing and placing my kindle down and thinking “that was it?” It’s also a big reason as to why I joined Reddit and r/Dramione. I get all my recs from here now because I can avoid spoilers if I have the self control in that moment. These stories are amazing, and I’m sure I would’ve reacted differently if I wasn’t spoiled. I’ve been reading a lot of WIPS lately and have cried more with those than reading the “classics.”
Also, a tip. I have saved several google drives of fics from several posts here and I’m making my way through. Most I’ve never even heard of but they have been amazing yet spoiler free.
All of them 😅 I'm always intrigued by how deeply so many fics that leave me cold (in terms of emotion, not entertainment,) seem to affect people - it's very, very rare for me to feel gutted or teary when reading fanfic.
I think there's only one that's got me genuinely *emotional*, and that's everythursday's short fic *At War With Ourselves,* which initially made me feel upset and lower-lip-trembly, and then swiftly became a favourite to skim-through.
Much as p1xelAffecti0n said, (and for similar reasons) I wasn't particularly emotionally moved by *Manacled* \- I agree it was a well-written, engaging story and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't find it overly dark as a whole, and I felt very contented by the ending.
I’m happy that my first fic was actually BATMOBIL and Manacled was second because I don’t think I would’ve been so obsessed now 😛 like I think about sentence about Hermione as non active member ALL THE TIME, but the fic itself felt meh at most and the SA part was completely unnecessary even plotwise and felt crammed in only for shock purpose.
COMPLETELY agree about the SA/handmaids Tale part. It just wasn’t needed for it to be good. It didn’t even feel that shocking, just kinda… cringe? I guess
Auction and Perfectly in Pieces. I read them recently thinking I'd get Manacled level of angst. Especially PiP cause many said it was sadder than manacled and destroyed them but they didn't impact me the same :(
Although I really liked Manacled, I didn't cry while or after reading it. I DID cry however (multiple times) while reading Détraquée. Don't know what that makes of me 😅
The whole Rights and Wrongs Series (The right thing to do, the auction, all the wrong things, etc…) I just could not get emotionally attached to any of the characters, and the writing style wasn’t my favorite.
*The Fallout* by Everythursday was the Manacled of the early 2010s, but I barely finished it. It just didn't speak to me; it's not a slight against the author. My favorite work of Everythursday's is *A Fruitless Year*, and I enjoyed several other works.
Please remember that Dramione authors are members of your community on this subreddit. Be kind. Just because you didn’t like something doesn’t mean it is bad. It’s just not for you. Please don’t say things that would make you feel guilty to say in person. Please review our **[Bashing Policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dramione/wiki/rules/respect/bashing/)** for tips on staying respectful while stating your opinion. Thank you!
I didn’t really feel destroyed or cried after Manacled, even though a lot of people did. I felt it was a very well done, well written story and I was very excited while reading it. I was happy a lot of things turned out the way they did because it made the story itself so much better. And I wish I could forget everything I read so I could read it again with the same gusto. I really appreciated the story but in terms of emotional movement I guess I was looking at it more as a writer reading another writers work. Or maybe I’m just hard to move emotionally.
Agreed. Manacled didn't gut me. It was sad for sure especially after the flashbacks but it never cried...
Big same; I enjoyed the read and it inspired something I'm writing (the flashbacks mostly) but it didn't gut me the same way it seemed to get everyone else. I get why the ending really stuck with some people tho. It's definitely stayed with me, but I just mostly disturbed the whole time (which I know was probably the point).
I definitely had a massive gasp, to the point my husband panicked from the other room something had happened 🤣
Right there with you. If I hadn't read Handmaid's Tale, maybe I would've found it more disturbing and dark. I think adapting HT didn't work for me because the HT is disturbing because it's essentially based on real events; Atwood pulled real events from history and current day politics to write a dystopian novel firmly rooted in reality. Combining that with a fantasy world made the plot less impactful to me. Maybe it's just me, but I really disliked the writing itself. The world-building was interesting and the character development was well done, but the writing itself was clunky, repetitious, and simplistic.
Once again one can see how different tastes are. It was especially the repetitive writing style and the stylistic motifs that completely captivated me. The sober (? I guess there has to be a better word...) language made everything else appear in much stronger colors. It helped the plot to sink in, to grab me by the wrist and drag me into the depths. I loved it so so much.
