Manacled Book Review

Manacled by SenLinYu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the longest and most well-written fan fiction I have ever read. It has been years since I dived into Harry Potter fan fiction and I’ve forgotten what great stories people can create from this book series. Inspired a bit by The Handmaid’s Tale, this fan fiction is darker and grim compared to the original series as it shows us a world where Harry failed and Voldemort and his Death Eaters took over the Wizarding World. Hermoine Granger and Draco Malfoy are the main characters of this story – so calling all Dramione fans! Although I think this is a great read for Harry Potter fans in general.

There are basically three parts to this story, the pre-flashbacks, the flashbacks, and the post-flashbacks. Some people had difficulty getting through the flashbacks portion but I found every part equally entertaining. I will say the pre-flashbacks are the most Handmaid’s Tale inspired and have some of the more traumatic scenes. There are a lot of traumatic scenes throughout this entire story as it does take place during an ongoing Wizarding War. I’d definitely read the warnings on this one before you dive into reading it. While some scenes were tough to get through the writer did a great job of showing how tragic an ongoing war can be – even during moments of calm it’s like you can’t ever take a full breath to relax.

Be prepared to feel a lot of emotions with this one. A lot of our favorite characters experience great tragedy or get added to the long list of casualties of the war. While it is listed to have a somewhat happy ending I found it to be very bittersweet. Although, I seemed to find it a bit happier than others who read it. I really liked seeing this side of both Hermoine and Draco – we received a lot more character depth and emotion that the book series never provided us with. This is a Dramione love story but it’s not an easy love – it’s a love built during the most tragic of times in the most tragic of ways.

If this fan fiction was given to an editor and review team and then published I think it would’ve been an even stronger story. There is a bit of repetitiveness at times that I believe is built in for those who would read each chapter as it was released because this wasn’t released all at once originally. Of course, there were minor errors and plot holes – but the original series had some plot holes too. I overall really enjoyed this and I’m glad I had a group of people pushing me to read it with them to discuss it. I tend to get a bit weary of reads that 800+ pages but I’m glad I did and I’m glad it counts towards my Goodreads goal too.

Yes, I highly recommend this because it is such an amazing piece of work. It just may destroy you especially if you love certain aspects of the Harry Potter world. As I stated before be mindful of your own mental state before reading and check out the tags so you know what you’re getting yourself into. This is a darker tale and such an intriguing way to write this series. I truly love to see what other directions the Harry Potter series could’ve gone in.

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