Title: Lilac City
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel
Pairing: Xander/Faith, Xander/OFC
Categories: action/adventure, angst, dark, hurt/comfort, post-canon, vampire
Length: Super-Epic (~138,000 words)
Warnings: serious amounts of pre-story and some in story alcohol abuse, some drug use, several non-major character deaths (OCs), reference to attempted suicide

Author on LJ: nwhepcat
Author Website: Fics by NWHepcat

Review:
Xander’s been four years sober, living his life in anonymity in Spokane, WA. He doesn’t have friends, especially the ones he used to have. It takes a girl named Willa (no that’s not a typo) approaching him to be her sponsor at AA for everything to go pear shaped.

There are very few times when an author gets everything in a fic exactly right. I truly believe this is one of those few times. There are so many good things about this fic, I hardly know where to begin.

First off, the original characters: They are simply breathtaking. They have a complexity you often don’t find in the main character of a story. Each of them is entirely different from every other. They are fragile and realistic and oh-so-very beautiful.

Next I’ll mention the way NWHepcat writes from Xander’s POV. It’s so rare to see canon brought into a fic as skillfully as you see here. All of both Xander’s and Faith’s motivations are shown clearly and in such a logical manner. And she doesn’t change Xander’s true character either, which is an easy pitfall for an author to fall into.

Finally there’s the plot itself. Obviously it’s immense, but it’s discernable from the first paragraph that it’s also brilliant. I love that the author was able to show a true depiction of what happens to someone when they are living without human companionship. I love even more how she shows how that self-same human companionship slowly erodes the walls and creates a new person entirely.

To anyone who normally doesn’t read het, although the relationship is important, the friendships are equally important, if not more so. This is definitely het for non-het readers.

Lilac City