My Roommate Is a Vampire _Review

My Roommate is a Vampire
TAGS: Adventure, Comedy, Romance
Rating: Teen
Author: Dennis the Menace

Wow. Talk about a blast from the past. This 23 chapter fic (also sporting an additional two bonus chapters) was first released on July 13th of 2012, which is about five months before Season 3 was aired, and finished on September 2nd of 2012 (or October 14th if you include the two bonus chapters). This means that Alicorn Twilight was merely a subject of fanfiction whims, and no one had even heard of the Crystal Empire when this fic was running.

Also, this fic was most likely able to catch the attention it did thanks to the supernatural craze spurred on by the infamous Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers. Say what you will about her (I know I do), we cannot deny that thanks to her influence, we were able to be treated to many a decent supernatural story (still waiting for an epic, well-written story of Applejack Hellsing and her supernatural freaks of friends to crop up).

Oh, and if anyone is wondering how popular this fic is, it currently (March 20, 2016) has 5484 likes! Yeah, if you want to call yourself a connoisseur of FimFics, you need to have at least read this fic.

The Plot: The plot for this fic … changes. It can best be described as having four acts that build off of each other. They are as follows.

Act 1: Chapters 1-5 (Give Me Something Sweet to Bite - No Use Crying Over Spilled Blood): Octavia trying to figure out if her roommate is a vampire, and convince herself that she has no feelings for her … Yeah, you can easily guess how that one goes.

Act 2: Chapters 6-9 (A Calm Before the Storm - Secrets and Lies): Octavia tries to survive dinner in which her stuck-up parents meet her “roommate.”

Act 3: Chapters 9-14 (Secrets and Lies - The Club Can’t Even Handle Me Right Now): Octavia discovers the secret world of the supernaturals and adjusts to life as a result. How? That’d be spoilers if I told ya.

Act 4: Chapters 15-23 (Not Quite so Black and White - Fly Me to the Moon): A mare from Vinyl’s past shows up with very very bad intentions, and has Vinyl flying off the hook. As Octavia wonders what the connection is, she must stop the mare from accomplishing her goal, and keep Vinyl from doing something that she doesn’t want her to do: become a monster.

The Actual Review:
This story takes on the first person POV of Octavia Medley using a bit of a casual storyteller style of narration, and what can be very well described as a sarcastic tone of voice. Heck, look at this first two paragraphs of chapter 1, and tell me that you don’t immediately know that you’re in for a comedy trip.

She’s a nice mare, really. Honest. Certainly not the type of respectable pony my mother would want me to associate myself with. The type you crossed the street to avoid. The shady kind of pony up to no good, with a penchant for mischief. Uncouth, undignified, oh yes, Vinyl Scratch was all of those things.

And I couldn’t have asked for a better friend.

When I first started reading this fic upon it appearing in the feature box (I am not old), my first inclination was to declare it a crack fic due to it not describing settings very satisfactorily, or succinctly (which is what I try to look for first to figure out if a fic is worth my time. I find that that’s the first sign of a badly written fanfic). Looking at it again, I now realize that it really didn’t need to. Sure, I still think it could have used setting descriptions a bit better, but the way the mood and feel of the scenes were still able to be conveyed successfully despite this.

As I read more, I was able to recognize that Dennis the Menace was aiming to utilize British comedy that is refined by Octavia’s refined nature to deliver his laughs, and he does so very well. Be ready for that.

Dennis the Menace also succeeds in blending together the romance and comedy of the fic together wonderfully. Rather than the two being segregated into their own scenes or chapters, romance is either flavored with comedy, or comedy is flavored by romance. Granted, he does have his scenes that are purely one or the other; but they are kept within reason, and do not go overboard (something that many fanfic authors seem to do, which can be really disconnecting for the reader. There is such a thing as “too much of a good thing”).

In fact, Dennis shows a rare talent for dancing just behind the line where the comedy begins to ruin the quality of the story, and is able to have the characters resolve situations without resorting to overpowered abilities or Deus ex Machinas. These are absolutely HUGE points in his favor, as many a comedy seems to use these to hurry up and get back to delivering funnies.
There are even a few references here and there that range from subtle, to blatantly obvious (though do not feel at all forced for the sake of a laugh).

As the story progresses, however, the comedic, lighthearted feel of the fic gradually, almost unnoticeably, sneaks away, making way for the adventure tag of this fic. In fact, I’d peg the point where the adventure tag really hits at chapter 15 of the fic, “Not Quite so Black and White.” That’s when the comedy really takes the backseat of the fic (coming back for only two really memorable moments), and the gripping adventure takes its spot on the stage … with comedy flavoring it just a tad here and there.

The two primary characters of this fic are Octavia Medley (obviously), and Vinyl Scratch (also obviously). How does Dennis the Menace portray them?

Octavia Medley … is a bit complicated as she goes through some changes that you really have to be looking for to find.

Vinyl, however, is much easier to peg. Dennis portrays her as a cocky, smart-alek extrovert with no filter for what comes out of her mouth. However, he also portrays her as someone who will take things seriously when a situation gets personal, which is definitely a sign of an author who knows how to torture his characters (which is what a good author is supposed to do. After all, would we really enjoy episodes featuring any of the Mane6 if they weren’t pitted against something that didn’t make them either sweat, or feel uncomfortable?).

Of course, Dennis the Menace isn’t perfect. His grammar is lacking in a few areas, but it is good enough that one can read this fic without getting caught up with his errors.

With the introduction of the whole world of supernaturals in Act 3, we really don’t see a lot of it. We get a foot in the door at best, but that it really. The world isn’t really explored.

The adventure and the effects of the events of said adventure also feel like they happen very quickly. We see that they happen, and even sort of feel them happen, but we don’t exactly get a chance to really see the depths of it all for ourselves.
Still a great fic to read nonetheless.

When to Read it:
Make sure you have at least 30 minutes to an hour if you’re going to read a few chapters of this as it’s very involving. The first 14 chapters are very comedy based, so if that’s what you’re looking for, have at it. However, when chapter 15 rolls around, you’ll find yourself hooked and wanting to see what happens. Just be aware that there are really only two oasis of comedy among a grassland desert when it does.

Rating:
Easily a 7/10 at the least. The comedy is great, and the adventure is also pretty good when it comes around. The only thing detracting from it is the fact the fact that we don’t really get a lot of world building of the supernaturals that seems to be hinted at, and the actual events and effects of the adventure feel as though they happen really fast. We don’t really get much of a chance to take in what’s happening.

Despite this, though, it is a read that is very much worth your time. I recommend it.

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