This was really rather spectacularly adorkable! I thoroughly enjoyed how sweet and light it was, even if that made it a bit insubstantial at times. It just danced a little too close to the line of "oh isn't life perfect and always works out!!" for me and my logic-loving brain.

The book basically takes place over 3 days with three friends going to a SupaCon nerd thingie. I love how it is 500% about nerds and fangirling and it's so excitingly relatable. I also adored how they were Australian (#AussiesFTW) and how much diversity it had, including: one of the narrators having Autism, the other being bisexual and Asian. Taylor's Autism was very well represented (except for the oversight of acknowledging sensory overload more often instead of just a once-off thing; the environment of the convention would have been so over-stimulating at all times instead of just occasionally as Taylor narrated it). I also loved how she and her best friend, Jamie, finally started to tell each other how they felt! So cute! And Charlie's blossoming romance with a youtube star, Alyssa, was adorable and so cute. I totally think it was instalove though, but STILL CUTE.

I loved all the messages of self love and acceptance, for weight and disabilities and sexualities. Although I think it got preachy at times, like the book had an agenda to get through and at only 288 pages it sacrificed realistic dialogue to cram the messages in.

Overall the book is super cute and fun and had me saving so many encouraging and inspiring quotes. The fandom and geek levels were A+ and the diversity rep was respectful and accurate in my opinion. It was a bit overall fluffy for me and I don't think it'll change my life buuuut, I HAD FUN.

No lie – this book has seriously GREAT messages. And I’m so happy there are books out where where girls can be out and proud, geeks, of all colours and embraced in a novel. A fair few of the times I really resonated with the geekery and fangirlishness of these characters. But some of the really touching messages are lost in a hotchpotch of other things I couldn’t quite connect to.

The first half, I really enjoyed, where we see the three of them settling into SupaCon, but by the end I was a little distracted by the OTT dialogue of openness, wonderfulness and joy. The only conflicts I can truly remember were about Chase, who was a world class douche, and Taylor’s dealings with her panic attacks.

Everybody – and I’m not saying this because I’m a cynic (ah, who am I kidding?!) was too nice to each other. Like… instant forgiveness. Instant love. “Harboured a crush on you 5ever” type deals. Is nobody a teenager with a grudge any more? Or was that just me…

Personally, there was a bit too much dialogue in ratio to the inner thoughts of the characters and I couldn’t really suspend my disbelief. Nobody kept their thoughts to themselves. Which basically, could have been a good thing. I think it lost me at the zombie re-enactment (not a spoiler, I promise). It might have been the pacing – it could have afforded to be a bit longer in my opinion.

BUT – it was fun, I enjoyed it, and it was a super quick read, I think I read it in under 2 hours total. It’s great that just a joyful and open book is out there, but I don’t think it was for me.

5/5 stars

Twelve reasons why I became totally smitten with Queens of Geek can be found in my full review:

https://bookspoils.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/review-queens-of-geek-by-jen-wilde/

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1848238968

one thing i really loved about queens of geek is that it wasn’t very long. i love long books, but sometimes they get boring and feel dragged out. queens of geek didn’t have this one bit. every scene was important and necessary to the plot. it was so well written. it was fast paced and made for an easy, quick read. i was never bored.

i found every one of the characters was developed and i enjoyed them all. the relationships were very well done. considering this book is set over a couple days, i never once felt the romance was rushed or instalove. i absolutely loved alyssa and charlie. in both romance and as characters, i loved them both. they were so fun to read about and to discover things as they did.

i like the use of disabilities and mental health. anxiety isn’t used as the typical “oh they’re just shy” thing i’ve seen so many times. taylor actually has moments where she can’t cope. she also goes out of her way to help another girl through a panic attack, even though they're in a competition against each other.

i’m finding it really hard to put into words (which, as a reviewer, isn’t a good thing), but i just really, really loved this book and definitely recommend others read it asap.

I have a little reservation with Queens of Geek, Swoon Reads is usually a hit or miss for me. Though, the cover and synopsis alone has been hypnotizing me. I’m glad I followed my instinct because this book is all shades of amazing.

When I picked it up, I didn’t expect it would have intersectionality. This is not your bare minimum attempt at diversity. The story follows best-friends Charlie, Taylor, and Jamie as they attend a comic con. It was told from the shifting perspective of Charlie and Taylor. Charlie is a Chinese-Australian vblogger who is proudly a bisexual. She’s the leading lady of an indie apocalyptic film that is currently taking the geeky fandom by storm. The second main protagonist is Taylor who is an ultimate fan of this fantasy book series turned into a film franchise. She’s also on the autism spectrum. While, the third person in their trio doesn’t have his own POV, Jamie is still a significant character. He’s also Latinx, based from the supporting text, though I’m not sure if that’s explicitly stated in the book.

Queens of Geek has a positive depiction of fandom. There’s a lot of dissuading things about this community. We can be toxic and harmful but from my own experience, it truly shaped me into finding my voice. This book has that uplifting portrayal. Taylor is very cute, and geeky. You just can’t help but to root for her. She’s also introvert. She’s more comfortable at typing and writing her feelings rather than voicing it out. I love that her arc isn’t about overcoming it or toning herself down to be able to fit into the non-autistic world. It’s about creating a safe place for her, finding her own pace. That’s important. She’s also plus-sized so if you want to read something that has a fat heroine, you should consider picking it up. The story doesn’t revolve around her weight.

Similar to Taylor’s arc, Charlie’s story is about coming of age as well. She just got out of a highly publicize relationship with her douche co-star Reese. Even though, it’s been six months fans still ship them despite the glaring problems between the pair. That sounds familiar, isn’t it? Then, she officially met her long time crush Alyssa in the comic-con. Like, Charlie she’s also a vblogger but she has more following than her. Readers would love Charlie. She’s empowering, who’s proud of her heritage and sexuality. This is her story about embracing her own–without the restriction of societal’s expectation.

