Fic Rec: Dear John

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Title: Dear John
Author: Wendy Marlowe
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 23,028
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: N/A
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: With Sherlock dead, John eventually (under duress) makes a profile on an online dating site. And falls into a long-distance relationship with an enigmatic partner who reminds him of Sherlock in all the right ways. (Hint: it turns out to be Sherlock.)

Updated in real time.

Reccer's comments: I would be remiss in my reccing duties if I didn’t rec this recently completed story. As the author’s summary says, this story was updated in real time, and I kind of hate that anyone didn’t read it while it posted because it was a fantastic use of the conceit. Gah, the suspense. I don’t think I’ve checked my phone so often for any fic to update. I think I’ll do a re-read next year, realtime. As it is, I’ll be content to continue reading the additional stories that WendyMarlowe posts in this series.

Where to begin to even describe this phenomenon of a story? Magical things happened as people waited for this story to post. The sheer volume of comments is epic. There’s an entire story spawned just by the comment thread. (See the final chapter for this and the long list of other fics inspired by this. All excellent.).

I’m not normally a fan of epistolary stories. But here the email and chat exchanges have a definitive arc to them, and WendyMarlowe does a superb job of weaving the unfolding plot, the characterisation, and the budding romance into them. Witnessing John fall in love with William, all the while knowing what train wreck is coming. It's delicious torture.