Knowing when the story's over...

I read a fic today by The Marmalade Cat called Thou Shalt Not Covet. It was precisely my idea of a guilty pleasure; the author admitted it was unbeta'd, and indeed, the misspellings and grammatical errors at first had me saying, "No, sorry, I'm not going to read this...", but as I started skimming, I just couldn't go past it; it looked like it pushed too many of my buttons! And oh, it did! It was a well-paced, smutty little fic with all the things I like: Lucius ravishing Harry, unconscious Harry being fought over by lecherous Death Eaters, implication (done quite humorously!) of a continued dreadful fate for Harry.

The Marmalade Cat asked if anyone wanted to see a sequel. She was set upon by vociferous demands for one, not surprisingly. And I couldn't help but groan; she had done WELL by ending it where she did, and leaving the rest to the reader's imagination! Those who were begging for a sequel were of the "You have to write more, we have to see Lucius and Snape and Draco having their evil way with Harry!" persuasion.

So I wrote my response-- sure to be very unpopular, I'm sure-- as to why I was going to be the lone voice saying, "Actually, I don't think this needs a sequel (though I would like to see more stories of yours!)." And I'm reprinting it here for anyone who wants to see or comment.

Because the beauty of a story-- especially a non-con smutty story-- is knowing when to say, "It's done," you know?

( My response... )

G'wan, tell me I'm wrong and smut's all that matters. I don't mind!