rate_review Reviews

This thing is insanely addictive, and it's easily the most enjoyment I ever got out of a fic that so prominently featured rape, angst, and overwhelming drama; normally those are all turn-offs for me, but you pulled it off quite well as the story moved along. You made it work, if only by making both Cho and Harry completely nuts and barely recognizable from canon, by portraying Hermione and Ron as clueless (which is an insult, at least to Hermione), and by having pretty much all of Hogwarts juggle the Idiot Ball indefinitely because no one can seem to figure out that something awful is happening here. Harry's excuse for what he's doing ('because I'm not supposed to') is pathetic and I wanted to kill him every tell I heard it, and despite all he goes through, I never stopped wanting that.

I still don't know if this works for me as a story; the plot is a manipulative roller coaster and house of emotional horrors that's just too exhausting to get through, which is why I had to skip to the end after a while, but you write the best sex scenes I've ever read, anywhere. That can not be denied. That's what kept me reading as far as I did and made the Harry/Cho pairing interesting and legitimate in my mind, which no author before you has been able to do. So for those two great accomplishments, Paying For His Pedestal deserves praise.

Wow...I was looking for some good Harry/Cho and was directed here. I must remember to thank the recommender profusely.

This was not what I was expecting when I saw that the link redirected to aff.net. This story has a plot--a very mind-bending plot that goes from rape to love. I was not expecting a happy ending in the slightest but kept hoping for one as I read more and more. It took me about a week to read it and I enjoyed it immensely. The interactions between the characters, the tension, and the final, ultimate happy ending. It made me cheer a little bit at the end to see them finally get together.

I think you did a wonderful job with the story. Only errors I saw were technical ones. Some words were mixed up (to, too, and two among others), tense and diction issues, and other such minor errors existed. Would be nice if they were fixed, but did not distract from the overall great story.

I am aware that this story was posted 5 years ago or so, haha, but I still couldn't help but leave a review to let you know how much I enjoyed reading it and praising you for your great work with the story's plot and character interactions and development.

Brilliant story, it was recommended to me during a discussion about the psychology of a rape-love relationship, and I came into this very skeptically. I use to read fan fiction a lot, until I realized the wonders of a library and read stories with proper grammar for a while. I find it virtually impossible to read a vast majority now, and in fact only read it at all when I'm asked to.

I must say, my only regret is that I didn't know of this story years ago, so that I could review as you were writing this story. I usually find it hard to read and relate to female characters, either because the female psychology is wrong, the story becomes horribly entangled with romance, or the female lead is someone important in a predominately male society, to list the three most recent reasons for me to not like a book with a lead female. There are a few with a main female that I quite liked, however. This is being added to my list, simply because of the superb characterization of Cho. Not only did you make me enjoy reading a story in which the female is raped then begins to like the rapist, you made it believable. Perhaps not entirely realistic, but I could see, and even recall a real case somewhat similar happening.

I'm going to especially have to compliment you in regards to the suicide attempt. Normally I not only don't care if people want to commit suicide (cruel, I know) I encourage it, because if they want to commit suicide it'll save the rest of us from having to put up with them, and having to put out money for their well-being if they crack and go mental, or lose their job because of it. I not only completely sympathized with Cho, I didn't want her to commit suicide, which usually makes me stop reading. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't going to happen, but it was so believable that I was arguing with myself over whether or not it would happen. Needless to say, I got a new dynamic on the whole suicide thing. I realized I was kind of stereotyping suicide, but reading such a realistic account of the thoughts and feelings that lead up to it, I really begun to feel sorry for people who feel the need to end their lives. Of course, it goes without saying that I felt sorry for Cho, too.

I know I'm rambling at this point, there's just so much good to talk about in this story, it's kind of overwhelming. I'll just thank you for also making me accept Harry/Cho as a possible, realistic, and likable couple. I never liked her in the books, but this changed my view completely.

