221b_recs | Entries tagged with theme: female characters

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Stumbleine
Author: wiggleofjudas
Pairing: Molly/Richard Fox [James Moriarty]
Length: 1,552
Rating: M for violence
Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Canonical Character Death
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: A re-telling of Mr. Fox/The Robber Bridegroom in the key of BBC Sherlock.

Reccer's comments: No S3 Spoilers
Death-Tender Molly Hooper shines in these seven 221Bs set in the fairytale-inspired 'verse The Snow Queen. This part of the series can be understood without having read the previous installments, but I do urge you to enjoy them to obtain a fuller view of this gorgeous, terrifying, yet intensely human world.

It can be difficult to do Molly justice, to either make her ineffective and uninteresting, or to swing wildly to an opposite extreme in an effort to "fix" her perceived faults, thereby obliterating the traits that make Molly an engaging character. But in masterful hands, that balance between awkwardness and a core of understated strength is maintained, as Molly reacts to what she finds in her fiancé's ancestral home:

Molly’s skin prickles panic-hot and goes numb, numb. She can’t take her eyes from the hand (her age; more elegant).

If I have to, she thinks, her mind a bloody, beating thing recalling those last, hardest lessons at the death-tender’s cabin: I will. If.

Richard buries the blade in the table and storms up the stairs, lips all disgust. Doesn’t see her.

Never, Molly thinks, saw her.

Before she leaves: her work. She hasn’t time for the science of it (though how she would like to, how good it would feel to find the whats and hows and how-manys, to make a record), but the ritual: that, yes, she can do.

She starts at the table. Lays the hand with the body, rummages in the pouch at her waist, clinks through vials ’til she finds what she wants: distillations of ivy, aloe, yew. Three drops on the forehead, smudged once with her thumb; rites she mouths quiet as she can; relief when she feels the soul rest, release.

On to the next. Again. Until, when she whispers the words that let her hear what’s held back, there is peace.

Throughout the story she will do what must be done (and more), quietly, competently, shunning the easy path.

The prose is spare and poetic in its approach to rhythm and pacing. This adds to the otherworldly character of the 'verse, which has the folk ballad's economy and darkness. Best read in a well-lit room with a valiant tomcat or steadfast terrier by your side.

hardboiledbaby

Title: A Matter of Integrity
Author:

mainecoon76
Pairing: Adler/Norton, Holmes/Watson
Length: 3,350
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD books

Author's summary:
It is a curious thing when a celebrity whom you’ve never truly met is widely considered your most prominent suitor. Irene Norton sets out in search of some answers, and discovers that sometimes the truth is a delicate matter.

Reccer's comments:
A Scandal in Bohemia begins with the line, "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman." And yet Holmes and Adler barely interact in person: they exchange but a few words, and each time either one or the other is in disguise. So why would Dr Watson say "she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex"? Inquiring minds want to know. One mind in particular has a personal interest:

I could not help but wonder what exactly it had been about my story that had made such a strong impression on the famous detective. I had read his adventures; I knew it was neither the first nor last time he had been outwitted by an opponent. Perhaps it truly was no more than the fact that I happen to be female, or perhaps Dr Watson had simply wished to give his stories a romantic note. Nevertheless, I wondered.

This lovely fic came out of the latest round of the

acd_holmesfest fanworks exchange, and was written with an eye towards (paraphrasing the author's notes) giving a female character agency, complexity, and an inner life apart from being a love interest. She succeeds, and brilliantly.

mainecoon76 gives us an Irene that is true to canon: neither a villain nor a temptress, but a capable and intelligent woman, thoughtful and perceptive, who can hold her own against anyone, even the famed consulting detective. All the characters are voiced perfectly, in fact, and the glimpses we get of Mr and Mrs Norton together are especially delightful.

TL;DR:

mainecoon76's Irene Norton, née Adler = HEADCANON ACCEPTED

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Goose
Author:

rabidsamfan
Pairing: none
Length: 8,626
Rating: Gen
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD Books
Author's summary: Watson recalls an early Christmas at Baker Street.

Reccer's comments: We are still within the twelve days of Christmas and I am experiencing quite the winter where I am, so this delightful fic feels just right: Holmes and Watson sending Mrs. Hudson off to visit her family and fending for themselves (with a little assistance from the Irregulars), all of them struggling to create a Christmas feast in the midst of terrible weather.

One of my favorite things about this story is how the author demonstrates, without being overtly didactic, how much skilled and unskilled labor goes into running even a modestly sized household in the Victorian period. Without Mrs. Hudson and her countless counterparts, many a British home would have ceased to function. Also superb are Watson's voice and the dialogue, as well as the references to the details of daily living in London, which believably situates the reader in the late nineteenth century.

