Open the Door
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Open the Door |
| Author(s): | Renay |
| Date(s): | January 2, 2012 |
| Length: | 22,449 words |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Teen Wolf |
| External Links: | AO3 |
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Open the Door is a popular Derek/Stiles story by Renay that was written between season one and two. It is a slow-build romance with an action-oriented B plot featuring faerie antagonists.
Since the fic was written in early Teen Wolf fandom, some elements are now jossed: Derek is a good alpha; Stiles, Scott, and Jackson all join Derek's pack; later characters do not appear; and Lydia Martin is left in a coma following Peter's attack at the end of season one. Meanwhile, the emphasis on pack and the use of non-werewolf magical creatures are good examples of Teen Wolf fanon. (Until season three hinted otherwise, werewolves were the only magical creatures in the show's mythology.)
As of October 2013, the story had the fourth most hits (234991) of all the Derek/Stiles fanworks on the Archive of Our Own.[1] By 25 December 2014, Goodreads users had rated the story 35 times, with an average rating of 3.69, and wrote 11 reviews.[2]
A "spiritual sequel," Ours, was posted six months later.
fire_juggler posted a podfic of the story on June 1, 2012.[3]
Reviews/Reactions
Long, slow, patient, and entirely satisfying fic of watching Stiles fall in love with Derek and waiting for him to realise Derek loves him back.[5]
I thought the characters stayed true to the show, and I enjoyed seeing the Stiles/Derek relationship develop in a way that I actually could see happening "IRL" (where IRL [equals] in the show's real life). Also, I'm a sucker for the fics where Derek is pining and has no idea how to show it, and Stiles knows everything, but is clueless about that one fact. It's the romcom lover in me. :)[7]
It's a great "Hi, convince me about this pairing" fic, and it's got great characterization, and I really really loved it, and it's quite long, which is unusual for Teen Wolf. It was like rolling around in a pile of leaves and awesome things.[8]
References
- ^ Determined using the AO3's Works Search on October 18, 2013. The story also ranked 16 in number of kudos (4902), 19 in bookmarks (1845), and 182 in comments (282). Total number of Derek/Stiles fanworks was 17270. See Open the Door on the AO3. As of 25 December 2014, the story had slipped to fifth place in hits (327229), 31st in kudos (6780), 37th in bookmarks (2512), and 346th in comments (298) out of 31607 Sterek fics.
- ^ Open the Door entry on Goodreads, Archived version
- ^ Fire Juggler. {Teen Wolf} Open the Door by Renay. Posted to Amplificathon 1 June 2012.
- ^ yue_ix. Amplirecathon: late Podfic cover art recs (8 recs), posted to amplificathon on July 31, 2013.
- ^ nicolegendary. Derek/Stiles Rec List. Posted to Tumblr 9 April 2012.
- ^ compartmental. Fic Rec Post #8 (Teen Wolf). Posted to LiveJournal 6 August 2012.
- ^ Audrey (San Francisco, CA)'s review of Open the Door, Archived version, Posted to GoodReads 11 August 2013.
- ^ From slash report episode 207 Teen Wolf. Podcast announcement post Apr. 15th, 2012. The lack of longfic may have been true at the time of the review (early Teen Wolf fandom), but is no longer accurate. A 25 December 2014 search on AO3 for TW fic turned up 8% of fic posted in 2012 with over 10K words (682 of 8810) vs. 14% in 2014 (3564 of 25046).