I’m here at last to shine a light on 2024’s Golden Ink Award winner for Best Page Turner: The Outsider by @Pixileanin.

Pix is one of those writers who, when you read her work, makes you want to be a better writer.  This story, despite her insistence that it’s a dumpster fire, is a prime example of that.

First of all, if you can’t stand the idea of Hermione falling for Draco (or vice versa), this is the Dramione tale for you!  Poor Hermione has met with the worst possible fate (or so it seems) – she’s been cursed and has lost her magic, or at least her ability to regenerate her magical core once she uses it.  She’s seeing a therapist of some sort, but it isn’t helping.  So she’s hiding her condition as best she can so she can keep her ministry job until she’s sent on a very dodgy assignment, and once she gets there she finds a very unfortunate situation leading to a complete change of everything.

She turns to Draco Malfoy, of all people, for help with this change of her entire life.  Draco is (not surprisingly) a bit dodgy himself, so he’s able to provide her with something to “take the edge off” – and from there things get really funky.  Hermione has to decide whether she’s going to try and return to her old life or make the best of whatever this new one is going to be.  Yes, the whole thing is like this – you won’t be able to stop once you stop (rather like Draco’s clientele).

Best Page Turner is really well deserved for this semi-gothic thrill ride.  Oh, and once you recognize that reading Pix’s work makes you want to be a better writer you should try chasing her down for a conversation, because that conversation will help you become a better writer.