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Blink Blue
Author: aderyn
Pairing: Irene/Molly
Length: 221
Rating: Teen
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary:
She sits up on the slab, the woman Sherlock knew from not her face.
Blinks blue at Molly, winks.

Reccer's comments: 221Bs as stunning prose poetry: sharp attention to rhythm, syntax, and imagery that gives more than it takes.

Such is the talent in this fandom that more than just a wide range of genres and tropes are covered. Many writing styles also find welcome home here, from powerfully concrete prose to ambiguous works of poetry that resist easy readings. What I admire most about this piece is that it is erotic as hell as well as painful and that both qualities are established with sparse, vivid prose.

As in some of Aderyn's other post-Reichenbach works the dead and the living haunt the bereaved; the healing process requires ghosts on its fog-patched paths. Three shades appear before Molly in this ficlet, but it is Irene who both recognizes and adds to Molly's strength. And yet: although Molly is united with Irene in the dream world, awake she seems as alone and as sorrowful as dream!Sherlock is.

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Chez les bêtes
Author: breathedout
Pairing: Irene Adler/Various, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette/Mathilde de Morny
Length: 12,923
Rating: E
Warnings: Underage Sex
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Le Havre, 1908. The Child is mother of the Woman.

Reccer's comments: BBC's version of Irene Adler is a character I've had problems connecting with (unlike Doyle's Irene), primarily because the writing for ASiB is chaotic and full of holes, leaving us with an Irene who to me feels more like a symbol than a fully realized personality. In contrast, BreathedOut's brilliant history AU, which moves Irene to early-twentieth-century England and France, presents the reader with a raw and ferocious young woman who feels very human, with her artistic talents, youthful uncertainty, love for her mother, and her capacity to manipulate. The cultural beliefs of turn-of-the-century working- and middle-class Britons are on full display here, demonstrating how very difficult it is for a working-class woman, even one with Irene's abilities, to struggle against these values and expectations. As a result, Irene's attempts to escape the expected routine of grueling, poorly paid, and often unsafe "respectable" work, as well as the conventional roles of wife and mother are all the more powerful.

Alternating the past and present throughout the story effectively shows how "The Woman" came to be in a process neither direct nor easy. It's that structure that allows Irene's epiphany to feel earned rather than a bolt out of the blue. I look forward to seeing this Irene meet Violet Hour's Sherlock and John in the next installment of the Unreal Histories series. I suspect it will be a memorable confrontation!

Excerpt: ( Read more )

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Equinoxes & Solstices
Author:

afrogeekgoddess
Pairing: Gen
Length: 611
Rating: T
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Molly/Spring, Irene/Summer, Sally/Autumn, Anthea/Winter. Portrait poems of the women of Sherlock, centered around the four seasons.

Reccer's comments: Vivid and compelling portraits of four of the female characters in the series.

One of the best things about fanfiction is that it can explore the complexity of the characters in ways unaddressed in canon. Through her potent imagery, Afrogeekgoddess subverts the stereotypes that the series' male writers invoke: sweet girl with a crush, oversexed villainness, angry woman of color, and sexy secretary of a powerful man.
For example, AGG suggests the depths of Molly by reminding us that the new growth of spring is made possible by death:

Molly loves the growing spring, when the world is
sodden, unfurling its secrets from the ground....
when the colors she loves so dearly—rose golds,
dusty pinks, the splashes of vermillion and violet
she wears on her skin and paints on her blog—
dance across her eyes; when the buds break
through the dirt like saws through chest cavities,
lay their bright, juicy blossoms out for her
to measure and weigh

Although Molly is often depicted as someone soft and sweet, if you consider her chosen profession, both life and death must fascinate her. Darkness and death are not something to be feared, but generate things of stunning beauty: flowers in this poem, data and solved mysteries in the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Each woman is competent, powerful, and beautiful: Sally who knows the victory of capturing a perp and recognizes her value as a person despite pervasive racism ("the whole of London loves the colors of her body/(she knows it won't last, knows the white faces who adore/the changing leaves won't give her brown body/a second admiring glance)"); Irene the Domme, who willingly lets herself by dommed by the most powerful Female in the solar system; and Anthea, whose "elegant avalanches,/smothering and deadly" and "secrets encoded in crystal" protect the British Government.

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: A Hundred Thousand Miles LJ AO3
Author:

what_alchemy
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,107
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Original character death
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Sally Donovan didn’t daydream of being a police officer when she was young.

