#i tried to phrase my response as politely/considerately/vaguely as i possibly could but if you're an nec superfan maybe look away. sorry!

[booksandabeer]

Hello, I hope it is fine for me to ask you about this. I would like your opinion on something. I have just gotten into the steve/bucky community and looking through some blogs that seemed a good starting point to get fic recommendations. Yours is one of them but it seems to me, that there is less drama here, if you know what I mean. The question I have is about two series that I have seen discussed really controversial, people only seem to hate them. One is "Not Easily Conquered" and one is "What I'm Looking For". I appreciate that you seem to be more levelheaded about these things, so would you say it is worth it? And do you know more blogs like yours that aren't so hateful? I trust your judgement, thank you in advance.

Hey anon,

What a message! I don’t even know where to start with this one. Well, first of all, welcome to Stuckyhell™—I hope you enjoy crying about two centenarian super soldiers because you’ll be doing that a lot! I have to say that my experience in the community has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I feel that if you don’t go looking for drama and realize early on that occasionally the best course of action is to privately roll your eyes and simply keep on scrolling, you’ll do just fine and it’s a pretty chill experience overall.

Now as to your fic-related questions. I'm honestly a bit surprised. Where did you see all that hateful talk about these two series? I think I can count on one hand the number of people who have ever dared to utter even so much as a mildly critical opinion on NEC? And I’ve never heard a negative word about WILF at all? Hm.

But you asked my opinion so here we go:

Okay, so. NEC. There's a reason why you won't find any mention of it on my blog. Honestly, I had kind of hoped that I could get away with never having to publicly speak about my, ahem, complicated feelings about this series. Guess not.

Let's just rip off the bandaid: I'm not a fan. Now, it’s not a *bad* fic by any means, not at all. The letters in particular are exquisitely written, and I can see why people go feral over them, but almost everything else about this series leaves me somewhere between cold, uncomfortable, or mildly infuriated. That’s all I’ll say about it outside of DMs because (1) I’m not interested in creating any drama here, (2) trying to understand the excessive popularity of this series just leads to me being frustrated and baffled all over again, and (3) I know that a lot of people—among them some of my most beloved mutuals and fandom friends—really, really love this series and I think it’s mean and frankly bad form to talk negatively about something that they love with all their heart, in a space where they are very likely to see it. I probably already said too much, but you asked, and this is my honest answer.

(And btw, this is also a big part of creating a chill fandom experience for yourself: Just accept that some things simply aren’t for you and you will never understand why everybody is so into it. But publicly & repeatedly railing against it in great detail is very unlikely to change anyone’s mind.  You’re just going to make them feel bad about a thing they love and they won’t thank you for it. Also, people can like different things and still be friends. I know—what a concept!)

So back to your question: should you read NEC? I mean, yeah, go for it. So many people adore it, maybe you'll end up being one of them. Just because I personally don't love it, doesn't mean you won't either. If nothing else, you'll at least know what people are talking about when they praise it or, apparently, hate on it, and you'll be able to form your own opinions.

The other series you mentioned, What I'm Looking For, I absolutely recommend. If you're in the mood for a long, sprawling series that stays very close to canon while also trying to make sense of its often faulty narrative logic and inconsistent characterization, this will certainly do it for you! However, keep in mind that this is a veeeeery slow burn series, so if you want to read something that rather quickly gives you all the fuzzy happy romantic Stucky feels, then perhaps you better pick something else.

As for other blogs that do rec posts. @voylitscope makes fantastic themed rec lists. @burberrycanary occasionally makes rec posts with the added bonus of beautiful "fake" book covers. @sparkagrace and @xoxobuckybarnes put together monthly reading lists, and @hazel-wand and @msilverstar often post individual fic recs. I'm sure there are many more!

And of course, you can always send me an ask if you're looking for fics that feature certain tropes/genres/time periods/etc.