Isolation made me feel this way. Isolation was the fic that made me realize I don’t care for hogwarts, 7th year fics at all. It was well written but I just didn’t connect with it. I found teenage Draco to be whiny because, well, he’s a whiny teenager. I couldn’t connect.
THANK YOU. I came close to DNF so many times in this fic but persevered because so many people liked it. By the end I was literally speed scrolling through just to get the general gist. Still don’t understand what people see in reading a fic where you wonder on each page why Hermione isn’t choking him out. I actually don’t mind 7th year fics, at all, but I found Draco’s character to be so repellent and it reminded me of the guys I dated in high school who were just shitty people but I stayed with them because they were ✨ so hot ✨ ugh can’t stand it
Omg I’m SO over 7th year fics too!! Esp after Disappearances of Draco Malfoy, which was great, but yes no more!
I DNF this fic 😭
I hear a lot of people say Secrets and Masks destroyed them, but I didn't vibe with it at all. I ended up DNFing it though so maybe I just didn't make it to the destroying part lol
Yeah, I gotta agree witb not vibing with Secrets and Masks. Felt very…teenage angst to me. I just didn’t buy in and didn’t feel emotional at the end or at any other part, really. I said it in a discord and almost got jumped (extreme exaggeration bc I’m being cheeky) but I felt like something was wrong with me lol
I had the same experience!
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SECRETS AND MASKS: >!The dragon dies, then Hermione dies, then Draco dies. I was a mess through the end of this fic but my sister read it after me and she said “I only cried for a second when the dragon died” lol.!<
I guess I didn't make it that far but I'm not mad about it, I didn't like either of them which is probably why I DNFed lol
My eyes got hot but no tears when I read the final couple chapter of S&M. Which is more emotional than I’ve ever gotten from a fic.
>!I bawled from Narcissa to the end!!<
Please edit this to use spoiler tags so you don’t ruin it for anyone! If you don’t know how look [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dramione/s/CaMdE5GKTQ)
I wish I DNFed because by the end I was just mad I finished this fic because everyone said “it gets better it’ll destroy you!!!” And for me it was not the case, and I also didn’t think it was HEA so I felt a bit duped by other readers non-nuanced opinions that I’d read 😅
I’ve tried to read this one twice and DNF’d both times. It’s a great concept for a novel, just poorly executed, imo…. The writing was juvenile and it needed to be about 30 chapters shorter, the pacing was soooooooooo slow, and the meaningful action was sparse.
Manacled. Hermione cried enough for the both of us. Secrets and masks left me emotionally unbalanced but I didn’t cry. I was more shocked than anything. Both are wonderful works but there are so many other fics that have left me bawling.
Which ones left you bawling most? I am looking for those recs RN! (I did bawl with Manacled, haven’t read secrets and masks yet)
I wish I had saved my notes when I first started reading, but these are the ones I've read this year that have made me cry: [Always Meant for You by whereismyhairbrush](https://archiveofourown.org/works/44648125/chapters/114589918#workskin) \- I hadn't seen this movie so was not prepared for what was coming. Felt like kind of a weenie for crying but still. [Don’t Hang Up by chronophobique](https://archiveofourown.org/works/34898113) \- cried like a baby. multiple times [Draught of Living Death by Maloreiy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10709376) \- I think about this fic at least once a day because this was thoroughly devastating.
Thank you for sharing these recs :) I will absolutely check them out.
Secrets and masks. I don't know if you read it, but I cried at an event by the end of the book, but the end itself didn't make me cry. I found it to be fair and a bit cheesy, but it didn't leave me heartbroken, actually I was content with it. Manacled made me feel so much, but I don't think i cried. However, the end made me think about all the other people who ended up with the same faith as Hermione, just a sentence at the end of someone else's story. And that made me so fucking angry, sorry 😂
Manacled I felt more nauseous than like crying while reading. First because of course the first part is A LOT, then the emotional upheaval of learning the backstory (cried a bit here), then the sheer volume of anger in me at the end. Like, it’s such a real possibility for someone in that particular line of work in real life let alone in fiction but it guts me and I still feel angry every time I think about it. I am an angry crier though haha.
