I really enojyed this book. I think everybody who read this is really gonna enjoy it. The success is going to be great!

I was gifted an ebook via Netgalley.
After having finally read Fangirl, I really was drawn in by the fanfic/fandom aspect of this book. Ship It follows the tale of Demon Heart-obsessed, fan fiction writing Claire. Her fanfic is all about her favorite ship of the two male main characters of Demon Heart, Smokey and Heart, that she hopes will become canon. After asking the Demon Heart panel about the ship at a con (much to the chagrin of the actor who plays Smokey), she "luckily" wins an opportunity to travel with the cast to the remaining cons on their tour in hopes that it will save the show and get it a second season. It also follows the young actor who plays Smokey, Forrest, who just wants to be taken seriously and make it in Hollywood.

You get both perspectives, Claire and Forrest, and a little bit of the fanfic as well. I have to say that some of the events that happen due to Claire's immaturity and, at times, impulsiveness really made me cringe and that's why I didn't give the book a full five stars. There was definitely a huge lack of understanding of her actions. Otherwise, it was a pretty wonderful book. I loved Claire's liberal artsy and supportive parents. I enjoyed reading the fanfic immensely. And mostly, I just wish someone as charismatic and lovable as Rico existed in something as big as Demon Heart.

Have we talked yet about how I want All the Fandom Books? Ship It gets to the absolute heart of fandom feels, and I was gasping and shrieking along with the heroine as she fought for queer representation in her favorite show. Ship It is about a teenage fanfic writer called Claire who goes to Comic-Con and asks Forest, the star of her favorite show Demon Heart, about the possibility that his character is gay. Forest laughs it off, which leads to a PR disaster for the show, and Claire’s invited to join the cast for the rest of their publicity tour. Plus, she has delightful, involved parents, which is always great to see in YA.

Ship It, as you can tell from the title, is about shipping and fandom. It’s about Claire, a teenager who watches a Supernatural-esque primetime drama and ships the main characters. When she actually gets a chance to talk to one of the two leads on the show at a convention, things go pear-shaped when she brings up shipping and representation and he kind of… doesn’t react well.

I know a lot of people that liked Ship It in my group of fandom nerds who also read young adult fiction. I wanted to like it too. I even requested it on NetGalley because I thought it’d be amazing.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into Lundin’s debut novel even though I tried my hardest. I’ve been stalled at 40% for a few weeks now and while I might eventually return to it, right now I’m not that into the portrayal of fandom or fans. While Lundin’s writing is fun and full of snappy banter between the characters, I found it incredibly difficult to care about most of them or what they were going through.

3.5 stars

I have generally had pretty good luck with fandom based contemporary stories, but for me this one suffered because of an unlikeable narrator. Claire just pushed certain issues in a way that I feel went too far, and it actually made me not like the story that much. But I kept reading to see if she would scale back a little bit and find a comfortable middle ground. Forest ended up learning something and adjusting his opinion and mentality, but Claire didn't really have that evolution in the narrative. It disappointed me a bit. But I still enjoyed the fandom side of things, and getting to go along with Claire and Forest to several comic conventions, which was pretty fun.

Had a couple issues with how some aspects were handled but overall I really enjoyed this book and any book that can make me cry is wonderful in my opinion!

This book was a quick read, perfect for the upcoming summer. I can definitely see readers with it in hand outside at the beach or enjoying a sunny day in their backyard. It's one that a lot of readers, especially those already involved in fandom worlds, could likely relate to. My biggest concern would be readers who aren't into the fandom world seeing it as juvenile..

Before I became a reading nerd, I was heavily involved with the fandom scene online. (I made edits on Instagram and everything. #TrueFan) So anytime I get the chance to read a book that features these types of geeks, I have to get my hands on it. The nostalgia and relatability that come with these books in unreal for me, and I’m glad I got the chance to read it. If you have ever been a fan of something, new or old, this book is one that you’re sure to love.
I loved Claire as the main character of the story; she’s not the everyday girl or hero that usually shows up in YA literature. She doesn’t have any friends and uses a fandom to connect with people online. This book is perfect for a nerdier audience, because even though we might not be just like Claire, we can still relate to her situation and how she incorporates fandoms into her life. I also liked how she is continually trying to figure out her identity as a person. Through her, we discover that it’s okay to be figuring it all out in life. Personally, I’m doing a lot of “figuring out” since I am in the midst of a college search; even though Claire wasn’t picking a college, it was very comforting to see that it’s okay not to have everything figured out yet.
I have wanted to attend a con every summer since I was about twelve, but they’ve never been convenient enough for my family to take me to one. With that said, reading about a super-fan visiting her first con was the next best thing. I loved having the opportunity to see fandoms from a different person’s perspective, especially since every fan has a different relationship to the fandom. My dream is to go to BookExpo and BookCon next year, but until then, these fandom books are the next best thing.
One of my favorite things about this book was the plot (because who wouldn’t want to meet their celebrity idols, am I right?). Claire visits a con with the idea that she is just going to her favorite TV show’s Q&A panel, but she ends up getting the opportunity to meet and travel with the cast. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! While the reader wants to see Claire’s dreams come true and everything go perfect, the fact that it doesn’t make the story worth reading. It reminds fans that behind every big fandom, some real people and situations affect the story and character in the fiction.
This book is a perfect summer read for anybody who has ever been a fan of something, past or present.

