Redemption Road

Have you ever read something and thought to yourself, this can't be the thing everyone else loves so much? That was me. Everyone - and I mean everyone - I knew in the fandom, and the people they knew, and the people we followed, had their head so far up the proverbial ass of Redemption Road that I figured it had to be amazing. I mean, a rewrite of a season I hated with all the passion of a million fiery suns? Heck yeah, sign me up!

So I read it. Or, rather, I tried to read it. I know I read the first chapter and part of the second, so at minimum around 15,000 words, before tapping out. But I just couldn't see what everyone else thought was so amazing, so well-done, so perfect.

Felt like an even worse take on the plot I hated from canon, so that really turned me off. It's a shame, though, because the one thing I wanted to read it for was done really well: diving into Dean's trauma which the canon writers had grown a nasty habit of ignoring. I just couldn't make it past the rest of the plot on a vague promise of actually seeing Dean Winchester act like someone who's been unspeakably tortured in literal Hell, betrayed by nearly everyone he loves at least once, and treated like absolute trash.

In another lifetime I might have actually enjoyed this. The writing isn't bad, the characterization is alright... I just really hate the plotline because it doesn't deviate far enough from the hot mess of the canon it's rewriting to suit my interests.

As luck would have it, I came back around to this on a whim tonight. I read some offhand comment about fanfic being added to goodreads and I took a peek. I don't usually read massive fanfic, nor do I memorize the names of the quickies I do read these days, so the first name I could think of was Redemption Road.

So here I am, a decade later, coming around to say that it's probably alright but it's definitely not my cup of tea.