Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey by Zebbie
If there were groups for this, I know exactly what I’d say. “My name is Thom Oliver, and I’m addicted. It’s been six months, 3 days, 14 hours since my last one night stand. Please keep Evan Llewellyn away from me. I think I’m going to rape him.” 
Banner Credit: Helen

Rosie Thinks: Thom Oliver has a history of using people - he'd draw them in, sleep with them, then ditch them, all because he was lonely and wanted a connection to the world, as well as having a few lingering issues from a past boyfriend. The story takes place when he's up to the six month mark of not using anyone for a one night stand and he's beginning to struggle, all because of Evan Llewellyn's perfect body. He also sees himself in Evan - the loneliness and the preying on others.

Thom really can't stand Evan at the beginning while simultaneously being strongly attracted to him. Thom thinks that Evan is completely fake and utterly vain, making it his job to be as gay as possible and flaunt it in everybody's faces - something that Thom is firmly against. Thom is not your every day protagonist. He's rude, irritable, has a few issues, isn't a very reliable narrator, the list goes on. And yet somehow I still really liked him. He has a habit of over-analysing every single thing and I think Zebbie portrayed this really well. I am a bit bias, however, as I love all of Zebbie's stories and think she does an amazing job at characterisation.

This story was filled with drama that sent my emotions on a roller coaster. I found the plot and the characters to be utterly original and a refreshing change to some of the stereotypes you see in slash stories. It is very narrative heavy at times - what with all of Thom's over analysation - which can make it look intimidating but the monologue gives a great insight into his mind and the way he thinks. Plus, it's pretty funny. There were a lot of funny and witty one-liners, but my favourite has to be: "It's like Queer as Folk went to Candy Land via Japan and puked up his personality."

As for mistakes, there aren't many spelling/punctuation errors but I did find that there were some words omitted. However, it was rare and didn't break up the flow of the story too much. Other than that, it was incredibly well-written with some beautiful worded scenes. And I honestly really loved the ending. I've become fairly jaded with endings and always skim over them due to the extreme corniness of many of them. However, in 'Cold Turkey', there was drama right up until the finish and the ending was low-key and perfect for the characters.