Reccer's comments: A nuanced, sympathetic character study of Sally Donovan. The Sally of this one-shot is a hard-working, determined, flawed human being, loving and loved. Tragedy mars her childhood, causing her to choose a path that clearly is intended to fix what was destroyed. Food is a central motif: a reflection of familial love, something to be strictly controlled (when all else seems uncontrollable), and one step in the healing process.

What-alchemy's ability to sketch a character swiftly and vividly is admirable:

Sally remembers her father removing her from school on 22nd April, 1995. She was fifteen, he was forty-seven, and when she met him in the head’s office, he was not her father but a waterlogged study in reds and whites, a diminished spectre of himself in the chair. The head herself, a starchy woman with a dour disposition and a belted waist, seemed to be having trouble keeping her own upper lip suitably stiff.

Sally's mother is a wonderful OC, fierce in her love, strong, and set in her ways:

When Mummy drew back long moments later, she wiped Sally’s face with her bare hand, pinching at her nostrils when she was finished. Mummy reached up to wipe that hand on a tea towel, but then she knelt back down to cup Sally’s head with two firm palms. Her black eyes shone with banked fire, and there was no looking away.
“Listen to me, Sally girl. Are you listening?”
Sally’s breath stuttered and a keening whine seemed to be rising from her throat, but she managed to nod.
“You’re whole. A whole person, no matter what anyone else says, no matter where your family’s from, no matter how it feels on the darkest days. And you are exactly as God Almighty made you. No one can take that away from you, understand?”

The Sherlock fandom could use many more quality efforts at rounding out this too-maligned character.

chapbook.livejournal.com

Title: Fearful Symmetry
Author:

irisbleufic
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Length: 20,500
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Of nightmares, family, and forgiveness.
Reccer's comments: If you have been searching for a fic that features Harry Watson as a nuanced character rather than a stereotype or a plot device, then here you will find one marvelous example. John and Harry's troubled relationship is explored, with both siblings portrayed as flawed but ultimately able to use the love they share to forgive each other. John's developing relationship with Sherlock is treated with equal care. Iris demonstrates the tremendous courage it takes to forgive and to love without making the ust and brother-sister conflict melodramatic.

Excerpt: “John, what are you doing here?”

The question hung in the air between the four of them, inescapable.

John wiped his mouth and blinked at her, forcing himself to smile in an attempt to stave off the fierce, sudden anger that rose in him. She'd been gunning for an argument all evening, hadn't she?

“Let's see, Harry,” he began, “what am I doing here? Well: first, there was the part where you collected me at the airport smelling of gin, cider, and God knows what else. Then, there was the part where, instead of having the whole tearful-reunion-and-catch-up thing that all my mates had―the ones who made it home, anyway―I spent the next forty-five minutes navigating both you and my luggage through the entire bloody underground just to find the place they'd sorted out for me in the meantime, and you were mostly asleep on my shoulder any time we weren't walking, and oh, by the way, you didn't even mention the cane. Not once.”

Mrs. Hudson was staring down at her plate, and Sherlock was listening intently, his head tilted ever so slightly in John's direction. Harry, on the other hand, was biting into her lower lip so hard that she'd probably draw blood if she didn't stop soon.

If John didn't stop soon.

It was the brush of Sherlock's hand, again, under the table, that snapped him out of it.

Harry took a shuddering breath and opened her mouth to speak. “John, I―”

“No,” John said. “I'm the one who's sorry. Believe me.”

Harry lifted her head and gave him a hard, defiant look.

“For what, John? Which part of it?”

linguini17.livejournal.com

Title: An Avalance of Detour Signs
Author: gyzym
Pairing: Molly Hooper/DI Lestrade, [Molly Hooper/Jim Moriarty]
Length: 56,053
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Verse: BBC Sherlock
Author's summary: "In which Molly Hooper gets a job, gets a degree, breaks a heart, has her heart broken, falls in love, keeps a secret, saves a life, runs a morgue, falls apart, pulls it together, and finds exactly what she didn't know she was looking for--not necessarily in that order."
Reccer's comments: Anything written by gyzym is guaranteed to be absolutely astounding, and this is no exception. It's the story of Molly Hooper's adult life and the biggest secret she ever kept. She's a fully-fleshed character, real and brave and human, and every note is pitch-perfect.

brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com

Title: Mouth of Babes (from The Sophie Series)
Author:

morganstuart
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2300
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Several weeks after the explosion at the pool, Lestrade visits the recuperating Sherlock and John at 221B Baker Street. He brings case files and food... and a visitor in tow.
Reccer's comments:

morganstuart has an almost preternatural ability to excavate new revelations about the Sherlock characters while keeping them true to the personalities we know and love from the show. In her masterful Sophie series, Lestrade's young daughter has some fascinating interactions with Sherlock, John, and basically every minor character. I am normally not one much for original characters, but

morganstuart fit Sophie into the universe of the show so well that I forgot that she doesn't actually appear in the series. She's clever, charming, and spunky without being an unnaturally-perfect child. I'd agree to babysit her in a second, and I. Do not. Babysit.

