The Innocents
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Innocents |
| Author(s): | Paola |
| Date(s): | 2012-present |
| Length: | 220,000+ words |
| Genre(s): | Dystopian AU, incest/slash |
| Fandom(s): | Hanson and Jesse Spencer |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | http://malfunkshon.livejournal.com, http://archiveofourown.org/works/116988, http://archiveofourown.org/works/1610894 and https://archiveofourown.org/works/16508732 |
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The Innocents is a Hanson fanfic series by Paola. It was written beginning in 2012 and is still in progress.
The story takes place in an AU future where the United States and Canada have united as one nation (CANAAN). In this world, the Hanson brothers have spent most of their lives living in the desert compound of a cult known as the Church of Reconstruction. When an illness leaves Zac blind, he is confined to the cult's detox center where he is subjected to supposed treatment that is in fact torture. The story begins with his older brothers' attempt to break him out and find a way to survive in the outside world. Although it is not easy, they do succeed, and during their stay in a tent city, they meet a handsome young doctor (played by Jesse Spencer and based on aspects of several of his characters) who takes them in and helps them adapt to their new lives.
The Flock, as the cult is known, is based on several real life entities, including but not limited to the Church of Scientology. Paola has made a guide to their terminology available for readers.[1]
Book 2: CANAAN's Children
The second story in the series, it begins not long after the end of the first. The brothers are adapting, with Isaac picking up odd jobs and Taylor volunteering at Jesse's hospital. Questions still remain about just who their father is and whether or not he was complicit in their mother's decision to join the cult. As it turns out, he is quite an important figure and will play a large role in helping bring down the cult for once and for all.
Book 3: The Way of The Shepherd
The third story in the series, this one is set in the past and focuses on the boys' childhoods and how they came to be members of the cult.
Reactions and Reviews
The story may have hints of hancest which I know the general majority of fans don’t like but I do. Though the hancest isn’t even as major as it is in other stories. It’s more about their relationships and love for each other (platonic in my views) than the actual romantic love. I like stories that show the side of the brothers where they rely on and can’t survive without each other, maybe because I tend to think that in real life it is nothing like that and I just want to cling to that fantasy.[2]
The world building here reminds me a little of Octavia Butler’s “The Parable of the Sower,” only less detailed, and with more of a focus on this one family. What I mean is it feels very real–not the situation necessarily, but how everyone reacts to it. The fact that the boys become so utterly dependent on the Jesse Spencer character’s hospitality (a character/actor from a TV show I don’t watch, so I took him as an OC more or less), and that it doesn’t even occur to them to hide their incestuous relationship because they were raised to see it as “normal,” and just how many basic life skills they don’t have, despite being grown, articulate, and somewhat educated–it’s a hard read at times, but it’s also fascinating. They truly are “innocents” in the purest sense of the word, especially Zac, who I’m not used to seeing victimized the way he was here. In fact, this is one of the most interesting characterizations of Zac I’ve seen in Hanfic, ever. He’s the one who grows and changes the most, he’s the one whose POV I preferred to the others, and he’s the one who becomes most instrumental in changing things for the rest of the Flock.[3]
thank you for writing this. i never read things like this, but it grabbed hold of me, and i look forward to every new chapter. i never comment when i read it, so thank you for it. truly. well written, heart wrenching, heart warming, lovely. keep it up.[4]
Gah, I love The Innocents. I absolutely agree that it is its own story - change Isaac, Taylor and Zac’s first names and you lose any connection to Hanson. The effort the author puts in is obvious, and even more impressive considering English is not her first language. I appreciate the pain-staking care she takes in developing this alternate universe and the characters. Can’t wait for more.[5]
I loved dystopian stories, so this one is right up my alley. Paola has put so much thought into the world she has created for this fic, from the cult aspect to the governmental intrigue, that this is one of the few Hanson fanfics I would honestly want to see as a published novel.[6]
Awards
The Innocents won awards in the Blank Page Awards. It is featured in the PlaceToHide.net hall of fame.