Um, so yes, I was expecting something great. But no, this was not. At all. Just disappointment.

And you know, I HATE writing disappointing, borderline ranting reviews. But this took forever and ever to read because I was NOT enjoying it.

First, let's talk about the fan fiction. I like fan fiction. I wrote fan fiction. Did I ever murder people who disrespected my fan fiction? No. Did I melt into a puddle of tears because my ship wasn't sailing? No. I just found the whole fan fiction culture in this book hyperbolic and a HUGE caricature. Just super insulting.
And to clarify, I enjoyed Fangirl. Granted, the fan fiction culture wasn't perfect, either. But it wasn't downright stupid. Erhg.

Let's chat a moment about the characters. Claire is a teenager. I'm ok with some teen angst and immaturity. but Claire is a walking basket case. She practically hates everything, except her fan fiction and favorite show. Why? I have met a few teens with attitude issues. Ok, I might have been one of them. Sometimes, I'm still angsty. But this whole trope of hating the entire world and treating everyone like crap is just a dead horse. And the legit easiest way for me to absolutely despise a character.
Also, again, the treatment of fandom culture. As if it doesn't exist, and is a bullied idea. Come on guys. That's just NOT TRUE. Infinity War just made more money than literally every other movie, ever. And if Marvel doesn't run on fandom, IDK, I've been living on Mars, maybe.
Also, Tumblr is going well. I wear a Gryffindor shirt, I will literally get 5 compliments within an hour of leaving my house. I walk into Hot Topic and there are ALWAYS people there. Fandom is a booming industry and having a main character be the ONLY fandom gal in an entire state is just non sense.

And in the middle of this teenage angst, we have the actor guy. Who I cannot remember his name, because he is the WORST and SO FORGETTABLE. Gah, he made me grind my teeth. I absolutely hated his character. Please. Just kill him already.

Now, for the Demonheart/Supernatural spin off. I've never watched Supernatural. I don't give a flying saucer about the show. but my sister watches the show. And just from Insta stories, I knew Demon Heart was a complete, complete ripoff. More ripoff than Carry On in Fangirl? Yes. Because this book asks us to take it SERIOUSLY. It's so effing pretentious, and I could not stand it.
Also, the entire conflict between Claire the fan and the demon heart cast dude, was an entire word-for-word steal of event between Supernatural and a fan. Really? Just kill me.

Then Claire hops on the publicity bus, really? Does that happen? NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. And she meets Tess. The F/F relationship we've all been promised.
Spoiler - this relationship is manipulative. It is harsh, and vindictive and just wrong.

And Claire isn't just manipulate and an absolute jerk to Tess. She's rude and manipulate to everyone. It's not just teenage angst. I'm 100% convinced Claire is a villain. I don't know how the author convinced herself this book was a good idea.

Ok, that was salty. Really salty. Because I hated this book. And hated the fact that I was expecting GOOD things.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. AS you can tell, this was super honest

Though I am not a big fandom person, I always enjoy reading about them. I have read books that show the fun side of fandoms, as well as the dark side of fandoms, but this is the first time fandoms have been pitted against the creators.

Though this book was not as lighthearted as I expected, I did find Lundin's approach intriguing. The story is told from the point of view of Claire, a fan and fairly popular fan fic writer, and Forest, one of the stars of Demon Heart. Hearing the story from the side both sides was interesting. I thought it allowed the various issues to be presented in a balanced way, and I always appreciate that.

Lundin created many wonderful characters, who added some fun and heart to the story. Claire's mom was hilarious, and Rico, Forest's co-star was just an all-around fabulous guy. I loved his bromance with Forest, and found him so charming.

