Best Angst

Pretty Hate Machine: This one is tricky to categorise. Ulrich's angst is the starting point of the problems in the story, but the thing is, his angst is exactly what fuels the action that have ramifications that have considerably less to do with his feelings. I'll take a leaf out of SJ's book and agree that it isn't the best example of what angst truly is. Subjective opinion, but the actions and consequences of said actions in PHM, while wonderfully written, are what drive the story.

Stone's Throw Away: This isn't in-your-face angst, and I like that. There weren't tragic deaths, life-changing accidents, or horrifying injuries. It was an exploration of the characters at their lowest points, and it worked. I think Jeremie's part could've been a bit smoother and Aelita could've had more elaboration, but in end, it came together really nicely. I always love it when authors do their own take on a theme, such as the theme of "madness" that was seen here.

Project Zaia: The categorisation of this one is a bit more clear-cut than PHM's. Personally, I'd put it in the action or drama category, one of the categories the nominator suggested (I'm don't get why he posted it in with the angst nominations, heh). Personally, I didn't like the pacing that much and how there were so many blocks of text in a row. Nevertheless, I think it falls firmly under the drama or action category.

Lonely At The Top: I want to preface this: I like the idea a lot, and the title and summary combined got my excited to read this. And OxAxJ love triangle? I'm all for drama and angst, so long as this was actually a correctly categorised story. I ended up not enjoying it that much though, since I usually prefer stories with a bit of dialogue in them. The real deal breaker, though, is the way it's written. I feel like I'm scanning their lives, but in a completely apathetic way. The writer isn't bad, but this isn't the type of fic for me, I guess.

Resentment: I'm not sure why, but this is one of the few fics where I was okay about having so little dialogue. It wasn't necessarily the most active or interesting fic, but I liked the take on William's thoughts. As human beings, we're fragile, and even though William fans might not like what this fic implies, I think it has an element of truth to it. He's not a bad person, but after getting possessed for months on end, no one is going to get out unscarred. I think this fic suggests more than William is a broken person, rather than a bad person as some people might interpret it as. However, I do admit that it's definitely on the drier side and isn't the most easy fic to get through. An interlude of his thoughts using more dialogue would've made it more enjoyable and easy to get through, I think.

Life Goes On: I'm not sure what it is, but this fic doesn't quite "do it" for me. For an event as tragic to Odd and the group as Kiwi's death, I thought it'd be different. I was looking for more on the group dynamics and how they'd support each other even though Odd would obviously feel more lonely in his pain. The second chapter shows a bit of it, but I don't think it was that well done. Snowy does touch on this a bit in the first chapter, but it was more focused on Odd's feelings. There's nothing wrong with this, since she did show how he was having trouble focusing and how it was just so hard to concentrate on his school work when Kiwi has just died, but it didn't quite have the effect on me that I think it was.