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Reviews For Violets

Name: Equinox Chick (Signed) · Date: 01/27/12 13:04 · For: The Girl with the Violet-Blue Eyes
This is an interesting story. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything about Quirrell on the boards, and this was a compelling look at his life before he became possessed by Voldemort.

What particularly impressed me was that you took what little we knew from the book and fleshed out his character. I don’t just mean the stutter, but Voldemort’s words about meeting the idealistic wizard were so in tune with this story. He was actively seeking out Voldemort – that was an original twist on the wizard being ‘caught’.

I felt very sorry for him here, and angry with Lester who knew how he felt about Violet and yet still went out with her (and, I assume, treated her badly). The images of the violets, Quirrell’s flower pressing, filling three books with only violets had me sighing for the poor boy. Beautiful images and yet she couldn’t see his worth. Although, perhaps Violet sensed his obsession with her and knew it wasn’t healthy. It can’t be healthy, can it, so desperate for a girl that years later you’re still seeking the Dark Lord?

The one part of the story I didn’t think as successful as the rest was Violet’s speech about herself – and girls like her.

“I know what I said,” Violet snapped. “But girls like me don’t take what they want, not really. We go for what we know will make us unhappy because if everything works out perfectly, we feel like we haven’t challenged ourselves. We might try to rebound on boys like you, but we always go back to the boys like Lester, the ones who will hurt us and make us cry. Don’t ask why. It’s just what will always happen.”

This just struck me as remarkably wise of her, and all-knowing about herself, when I think in reality this girl of seventeen is so pre-occupied with herself and her own feelings, that she wouldn’t be able to be this self-evaluating and logical about her motives. I think it would have been better if it had been Quirrell who’d recognised this about her after she’d given him the brush of, or if these thoughts had come to her years later when she was looking at the scrapbooks. Her conversation with Professor Flitwick seems a little off as well. he’s an old wizard and her former head of house, so I’m not sure she’d use phrases like ‘one-night-stand’ to him, but rather say ‘we had one date’ or something.

A minor quibble is that you’ve written Hogshead: it’s The Hog’s Head.

The ending was so sad. As she looked through the boxes at the scrapbooks and discovered the three books of violets and the photograph, I felt a lump in my throat. She realised, far too late, the worth of the man. But then again, could they really have been happy?

Interesting pairing and a good story. Well done. ~Carole~

Author's Response: Thank you very much. I'm glad you like the story. Violet's realization of her character just came into it too much to rewrite. Julie


Name: LoonyLupin (Signed) · Date: 12/27/11 1:33 · For: The Girl with the Violet-Blue Eyes
It's nice that you made a love story for Quirrell, and I thought it was great. He seemed like a sweet boy who turned over to the dark side for her. I can't believe that Violet used him like that. Just goes to show that, whatever way you look at it, love can be a crazy thing.

Author's Response: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.


Name: Kerichi (Signed) · Date: 10/30/11 22:25 · For: The Girl with the Violet-Blue Eyes

We know so little about Quirrel; I was intrigued by the thought of him in a romance. I like the premise, a boy who stutters learning to excel at Defense Against Dark Arts to impress a girl. I found that part of the plot well established and very believable.

 

I would have liked to have read a conversation between Quirrel and Lester that showed why his "friend" decided to pursue a

relationship with the girl his dorm mate liked--a girl Lester described as having "nothing between her ears." You went directly from Violet accepting a flower from Quirrel and then asking about Lester to Quirrel collecting violets obsessively despite the fact that his dream girl and his friend had become a couple. It made for uneven pace.

 

Violet turning to Quirrel when his friend broke up with her was an interesting development. For someone characterized as shallow and self-centered by her actions and Lester's comments, she comes across as surprisingly introspective, saying that girls like her "go for what we know will make us unhappy because if everything works out perfectly, we feel like we haven’t challenged ourselves. We might try to rebound on boys like you, but we always go back to the boys like Lester, the ones who will hurt us and make us cry. Don’t ask why. It’s just what will always happen.”

 

At the end, I had a hard time believing if Violet could do it again she really would have given Quirrel "a violet every day" as she declares at the end when she inherits his scrapbooks filled with flowers.

 

When she's told he's dead, Violet thinks: "the shy little boy who always stuttered in class… the boy who had learned every aspect of Defense Against the Dark Arts to impress her… the boy who gave her a flower the exact shade of violet-blue as her eyes… the boy who…" This makes me think she knew his feelings but was callous about them when she wasn't using them for her own ends. I'm left with the impression that even his scrapbooks will be used by Violet--maybe to impress her friends with the obsessive devotion she inspired.

 

While Violet's characterization seemed unbalanced, Quirrel as a character seemed very real even though he wasn't described. His thoughts, actions, and dialogue did an excellent job of creating a mental image of a boy I felt sorry for even as I wanted to slap him and say, "Snap out of it!" :D

 

I wish the story had been entirely in his pov, but that's just me disliking Violet and thinking Quirrel could have done better. :D Thank you for sharing your story.

 

 



Author's Response: Thank you for your review. I did my best to keep Violet realistic, and I'm sorry if she came across as being unbalanced. At the end, I like to think that Violet has grown up a bit and come to realize-- and feel guilty about-- what she had done to Quirrel and that she would have given him a violet every day. But I can also see your view, that the scrapbooks will be shown off. As to you not liking Violet-- well, you're not supposed to like her much. Thanks again for your review!


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