I love this series! It's my comfort reading for when I'm travelling: the short length makes me feel like I can get stuck into a story even if I don't have much time, the chattiness is comforting, and it's an easy (though not dumb) read.

The characters, from my favourite to least favourite:

Michelle, a book editor who's just getting into BDSM after a divorce. She feels real to me, and deals with her problems like an adult. She gets into difficult situations through no fault of her own, and while often her hands are tied (no pun intended) and things don't go as she wants them to, she's not a pushover.
Taneesha, who works as a games company and ends up dealing with all kinds of Male Bullshit including getting doxed. I don't usually like descriptions of characters' clothing and hairstyles, but she's a badass black woman and I liked when she got dolled up.
Aditi, an author whose debut novel is about to be published. I thought I'd identify with Aditi most as she's a writer, but she frustrated me. She's such a brat, and whines whenever Michelle (her editor) asks her how her second novel is going because whhhhhyyyy should she have to write? (Because you're a writer, bitch. Get it done.)
Christina, a PA to a Hollywood movie star. She doesn't feel real to me, and neither does her boss/lover, Vivi.
Elli, a cosplayer. If I didn't know better, I'd think Elli was 12 years old. I couldn't relate to her at all and found her childish and annoying.

The books are a nice mix of all the characters, and towards the end I feel like they focused more on Michelle and Taneesha, which suited me because they were the best characters. I hope there's a season 2.

System Failure is the 12th Episode of the Geek Actually serial, and I have to admit I was a tad nervous reading this book as it means that it is nearing the end of the serial unless they decide to write a second season. System Failure featured mainly Michelle, Christina, and Elli. Its main topic was Sexuality and the negative side of things. Michelle is learning the ropes of how to be a Dom and goes to her first BDSM party where she is given a sub. The thing is that they don't discuss safe words etc. and the scene ends with the sub being hurt. He rages, and it backlashes to Michelle. Is this the end of her trying to be part of the BDSM society? I have to admit; this was a little questionable as even though she is new to this world, it is BDSM 101 to have a safe word put in place for any scene and since neither party mentioned it -they were both at fault. Christina believes she is the start of a proper relationship with Vivi but what happens when Vivi starts to introduce other people into their sex life? Is Christina ready to explore the world of threesomes? Elli, as we know, is asexual and still grieving the loss of her friend Ruby goes to a con where a supposed friend takes advantage of her naivety and sexually assaults her. Apparently, this is a common issue in the States at comic conventions as there are warnings on the sites that Sexual Harassment is not on and Cosplay Costumes are not an invitation to welcome sex and rape.
If you are not comfortable with reading about BDSM and Sexual Harassment, Rape, etc. then Episode #12 might be a skipping point for you. I am now in two minds about reading Episode #13 as part of me wants to read it to finish the series, but the other part doesn't want the serial to finish.

Not was I was expecting, it was no 50 Shades, but it wasn't the 1st in the sries so maybe that would have helped.

This episode had the plotlines coming to a head right before the ending. Misunderstood sex and BDSM lead to major problems, which are then left cliffhanging for a big finish.

System Failure
Geek Actually, Book 1.12

I Picked Up This Book Because: Continuing the series


The Characters:

Aditi Sodhi, Christina Webber, Elli Kelman, Michelle Andrada, Taneesha Adams:


The Story:

Wow, Michelle’s story just got embarrassing. I knew nothing good was coming from Elli’s story. She was just being nice and totally took advantage. *insert rage face here* I want to continue to express my lack of support for Christina’s relationship. Aditi and Taneesha weren’t much featured in this installment.

The Random Thoughts:





4 Stars

PICK

TW for sexual assault.

I started the penultimate GEEK ACTUALLY episode over breakfast and couldn't do anything else until I'd finished it. It's as tense as the title suggests. No matter how well things seemed to be going for the characters, I braced myself for tragedy. I got it to various degrees, and not always in the ways or from the quarters I expected. This stuff HURTS.

I'm gonna have to read the finale ASAP.

This is a great penultimate episode, it'll be interesting to see what happens next. Poor Elli though, she's gonna have a lot to deal with going forward.

It was a little chaotic, the switching back and forth between all the characters especially. Truthfully, I probably only liked two of the characters so it was boring to read so much detail about the others. Not enough character development I think. There's just no depth to some of them. Overall, though it was entertaining to get my mind off word but I probably wouldn't read it again.

I knew just from looking at the cover that I wasn't going to like this episode, but I was not actually prepared for how much that would be true. I almost gave this 1 star because I am just in SUCH a bad mood right now, but I do recognize that my problems with this particular episode are that it contains things I do NOT want to read about and not that it is necessarily 'bad' or even that it handles those things in a bad way because it doesn't, but 2 stars is really the best I can do here. I would have skipped it entirely if I could but you can't just skip an episode of a serial so ...

I knew from the cover that this episode would focus on Michelle and her whole BDSM thing so I was prepared to skip the actual sex scenes - which I did - and actually only one of her parts is a sex scene and the rest are her dealing with the aftermath of that, so really I only skipped one small section of hers. But add that to what happened to Elli at the end of this and I'm just so done.

I mean, I've literally been there. And I don't want to have to relive it with no warning when I'm just trying to relax and read a book. I recognize that it's important to talk about and portray things like that but there really should have been some kind of warning at the beginning of the episode. And I mean I knew SOMETHING was coming because how could you not, but I was not expecting it to be that bad.

Really looking back I think a lot of these episodes could have benefited from having warnings at the beginning so that you knew what you were getting yourself into. I just wanted a fun geek girls series and instead I got stuck in [waves hand around] all of this mess that is WAY too real for me. But I hate to leave things unfinished so here I still am. Sorry for the long mildly-ranting review, I'm just really upset about the Elli thing still.

These multifaceted women remain committed to their friendships to each other, even when it means taking long hard looks at their own behaviour, which illustrates high level of support!