Just to reiterate, and because I'm still blown away by the quality of the plot in what I came into believing to be entirely smut (the first chapter didn't do much to alleviate these fears,) I'll list the major points that I liked about the story:

Realistic psychology
Amazing characterization, I don't feel anybody noticeably fell out of character throughout the whole story
Believable scenario had Harry lost control during the books, I really felt that this could have been possible, which leads into...
Characters are noticeably similar to canon. Not only could I see the original characters in your writing, I felt I was reading the actual characters.
The writing itself. I've read books that had far, far worse writing than this. I could almost compare your writing to other such popular authors as Anthony Horowitz.

Now, there aren't any bad points that come to mind as of the writing of this, which I'm genuinely surprised over, I've found significant fault in a lot of fiction I've read, published or not. Either due to repetition and lack of original ideas (I don't read this type of story much, might be why,) or word choice, or a variety of other reasons. The only thing that stands out is your grammar. Your grammar itself is above average, and I was genuinely surprised to read what I thought to pure smut with actually noticeable grammar usage.

That being said, you nearly constantly misused or confused 'too' and 'to' leading me to believe English may be your second language. (I can't remember, but I believe you said you aren't English, which I didn't know to mean English, American, or just plain not a native speaker.) If you are a native speaker, I'm sorry if I insulted you, it is just a very common mistake I see in people that have learned English as their second language. T be fair, it is very common even in native English speakers. I'd put it up there with 'effect' and 'affect' for native speakers, and 'a' versus 'an' for secondary.

Other than those small but consistent errors, you only have a few spots where you used the wrong tense ('handled' instead of 'handling' and so on) or used an improper word for the situation, left a word out, or seemed to have left over relics from a first draft in which you deleted a sentence or word. Remarkably, there are very few spelling errors, even in words that are in the wrong tense or spot.

I don't know if the offer still stands from the last chapter in which you offered to let someone go through and correct any errors for future readers, but I'd be more than happy to do so, and quite possibly for the sequels once I have read those. It shouldn't take me too long to read them, I read this huge story in...I believe two days, in between work and everything else.

If you're interested, you can email me at blade777_821@hotmail.com, or contact me on here.

P.S. Don't know whether or not this a pro or not, but I felt like I was intruding on an actual couple a few times throughout the story. I actually felt bad.

DHSucks, THANKS SO MUCH for informing of this! I've searched the person out and reported them to fanfiction.net! Also I've searched the internet for anything that claims them to be the author and have put them on blast! Hope the dumbass learns their lesson. Thanks again, DHsucks!

Twocanz

Unless Richard Rahl10 is one of your screen names, someone is plagiarizing this fic on fanfiction dot net

absolutely fucking briliant story mate...... i loved it.... all of it, hit the psychological parts well, caracter development impressive.... everything that you could want from a good fanfiction plus the best pairing that might've existed in the whole f****ing books...... i for one am displeased with harry/ginny.... it doesn't attract me at all. Hope to see a lot of great stories from you mate:D. sorry for not reviewing at each point when i stopped reading, cause honestly i had no ideea what to write in it.... i never expected a happy ending:D (surprised me that part) nice piece of art this one mate :D!!!!!

Actually, all I could think when I finished reading this story was "durrrrrrrr..." Not that it was bad, I just couldn't think about anything for a few minutes.
Very well done.

Just read the whole thing, over the course of a week. And you, are entirely made of win. Not only are you a fantastic storyteller, but you make the story worth hearing.

the serie is really good

Hey Somatose. Thanks for the review. I know what you mean about the ending, it felt a little rushed for me too. I had a different ending that wasn't so sweet. It was good, for Cho at least, but not for Harry. I'm thinking about redoing the ending, or at least putting an alternative ending chapter there. As for the sequels, I hope you would at least consider the "tri-quel" Voices in the Dark. That has no male slash. And I think you could get through it without reading Paid In Full.
Thanks again for the compliments and for reading the story!