xoxoxo, I apologize for not reviewing sooner, but I wanted to wait until this fic was complete before giving my thoughts. I have followed since the beginning and would like to express what a wonderful job you have done with these letters. I feel as though you have captured Pam's voice perfectly in every chapter and have been intrigued as to where you have taken the character. There is a maturity that runs through the story, which is an absolute thrill to read. When I read you were incorporating Jim, I must admit, I was skeptical, but the last letter is simply beautiful and a lovely summary of everything that has come before it. Truly great job on such a wonderful piece. It is one to be proud of.

Author's Response: thatonenight - Thanks so much for your review.  I really appreciate it.  It means so much to me to know that something I loved came across exactly the way I intended.  I always had the intention of letting Jim have the last word - but this journey really was Pam's.  I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

Callisto,
You have a wonderful ability with words and have a great grasp of the language. Having read much of your work, there’s no doubt that you have the knowledge and skill of a writer. Often times, when I read fanfiction, the stories lack conflict, plot, climaxes, and resolution, but your work definitely incorporates all of that and this story is no exception. I appreciate the time and effort you put into your work and it shows.

But if I could be so bold, I do have one major criticism and that is with the characterization. I understand that you wanted to make Karen seem desperate but here she seems too dark, too evil. I wouldn’t put it past her to use various types of manipulation, especially at the end, but I feel like you’ve taken it almost too far. She has little to no redeeming or sympathetic characteristics left and I believe that Karen should get some credit for being a human who is trying to hold on to a dying relationship.

Pam, on the other hand, seems almost like a ghost in the story, having a haunting presence. She seems almost too perfect, angelic in a way and the too perfect antithesis to the Karen you’ve presented. I wish you had given her a little more personality, more something to make her a more powerful person in the story. Instead of letting Pam be an understated figure, she is only a shell of a character who barely seems active. And for being the pivotal character in Jim’s life, I wish she had more presence.

I suppose you could argue that this is from Jim’s point of view and that point skews perception, but both Karen and Pam seem too much like archetypes of good and evil, opposed to actual people and overly simplistic of the complex characters given to us in canon.

As for Jim, he seems too over the place. I understand you were going for Jim to be conflicted over which path he should choose but I feel as though you’ve taken him to the extreme. He becomes unsympathetic as he wavers back and forth, being obsessed with Pam’s words while giving into Karen’s manipulations. It’s overly and unnecessarily melodramatic. I have a hard time believing that Jim would be as shallow and bullied as he seems to be presented here. At the same time, I have a hard time believing he would still be so distraught about Pam. If anything, I’ve always felt Jim was numb and very far from any emotion at that point.

I will end by saying, everyone has their own views on these characters and I suppose my take on what happened between these two episodes just happens to be a different vision.

Author's Response: thatonenight, thank you so much for such a detailed and thoughtful review. I really appreciate it. First, thank you for the compliment on my writing-- obviously that\'s very important to me. And clearly I can\'t agree with some of your takes on the characterization or I would have written it quite differently! If I may, though, I\'ll respond to a couple of your points. -- I certainly wasn\'t trying to paint Karen as dark or evil. Quite the opposite--I was trying to make her humanity show. She\'s simply a woman who is aware that she has just been put in a precarious situation and is doing what she can to hang on to a relationship she knows in her heart is doomed. Pam, on the other hand, is at a point where she knows she has done everything she can to change and rectify her past mistake with Jim and is now stepping back to let him make his decision. In The Job it seemed clear (to me, anyway) that she was absolutely ready to let Jim go, if that were his choice. And although before the beach, Jim did seem absolutely numb to all things Pam, it certainly looked to me like she\'d shaken him during her speech. I cannot believe he wasn\'t consumed with thoughts of what she\'d said during that week while he decided not only what woman he wanted, but what kind of life he wanted. It does pain me to see you use words like \'melodramatic\' and \'simplistic,\' qualities I despise in writing. :) You\'ve definitely given me some food for thought. Thanks again for the review.