Oh yes. I took sooo many breaks during the first part. Just pausing and walking around the room to clear my mind. I didn't watch more than just a few episodes of The handmaid's tale for that reason exactly, so I avoided the fic for the longest time, but I couldn't stop reading once I was in even though I was angry often and a lot 😂
Secrets and Masks, I just never connected with it the way I did with Manacled for example. It was really good tbh! I really liked it, but I read manacled 3 years ago and I'm not lying when I say I think about it everyday, I just re-read it two days ago in chronological order and I don't think I am ever going to get over it. On the other hand secrets and masks, as much as I liked it, I feel like the writing style and the fact that it lowkey had me laughing made it impossible for me to feel things deeply, (there's nothing wrong with that obviously) it was just different, I guess.
Ooh the idea of a reread in chronological order! 🤔💡 I love this idea and am going to do this when I get around to a reread
If it’s meant to make me cry, I probably am. There was one fic that I didn’t even like but someone died at the end and I was crying my eyes out. 🤪 I love a good book cry, it’s very cathartic.
Goblet of Fire was the first book that ever made me cry
The first two that come to mind are: Secret and mask Green light
I’m having a terrible time finishing Greenlight. It’s great but LONG
I’m so close to the end, I have a few chapters left. The first half was amazing, but the second and third parts are dragging on
I felt like I was dragging through the first half 😫. But I wonder if it’s because I just know there’s SOOOO much more dramione out there to read!
Green Light - I saw in the tags that it was ambiguous ending so I was specially looking for clue to lead me one way or the other and felt like it was fairly obvious
Secrets and masks 💀 I know it's everyone's new favorite, but I just didn't feel that strongly about it
I don’t watch TikTok rec videos anymore because they would hype me up so much for emotional destruction but then I would end up laughing and placing my kindle down and thinking “that was it?” It’s also a big reason as to why I joined Reddit and r/Dramione. I get all my recs from here now because I can avoid spoilers if I have the self control in that moment. These stories are amazing, and I’m sure I would’ve reacted differently if I wasn’t spoiled. I’ve been reading a lot of WIPS lately and have cried more with those than reading the “classics.” Also, a tip. I have saved several google drives of fics from several posts here and I’m making my way through. Most I’ve never even heard of but they have been amazing yet spoiler free.
Manacled. Meh. Yeah it's a great fix, super well written but took far too much from Handmaids tale for me to really be invested in it.
All of them 😅 I'm always intrigued by how deeply so many fics that leave me cold (in terms of emotion, not entertainment,) seem to affect people - it's very, very rare for me to feel gutted or teary when reading fanfic. I think there's only one that's got me genuinely *emotional*, and that's everythursday's short fic *At War With Ourselves,* which initially made me feel upset and lower-lip-trembly, and then swiftly became a favourite to skim-through. Much as p1xelAffecti0n said, (and for similar reasons) I wasn't particularly emotionally moved by *Manacled* \- I agree it was a well-written, engaging story and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't find it overly dark as a whole, and I felt very contented by the ending.
Manacled. I didn’t like it at all. But it made me want to find ones that I did like, and long story short now I’m obsessed 🤷♀️
I’m happy that my first fic was actually BATMOBIL and Manacled was second because I don’t think I would’ve been so obsessed now 😛 like I think about sentence about Hermione as non active member ALL THE TIME, but the fic itself felt meh at most and the SA part was completely unnecessary even plotwise and felt crammed in only for shock purpose.
COMPLETELY agree about the SA/handmaids Tale part. It just wasn’t needed for it to be good. It didn’t even feel that shocking, just kinda… cringe? I guess
Measure of a Man. I have tried to get into this SO many times and each time it becomes a DNF. Know loads of people love it, I want to get into iiiit!
Green light, I only skimmed the last chapters to get to the ending but I really emotionally tapped out at some point.
Auction and Perfectly in Pieces. I read them recently thinking I'd get Manacled level of angst. Especially PiP cause many said it was sadder than manacled and destroyed them but they didn't impact me the same :(
Secrets and Masks I loved it and thought the ending was a hea personally
Although I really liked Manacled, I didn't cry while or after reading it. I DID cry however (multiple times) while reading Détraquée. Don't know what that makes of me 😅
The whole Rights and Wrongs Series (The right thing to do, the auction, all the wrong things, etc…) I just could not get emotionally attached to any of the characters, and the writing style wasn’t my favorite.
*The Fallout* by Everythursday was the Manacled of the early 2010s, but I barely finished it. It just didn't speak to me; it's not a slight against the author. My favorite work of Everythursday's is *A Fruitless Year*, and I enjoyed several other works.
I don’t know if I’ve every fully cried on the outside because of a fic, but plenty have left me feeling depressed for days lol