All-angst, all the time! Hooray for angst!

There's this thing going around where people talk about their favorite comfort stories and then reccomend stories of their own, and I'm not into recommending my stuff, and as for comfort stories, well, my first thought was, uh, do I even have any of those? and I decided I probably did, but most likely had already recommended them which lead me to take a different tack:

Five Angsty Stories Written by People Who Are Not on My Friends List, but Whose Boots I would Happily Lick. Probably.


5. A Thousand Wishes by hannalore. Harry Potter. It's Neville, and that's really all you need to know. I know there are a lot of people out there who don't like Neville (which really makes the baby hackthis cry), just as there are a lot of people out there who don't like Ron (fearlessdiva) or Harry (me) or Draco (romanticalgirl), but I think this story should be read regardless, because everyone knows what's it like to have hope, or to lose hope, or to feel guilty that you're hoping for the wrong thing.

4. Night Driving by Jessica Harris. due South. This was the first due South story I ever read that didn't have a happy ending. I was appalled, and hurt, and fascinated. All at the same time. Sometimes love just isn't enough.

3. Six Months by _blip_. Alias. I know I've recommended this story before, and chances are I'll recommend it again. I recommend it to everybody who passes through the Alias fandom, not because its a slash story (Will!), but because it's a human story and I think it's very easy to see how people just fall into these holes without wanting to or meaning to or trying to hurt someone intentionally.

2. Ingénue by bettyp. LOTRips. I think it's pretty common knowledge that I am not enamoured of Elijah Wood; I think he looks like a small furry rodent. And yet, out of all the LOTRips stories I can think of, this is the one that I come back to every time. It's about growing up and what it's like when you fall in love and can't admit it, or don't want to admit it, or are too jaded to think it can happen to you. It's breathtaking and heart-rending and all that stuff that'll make you need Kleenex. It's not a LOTRips story about Elwood, it's just a story about a boy.

1. (I) Forget by Elizabeth. Smallville. I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to talk coherently about this story, and I'm still at a loss. If a story can break you, this will. It's disturbing and wrong and so painful, and yet, it just feels *right*. I love this story passionately. It took me three reads to get through it the first time because it kept hitting all these very sore spots, but it's just so well-done, and I know most people don't read Smallville, but if you've ever even though about giving it a try, read this.