So, come to see a little girl compliment Sherlock on how pretty his curly hair is, stay for the meerkats, bring tissues for the thrilling conclusion. The whole series can be found by following the appropriate tag on

morganstuart's journal.

dessieoctavia.livejournal.com

Title: The Terror from Bohemia: Being the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., in the Year of the Old Ones 745
Author: Satchelfoot
Pairing: Gen
Length: 1983
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, Lovecraft.
Verse: A Study in Emerald, a Holmes-H.P. Lovecraft crossover by Neil Gaiman
Author's summary: "Holmes and Watson, having escaped to the rookery of St. Giles, meet a mysterious woman who also has a talent for killing royalty."
Reccer's comments: Irene Adler as a hunter of Lovecraft's Old Ones. What more could anyone ask?

dessieoctavia.livejournal.com

Title: The Greater Game
Author:

sciosophia
Pairing: Gen
Length: 3569
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: dark!Molly, spoilers for Season One.
Verse: BBC Sherlock
Author's summary: "John Watson is neither silent nor dead. This is something Molly needs to fix. She's not the girl he thinks she is."
Reccer's comments: Molly is Moriarty's sister and partner in crime. This fic is well written and absorbing and the author makes you believe in this sinister version of Molly.

solrosan.livejournal.com

Title: Fight or Flight
Author:

epistolic
Pairing: Gen (or Sherlock/John, implied and speculative)
Length: 7,766.
Rating: M
Warnings: Spoilers for series 2
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: After Reichenbach, Molly writes a series of letters to Sherlock that never ends up getting sent.

Reccer's comments: This was one of the first post Fall fics I read and it took me a while to get through, having to pause between every letter and walk away for a bit. It’s wonderful and heartbreaking to see how Molly processes and deals with the events in Reichenbach fall.

epistolic has really captured Molly’s voice in this fic.

Though told entirely through Molly’s letter, it’s one of the best descriptions of Sherlock’s and John’s relationship I’ve read.

eanor.livejournal.com

Title: A Sort of Fairytale
Author:

arcsupport
Pairing: Gen
Length: ~2200 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-graphic autopsy procedure and minor death.
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Some people have sharp edges. Some people have to be carefully kept.

Reccer's comments: I really liked stories that give Molly a bit more depth and this fic manages it perfectly. It's a story about Molly, her work at the work and her very special relationship with Sherlock.
Molly is pictured perfectly here: she is so practical, honest and professional, yet very caring and compassionate at the same time. She has humour, she has friends and I simply love how she takes care of "her people" in the morgue by inserting so much love into her job without ever losing her professionalism. It's probably the only way to keep doing this kind of job and keep liking it as much as she does. The relationship between Molly and Sherlock is very fascinating and true to the show (though this Molly is able to handle him quiet well).
Interestingly, this fic was written before series 2, but is strangely compliant with all we have learned about Molly there.

arcsupport's had a really good grasp of Molly as a character! :-)

eanor.livejournal.com

Title: Water in the Desert
Author:

krossero
Pairing: John Watson/Mary Morstan
Length: ~4500 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: war-related violence, minor OC death
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Mary is serving as a soldier in Afghanistan when she gets shot. The doctor who puts her back together is named John Watson, and he just so happens to have a really nice smile.

Reccer's comments: This fic presents a very amazing update of Mary from ACD canon. Here she is a soldier in Afghanistan where she meets John due to being injured while saving her fellow soldiers in an attack. This Mary is wonderful and awesome (stubborn, loyal to her comrades, brave and entirely able to make her own decisions) and her relationship with John is completely believable and as sweet as it could possibly be in the middle of a war zone. She loves being with her family and John, obviously, but would never put her personal happiness over her sense of duty.

eanor.livejournal.com

Title: Worst temporary position in the world
Author:

solrosan
Pairing: Gen
Length: 800 words
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Anthea's attempt to stand in for Mycroft Holmes when he leaves to be at Sherlock's bedside after the pool incident is driving her to the brink of exhaustion.

