Birds of a Feather

by babylonsheep

Genres: Fan Fiction, Romance

Unknown Binding

Published September 15, 2018

Reviews

[rose — omigod, can u let me do what i need to do? · Rating 4 out of 5]

pros
- this is insanely well written. the author knows her grammar, her prose isn't painful, and the way she characterizes hermione and tom... oh it was all tew good. i was a lil worried when tom had his boggart episode bc i was like omfg if he fucking thinks of hermione's dead body i will cringe to my grave. BUT!!! the author surprised me and went with what even jkr confirmed what would've been tom's boggart and lord i loved it. tom and hermione are so in-character and compelling and rich i wanted to just roll around in the author's words because i've been way too easy on other fics who try and be compelling but end up writing a weirdly overdramatic soap opera that takes itself too seriously or an oversimplified story that reads as a children's book or something on wattpad.

tom is an evil fucking bastard and the way this fic handles him!! like yes this is what i've been asking for!!!!! he's certainly not a sweet, smirky villain, or someone who's just cold as ice 24/7 and then occasionally angry, or a manwhore, or a sad, little, misunderstood, angsty boy, and certainly not some flustered, blushy thing. this is tom. omfg. this is the best iteration of tom i will ever read about and the only version of him i will ever subscribe to

- love the way tom's parentage & family history was unraveled
cons
- hermione's chapters are just so boring to me and i find that i can just completely skip past half of what's going on in her pov and not lose out on anything

- tom can get a lil cringy? like that moment where he stops lestrange from calling hermione a mudblood. the whole thing was just a big slippery slope fallacy and kinda overdramatic like i sincerely doubt lestrange or avery were actually listening

- some parts are just super boring and they drag on for too long. my eyes glaze over and i just have to skip past. like there's just a lot of fluff and unneeded parts, with too much elaboration on things i don't care about.

- abandoned work but what makes this more egregious is the fact that the first tomione PECK happens literally 2 chapters before the last

- blegh hate the fact that hermione's alluded to being a half-blood. i despise pureblood hermione fics and i also hate half-blood hermione fics because it just takes out so much from her character. idk how to properly articulate it but it's much more impactful when she's a muggleborn yet is just leagues ahead of all the purebloods who've been taught that she's lower than dirt

- doesn't really make sense to me why theo is so impassioned and obsessive over tracing tom's bloodline? or the chamber of secrets? seems a contrived way to get these plot points going

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is written by a talented author but I don’t like the content. The main focus of this story is the odd/toxic friendship of Tom and Hermione that will eventually grow into romance. Unfortunately, I really dislike the friendships dynamic and Hermione’s perspective adds very little to the story. At some point the author decided to make Hermione more independent and Tom less. If the relationship between them was more suitable/entertaining/etc this would be pretty good (and was at some point too); but because it isn’t the focus on their friendship drags the entire story down.

Also, while I’m sure the author wasn’t intending this, her OC magical tutor is creepy. The author didn’t write any motivation for this adult man to essentially live in Hermione’s house, imply she shouldn’t trust her best friend/love interest, and teach her illegal magic. I cringe hard at the thought that the only feasible reason for him being there is to be a villain (with his primary teachings being mind magic) or a creep. He really needs more depth of character (and narrative reasoning) for him to be included in this story for other reasons, especially with the amount of 'screen time' he gets.

-Dropped Ch 21/46

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm conflicted on my feelings about this. The writing is fantastic and Tom's character is so entertaining. I loved his narcissistic tendencies and overall demeanor. His Slytherin group is written different than I'm used to reading (think extremely tame Knights of Walpurgis) which is totally fine but I think it really shows how the author was writing his characterization. Hermione was a little over the top with her know it all attitude but I respect that that is generally in character for her. However, she did not grow out of it at all.

Some of the things that bothered me:

-Hermione and Nott sneaking around to uncover the truth of Tom's parentage but never telling him. She went behind his back, lied to him, and shared info about his past that was not openly known about him. They discovered that the Gaunt family was part of the Sacred 28 and he was essentially the heir of Slytherin and even after Tom and Hermione married she had still not said anything

-After discovering the Chamber of Secrets very little was done about it. Not much was written about them exploring it which I felt was a huge story line that was lost to us. And Tom's parting with the basilisk was so anticlimactic.

-The internal monologues. I wish those had been shortened and more emphasis on the Chamber, Tom's family, or his magical powers. I felt there were so many missed opportunities for a stronger story.

Overall it was a great read. It was long and I may have skimmed over a good chunk of Hermione's chapters but I did enjoy the relationship between Tom and Hermione. He definitely expressed more interest (actually there were times that I thought they weren't going to end up together romantically because Hermione didn't seem at all physically attracted) but they seemed happily together in the end.

[Michael182 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some things I would have liked to know before choosing to read this book:
- The pov alternates from Tom Riddle to Hermione Granger
-Tom & Hermione’s relationship is entertaining
-Tom & Hermione are well-developed and mostly true to their canon selves
-No other character is developed (with the possible exception of Nott)
-It’s not badly written (but it’s not well-written, either)
-It’s lengthy but not much actually happens. Instead the narration goes off on random tangents that have no purpose whatsoever other than increasing the word count
-Tom Riddle does not become ‘Lord Voldemort’ and generally acts more like a princess than a dark lord

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost unbelievably pedantic and drawn out, but in a way that is somehow enjoyable. The humor really lifted the endless procession of esoteric monologues, and the breakdown of magical theory was thorough and inventive. Other standouts were the inclusion of the Riddle grandparents and Hermione’s integration with the Slytherin boys, both of which were fairly original takes. That said, not an undertaking for the faint-hearted, and it did drag/become irritating at times.

[whorefortyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

6 stars - all time favourite fic for ever and ever. thankful i first saw it a couple years back, and even more thankful babylonsheep came back to finish it <43333

[aiga]

Still the best made up ship of all time

[Gobbledegook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful writing and character development, but plot-wise there's much to be desired.