I wasn’t going to write any more Stranger Things fic reviews this year. I’m behind on my reviews but I have read enough novels to get me to my half cannonball in six months target. But then I read this fic last night and this morning and did a filthy amount of crying, so with apologies to such read books as When Katie met Cassidy (which was, to microreview, like, fine and ok and other such synonyms) here we are.
Set in 2002, many years after the events of the upside down, Max shows up on Steve’s front door to ask him to walk her down the aisle and then a few months when later the gang are all there to stand vigil at Hopper’s deathbed. Framed with a series of music magazine interviews with Ed Levy (formerly Munson, following the obligatory government coverup) over the interceding years, showing that he’s spent fifteen years writing music about how cool El is and how extremely hung up he is one one guy from his past, greatunironic really had me a fucked up mess as I read this in two sittings.
Whilst I’m not sure that this work had anything particularly unusual for the fandom, apart from possibly the framing device, The Most Remarkable Thing stands out as a hurt/comfort fic where the payoff is so damn good. Anything that has me crying that many times over the course of it’s length is worth mentioning. Plus, and I’m about to demonstrate this by not bothering, the button on the story, the final beat, which is so often hard to nail, is the best I have seen in a long time, just sending me into the end note sobbing.