Snake Oil
From Fanlore
| Fanfiction | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Snake Oil | |
| Author(s): | Martha | |
| Date(s): | 26 July 1997 | |
| Length: | 63,000 words | |
| Genre: | gen fanfiction | |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel | |
| External Links: | Snake Oil (author's site) Snake Oil (AO3) | |
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Snake Oil is a Sentinel story by Martha (63,000 words). First posted online in 1997, it was later published in the gen zine Knitted Souls 4 (1998). The story was nominated for a 1999 Huggy for Best Novel, won the 1999 Cascade Award for Best Novel and won the 2000 Cascade Times Awards in the Scary/Horror category.[1]
Summary: After Blair finally confronts an old nemesis at an anthropology conference in Los Angeles, he and Jim bring more back to Cascade than just a touch of sunburn.
Recs and Reviews
- "[...] Most of the other scary/horror TS stories make it look too easy. This one was more realistic, more subtle (there's that word again - subtle) and more ambiguious, in a sense. It didn't require one to believe in reincarnation, or voodoo, or Wicca, or Shamanism, or even Catholicism - just something Other. It built up well. The author again seems to have a good grasp of academia. Maybe some people might possibly complain that this story was too slow, or something, but, I think it works better that way - the slow creeping wondering if one is just imagining things, if one is going crazy... makes other TS stories I've read (so far) of this kind seem about as clumsy as Stonehenge compared to the Notre Dame. [...] I really liked the way that Blair was grasping for rituals and not finding answers ('cuz I had faith he'd figure something out eventually!). This was definitely good."[2]
- "Creepy. as. fuck. I first read this at work, in my office, and I didn't care that it was noon. I shivered."[3]
- "After a trip to LA, very strange, very dark, and very, *very* creepy things begin happening to Jim and Blair. Snake Oil is, by far, the creepiest fanfic I have ever read. Martha does a brilliant job of building up suspense as she slowly reveals bits and pieces of Jim and Blair's trip to LA and the unexpected consequences of the trip. Her plot unfolds gradually and with an ever-increasing sense of doom and by the time I got to the reveal, my nerves were snapping. A perfect, haunting Halloween treat (that you should most definitely not read with the lights off)."[4]
References
- ↑ Information from the author's site. (Accessed 01 January 2011)
- ↑ Kathryn Andersen. Snake Oil, reviewed on 14th June 2000. (Accessed 01 January 2011)
- ↑ Nestra. Polyamorous Recommendations. (Accessed 01 January 2011)
- ↑ jane_elliot in epic_recs. Snake Oil by Martha (NC-17), 26 October 2009. (Accessed 01 January 2010)