The romances are very cute and swoon worthy. We have best-friends to lovers where comfort zone is respected. A cute f/f couple with kissing in between.

Queens of Geek is positively nerdy. It's relatable and needed more than ever.

Final review to posted at Hollywood News Source closer to the release date.

**I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

4.5 stars

Queens of Geek features three main characters: Charlie, Taylor, and Jamie. Charlie is a breakout actress who is attending SupaCon, a fandom convention, for publicity for her new movie. She is also dealing with drama with her costar after their well publicized breakup due to him cheating on her. Taylor and Jamie go with her as a graduation trip; at SupaCon, Taylor wants to see the author of her favorite series and decides to enter a contest despite her anxiety. At SupaCon, Charlie meets her crush, another famous female vlogger, and Taylor deals with her feelings for Jamie.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the diversity: Charlie is a publicly out bisexual Chinese actress, Taylor is on the autistic spectrum, and Jamie is latinx. All of these things are clearly stated; there is no inferring. For example, Charlie speaks about her Chinese heritage many times, like how her parents are immigrants and how she's not ashamed of them. She also talks about how she realized she was bisexual and how, just because she had never really flirted with a girl, her sexuality never changed. One of my favorite scenes was her telling her boyfriend that she was bisexual after he said bisexuality wasn't a real thing:

"What do you mean you don't believe in bisexuals? They're not mythical creatures," I [Taylor] said. "They're real people, just like you."
He squirmed uncomfortably, and Charlie sighed. "Reese, I'm bisexual. Do you believe in me?"
He sat up and stared at her like he was suddenly seeing a whole different person. "You? But you're with me."
"So? I'm still bi."


Despite our society's increasingly progressive attitude, there are still many people who believe that being bisexual is "just a phase" or that once the bi person settles down, they'll switch sexualities. It was really refreshing for Queens of Geek to explicitly state that, even though a bi person is with someone of their opposite gender, they are still bi. After this came one of my favorite scenes in the book:

When Reese finally said something, I wished he hadn't. "But how could you possibly know you're bi? Have you ever been with a girl?"
I remember seeing frustration written all over Charlie's face, and I spoke up. "How did you know you were straight before you were with a girl, Reese?"


I honestly almost started cheering when I read this! Taylor, despite her high anxiety (more on this later), stood up for her friend and delivered the perfect response. Heterosexuality is so commonly perceived as the "default" sexuality that people refuse to believe you identify as something else without dating someone of your own gender/in between. Another thing I love is that Charlie meets her crush, Alyssa, and (view spoiler)

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Taylor is on the autism spectrum and has high anxiety. Of course, being at an extremely packed convention should be horrible for her, but she stays strong with the help of Jamie and Charlie. She is also plus-sized, which causes more self-consciousness for her, as she doesn't think she is pretty. Both Taylor and Jamie are obsessed with fandom, causing their strong friendship and (view spoiler) Protagonists who are plus-sized, on the autism spectrum, or have anxiety are exceedingly rare, but here Jen Wilde gives us all of these in one character. And not only this, but she also gets a romance!

Although the book deals with fandom issues and the like (which I don't care for because it reminds me of my own superwholock days), I think Queens of Geek dealt with all of the healthy aspects, like how Taylor uses her love for fandom as a safe space for when she gets too overwhelmed. Fandoms can be highly toxic nowadays, but this book portrays the good side of it, the side of it that I was attracted to so long ago.

Queens of Geek was a fun, cute read with so much diversity! Bi Chinese character and a wlw relationship, and a plus-sized, autistic character who has a romance too! I enjoyed this book so much, and I hope all of you read it, especially because it has so many things we need to see in the world today.

This book…I can’t even begin to explain the emotions that this book has caused in me. I loved it. I literally flew through this book in a matter of hours and the further and further I got in it the more and more invested I became in these characters. Both Charlie and Taylors stories had me captivated from the beginning. I loved that I could relate to both of them in some aspect, be it love of all things nerdy or defending how bisexuality is a real thing to someone that just doesn’t understand it. I feel like this book was written with me in mind and it kind of was, not me specifically but people like me. The used phrases every fangirl or boy would know like OTP and ship names, they even mentioned Destiel for crying out loud. We only follow these characters for a weekend but through reflections and their personalities I felt like I knew them for much longer. The last couple of chapters had me reading the book with a huge goofy grin on my face and I literally said, “Awwww” at a couple of parts. And Taylor’s last chapter had me tearing up, granted I’m a pretty easy crier but I was just so proud of her. And if you can make me feel actual pride for a fictional character then I say you’re doing a great job.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Will update with links to where I posted my review online closer to the release date. (Final review might change slightly but will have the same basic message).

I find that many YA novels dealing with "nerdy" subjects tend to be written with an extra cheese factor, much like high school spirit days when popular kids wore super thick fake frames to pretend to be nerds. Unfortunately, this falls into that category. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I hope others like it more than I did.

If you have ever attended a con (or wanted to), shipped in a fandom, or called yourself a geek, then this book is for you. It is chock full of pop culture references, which have the potential to date this novel, but for the moment it is a good bet. There are two romances in the story f/m and f/f, but the main parts of the story are about learning to accept yourself the way that you are, Asperger-anxiety and all. The novel alternates points of view with the two main bff characters, one who has serious social anxiety and the other who is a up-and-coming vlogger-turned-movie-star. This means that your geek girl reader is likely to either identify with or aspire to at least one of the characters.