Antuhsa's Bibliophilic Adventures

This year, I've decided to participate in HP Horrorfest for the first time and wrote a sad story called Green. The fest is not pairing specific and I was nervous to step out of my comfortable Snarry bubble, but I ended up enjoying it a lot! It was very valuable to get feedback from people who don't ship Snarry at all. To everyone who commented, thank you so much for your kind words!

The fest was also memorable because it was the first time that I worked with a beta. I was very nervous about it beforehand, but I shouldn't have been. Having my story beta-read was a great experience and the final fic was so much better than it would have been without someone else's suggestions. A huge thank you to acid for all your help! It was very much appreciated.

I enjoyed each and every entry in the fest, but there were a few that really stood out to me. For anyone interested, I'll post a few recs below. Coincidentally, all of them are gen.

In the Dark, Deep Woods by hiddenhibernian was probably my favourite from the whole fest. It was a beautiful, gritty dystopia told from Ginny's POV. The characters were well-written and the worldbuilding was interesting and believable, very impressive for a 3,6k fic. I've come across this writer more often and was always impressed by their work, so I was happy to see this one was theirs. Highly recommended!

Skin Jar by BirdieMing was such a nice surprise. It's only 8k and takes place in Cokeworth, the summer after the Snape-Lily incident. Surprisingly though, it is told from Petunia's POV. I was delighted to see a fic revolve around her and found her reasoning and motivations very believable. The only downside is that I don't think Petunia would outslytherin Snape, not even a young one, and therefore the second half of the story didn't work as well for me. Nevertheless, great story!

Down in the Ground by Coriaria was a creepy fic in which a Harry suffering from PTSD is sent to a mental institution. It's only 8k and the author has chosen to spend more storytime on showing us the tentative friendships Harry is building with the other inmates than on the horrors of the mad house, and it worked so well for me! It's truly a good story. The weakest part, however, was the final chapter, because it feels somewhat rushed. You can skip it though, even according to the author themselves. You'll still have a proper ending when you do, just not a very happy one.

Those were my recs. I enjoyed this fest a lot and am so happy that I decided to participate. A huge thank you to the mods for hosting it and to everyone else who has helped making it a success!