Reccer's comments: This short ficlet does a fantastic job of showing us how important Anthea and her work actually is. After reading about all the crises and conflicts she has to deal with, you will never again think of her as "that secretary with the Blackberry". And I'm sure everyone can imagine how unbelievably stressful it would be to do Mycroft's job for a day...
This fic is set after the pool incident, so it doesn't contain any spoilers (but does contain speculations) for series 2.

allonymity.livejournal.com

Title: Santiago
Author: sheffiesharpe
Pairing: Mycroft/Lestrade
Length: 8,258
Rating: Mature (violence)
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: This is the story of what happened in Santiago, or When Mycroft Met Anthea.

Reccer's comments: Despite being part of sheffiesharpe’s wonderful Mycroft/Lestrade series “At Least There’s Football,” this story is all about Anthea and can be enjoyed on its own. Anthea is such a cipher in canon that you can build almost any backstory for her, and sheffiesharpe’s “Anthea is totally a ninja” version is my favorite. In this story sheffiesharpe builds a picture of Anthea’s past that is so dense and real that I found myself tearing up by the end. Mycroft is simply wonderful in this as well. Highly recommended!

tanpopo03.livejournal.com

As mentioned before, the theme this month will be "Female Characters", as we're hosting it tomorrow, on International Women's Day.

Have a favorite Mary fic? Know a great vid centered around Molly? Please come by and share with the class! (Original characters are of course ok, too)

The comm will be open tomorrow to all posters - we're trying to cover all time zones.

The usual rules apply, you can rec fic, art, vids and podfics, but no recent WIPs please.
However, previously recced works are OK!

Please follow the recs guidelines. One rec per post, unless you're reccing a series. Please tag your posts with at least the minimum tags required (verse, slash/gen/het genre, and pairing if relevent) plus "theme: female characters".

If you have any questions, please ask in comments to this post or in PM to a mod.

unovis.livejournal.com

Hi!
Just a few words on our tags and tagging your recs.

Tags are useful search tools for grouping the recs by categories: by pairing, genre, content, and sources for the stories or other fanworks.

We ask that reccers attach tags that are relevant to the works they rec. You don't have to add everything that applies-- for example, not a character tag for everyone who might appear in the story, or every theme or content. But if Molly has a significant cameo, say, that you think people searching for her might appreciate, then by all means list her in a tag. Likewise if you think this is the addiction story people should read, then use the content: addiction tag.

The required aspects to tag are pairing (if it applies), relationship genre (i.e., gen, slash, or het*), and verse (the source: ACD books, Sherlock BBC, Granada, etc.).

The easiest place to see all of the tags available is in this list of tags.

Tagging is enabled only for the author of the post and the mods. Only the mods can add new tags. We have a beginning list up now, anticipating likely categories and characters. We'll add more as recs are made, if characters and pairings, for example, aren't covered already. You can request a new tag to be added by commenting here or by contacting one of the mods. Keep in mind, again, that we'll be adding character tags as additional characters appear in recs.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been abbreviated as SH and JW in pairings and some other places (e.g., content: sick jw). Since this recs comm is open to all versions of Sherlock Holmes, it seemed the simplest way to identify the characters. Lestrade, Gregson, and Dimmock are listed as "inspector" following ACD book canon, and Moriarty is listed only once by his (their) surname alone. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is abbreviated throughout as ACD.

*We won't add a category for "slash-if-you-squint" or similar invitations for the reader to see subtext in a story. If the author hasn't labeled her work as slash, then it's genre: gen or genre: friendship.

Profile

A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

November 2018

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 06:48 pm

221B Recs

A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

Entries tagged with theme: female characters

Fic Rec: Stumbleine

Fic Rec: A Matter of Integrity

Fic Rec: Goose

Fic Rec: Blink Blue

Fic Rec: Chez les bêtes

Fic Rec: Equinoxes & Solstices

Fic Rec: A Hundred Thousand Miles

Fic Rec: Fearful Symmetry

Fic Rec: An Avalanche of Detour Signs

Fic Rec: Mouth of Babes (from The Sophie Series)

Fic rec: The Terror From Bohemia

Fic rec: The Greater Game

Fic Rec: Fight or Flight

Fic Rec: A Sort of Fairytale by arcsupport

Fic Rec: Water in the Desert by krossero

Fic Rec: Worst temporary position in the world by solrosan

Fic Rec: Santiago

"Open Rec Day" reminder :)

Tags and tagging

Profile

November 2018

Links

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags