Compiled by the Espresso Addict

Espresso Recommendations

Innovative and stylish fanfiction, showcasing the very best across multiple sf, fantasy & literature fandoms. Good writing in all its forms can be found here, including gen, het, slash, OCs, AUs, crossovers, future fics, humour & pastiche

Contents: 1010 recs in 235 fandoms; 65 links

Hollywood classics

Arsenic and Old Lace | Rear Window | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | Singin' in the Rain | Sound of Music | Sunset Boulevard

Arsenic and Old Lace

Six Sips of Strychnine by Cookinguptales

"You're going to do that to us, Father, aren't you?" she asked. / "No, my dear," he said, and pulled a very small spoon from his desk drawer. "I'm going to do this for you." Dark origin story for the Brewster sisters that explores the boundary between eccentricity & evil

[Added 26/12/2017; Drama; 6000-20,000; Arsenic and Old Lace]

Rear Window

Look and Listen by Yahtzee

'It was her own fault, her mother said. If she’d pushed more, or played a little harder to get, then Ted would have married her.' Yahtzee cleverly turns the camera to tease out Miss Lonelyhearts' story

[Added 28/05/2012; Romance/Erotica; 6000-20,000; Rear Window]

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

oh it's fun to hunt and shoot a gun, or to catch a rabbit on the run by Magpie Mountains

'"- stood right there by the flannels and eyed Sarah and Dorcas and the other girls up when they came in, like they was trussed hams. Said they were pretty enough but he was gonna look you all over 'fore he decided. Why, Mr. Schmidt told me the fellow hung about outside his store and eyed up his draper's dummy before he realised she weren't real-"' Satisfying AU that applies a fix-it plaster to a very problematic film, without making Milly too unrealistically feminist. The story develops a strong narrative voice for her, and brings her frontier town world to life

[Added 24/12/2017; Romance/Erotica; 6000-20,000; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]

Singin' in the Rain

To The Stars by Beatrice Otter

'Twelve times twelve always equaled 144; baking soda always reacted with vinegar. All you had to do was memorize the steps and follow them correctly, and you'd get the right answer. They never said you were a wonderful actress with a stunning personality in one moment and a hack and a harpy the next.' Lina takes up rocket science after the film. A wonderful example of how the crackiest of premises can be made to work (and the example of Hedy Lamarr suggests it's not as cracky as all that!)

[Added 29/10/2014; Character Piece; 2500-6000; Singin' in the Rain]

Sound of Music

Fourteen and Impossible by Halotolerant

'The boy is blinking back at her; such blue eyes, he is like a propaganda poster come to life, one sees them everywhere now, such blue-eyed boys, with slogans that end in exclamation marks.' This peek at the Baroness succeeds in making her sympathetic without softening her sharp edges too much. Halotolerant also sets the film firmly in history

[Added 28/05/2012; Drama; 1000-2500; Sound of Music]

Sunset Boulevard

Lebenswerk by Selena

'Max never asks Norma whether the man was actually her father, or at least could have been. She never asked him about his lengthy tales of life as an officer in the Austrian Empire, either. Neither of them truly existed before they came here, after all.' Max & Norma's relationship, and the rise & fall of silent film, charted in eight films. There's a gem of a Chinatown crossover, too. Clever & moving

[Added 04/10/2013; Romance/Erotica; 6000-20,000; Sunset Boulevard; Crossover]