Manacled by SenLinYu: Book 5 of 2024
My entire brain has been rewired. This story is now canon in my mind.
Like so many people in the world, I have a deep love and appreciation for J.K. Rowling’s series, Harry Potter. Having read all of the novels multiple times, as well as having sat in midnight showings for the last few movie premieres. As I type this, my ringtone is Hedwig’s Theme and my husband got me a coffee tumbler this past Christmas with the famous Dumbledore quote, “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
Needless to say, The Harry Potter series holds a spot in my Honorary Favorite Novels, alongside another unsurprising favorite and masterpiece, Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games, as well as literary powerhouse novels like, Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love, Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. (And not to forget the most recent addition, The Rapture of Canaan.)
One night, when I was up after midnight nursing my fourth child, in early 2019 I believe, I stumbled upon the beginning chapters of SenLinYu’s Manacled on A3. Manacled was a fanfiction story that diverges from the Harry Potter Cannon after book five, The Order of the Phoenix, and it was inspired by SenLinYu after she watched the first episode of the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Two of my favorite novels married into one? I had to read it! Though, as it was still in the process of being written, I never finished it. Life got too busy and I stopped returning for more chapters. I placed it on the back-burner and began to read more traditional literature if I could find a spare moment to read.
I had not yet read any of the flashback chapters.
Those of you that know, know. The flashback chapters change everything.
In November of 2023, after the movie release of The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I began to see edits on TikTok that Tom Blyth’s depiction of young Coriolanus Snow was the perfect physical depiction of Manacled’s Draco Malfoy. My interest in the story began to return, as I made another mental note to return to A3 and finish the story. And then on Monday of this week, I saw on SenLinYu’s Tumblr page that she was now being traditionally published and that Manacled was being adapted into its own standalone book, reimagined into a story called Alchemised. After the end of this year, Manacled would no longer be available online. Apparently, that was push I needed to pull the story up and finally read it.
And so it began…
Harry Potter is dead. In the aftermath of the war, in order to strengthen the might of the magical world, Voldemort enacts a repopulation effort. Hermione Granger has an Order secret, lost but hidden in her mind, so she is sent as an enslaved surrogate to the High Reeve until her mind can be cracked.
That was on Tuesday of this past week. I did not put it down until just after dinner on Thursday, yes, yesterday, this week. I read all 77 chapters, all 370, 515 words in just under 3 days. And my brain has been rewired. The Harry Potter canon has been rewritten in my mind. This is the only story that makes sense.
Is it brutal and violent? Yes. But war is brutal and violent. We need only look to our phones to see what people are doing to each other in real time.
There is a reason Manacled has a cult-like following. This story is incredible. SenLinYu took these two vivd and ripe characters and brought them to life in such a complex, honest, heartbreaking, vicious, and real way.
The flashback chapters will haunt you.
And the final line of the book will make you weep.
I don’t want to give it away. But, my god, please go read Manacled while you still can.
As for me? Today, I’m headed to the craft store for supplies and also to buy a new printer, as it looks like I’m learning how to book bind. I will have Manacled on my shelves forever. I look forward to supporting SenLinYu and purchasing Alchemised, too, but Manacled, Hermione and Draco’s story, it will forever hold a special place in my heart. I feel like a fangirlie all over again, and that doesn’t happen easily.
This story has changed everything about the Harry Potter universe for me. The books will never be the same. I can’t see Hermione with anyone else.
It all just… makes sense.
