221b_recs | Series Rec: Unusual Efforts (Reply)

Title: Unusual Efforts
Author: AggressiveWhenStartled
Pairing: fem!John Watson/Sherlock Holmes, short-term fem!John Watson/Lestrade
Length: 63,446
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: canon typical violence
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Joan Watson didn’t, of course, particularly enjoy being called a bitch, but she preferred it to ‘whore’. Likely because the first was so often a response to her highly satisfying right hook after being called the second.

You had to be firm when you were a ‘ball-breaking cunt’ who liked to flirt, especially when you followed around Sherlock Holmes.

Reccer's comments: The Joan Watson we see in this defies any and all expectations you might have of a Joan Watson. Hell, she supercedes most expectations of many John Watsons I’ve read. She’s beautifully aware of the boundaries necessary to keep the world in general from steamrolling over her. And she’s equally aware of the boundaries she herself needs to maintain to keep her anger from spilling over, from transforming from simple emotion into fiery action. Joan is so very, very angry in this story, and it is fantastic to read her struggle with that anger, not just as partner to Sherlock Holmes, but as a woman.

But this series isn’t just about anger, it’s about how reckless Joan can be, how not normal one must be in order to partner with Sherlock Holmes. AggressiveWhenStartled writes a Joan who is strong and confident and absolutely certain in who she is… and consequently very wary about who she is.

This is one of my favorite characterisations of John Watson, hands down. And despite the persistent themes of anger, the series manages to be hilarious (my God, the dialog) and sexy.