As was the case with other books I read featuring character written pieces, I found I was not that interested in the fan fic. I know there are people, who will enjoy it, but I always find it distracting when there is another story injected into the story I am reading.

Though this book had some bumps for me, I felt it was a solid read, which explored fandoms in a new way, while also tackling first love, the industry's lack of inclusivity, and sexual identity.

★☆☆☆☆

When I read the book description, I did, originally, pass it up. And then I went back and read it again later, and I went "ok, this might be alright. let's give it a shot."

Do not give it a shot.

I was 4% into the book (according to my kindle app) when I started "hmmm"-ing.

At 47% I went "I think I'm going to have to DNF" which I hate doing for ARCs. Hate. I've been trying to get better about not wasting my time. I ended up skimming the rest of the book.

This book is about Claire who writes gay fanfiction about a pairing from the show Supernatural Demon Heart. She went to a convention and asked one of the main actors about his character being gay, which he then told her off for. She cried (rightly so tbh). Then the publicity crew decided that to smooth things over, they'd add this belligerent teenager with "digital influence" to their team and take her to conventions with them.

Sound familiar? Well, it already happened! Minus the adding her to publicity crew part.

I could overlook the weird farm popularity stereotype (which... ok). Maybe even overlook the claim that Claire is the only fandom member in the area. It seems a bit of wild claim that in this modern age -- where literally everyone I know is a fan of some random tv show -- that everyone else in Claire's small town is interested in farm fashion and tight ponytails. Unlikely and pretentious, but overlookable.

This whole book would be maybe ok/more acceptable if it was about Claire learning from her mistakes. But it's not -- there's a real weak apology thing at the end and that's it. Instead, we get:

She scoffs at airhead jocks farm boys and their cheerleader tight ponytail girlfriends.
Sort of ""outs"" Tess by telling her friend group (that aren't really friends, because they'd make fun of her for a tv show??) that she likes this one tv show
Writes explicit fanfiction about actual real-life people and publishes it, which is not ok.
Does a lot of things that don't seem to have any negative repercussions.
There were some parts that I actually enjoyed (the introduction to Comic-Con, Tess and Claire at dinner [the first time]), and I even smiled a couple times. But overall I was pretty disappointed and at times straight disgusted with how Claire acted.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Book Group for the opportunity to read this novel and provide an honest review.

What an excellent first novel. Or really any numbered novel. Lundin shows the inside of the fangirling world as one who's lived it, while covering the "ship-shaming" involved in many non-canon LGBTQ ships AND the main character's discovering of the person she is developing into. Really loved it.

Ship It is a YA novel by debut author Britta Lundin. I was excited about the opportunity to read this book because I enjoy YA books, and the premise intrigued me.

Claire is a teenage girl living in rural Idaho. She doesn’t have a lot of friends at school, but she is a very active member in the Demon Heart fan community online. She writes slash fanfiction (gay romance) about the two male protagonists, and is absolutely convinced of the chemistry between them. When a comic convention comes to Boise, Claire is eager to attend the Demon Heart panel. She asks the actors whether or not he’ll be making SmokeHeart (the romantic pairing) canon (a real part of the show). Forest, who is one of the actors, answers rather rudely, and Claire is devastated and embarrassed. However, she ends up winning a huge prize- the chance to travel with the cast to two more conventions.

Claire knows that she needs to mend things with Forest, but at the same time, she wants to convince him of SmokeHeart’s importance. She also wants to convince Jamie, the showrunner, to make SmokeHeart canon. She’s rather persistent in her efforts.

But that’s not all that’s going on- Claire meets Tess, who loves drawing fanart. Tess is pansexual, and as Claire gets to know her, she begins to question whether or not she’s developing feelings for Tess.

The narrative shifts between Claire’s perspective and Forest’s perspective. This job with Demon Heart is Forest’s first major role after years of struggling to find roles. This is his first exposure to the convention scene, and he is taken aback by Claire’s questions. He never considered that his character could be gay, and it’s a lot for him to unpack. These dual perspectives are interspersed with some of Claire’s SmokeHeart fiction.

This was a sweet book, but there were also moments of angst and self-reflection and discovery. I’m out of the target demographic, but I do know enough about fandoms to know about slashfic and showrunners. Tess does make some questionable choices, but this is typical of a teenager. They don’t always have empathy, and their planning/problem solving skills are still being developed. So, while her behavior may be seen as obsessive and problematic, it’s not entirely atypical for someone her age.

I would recommend Ship It. I think that it will appeal mostly to its target demographic, but I also think that older readers who enjoy being part of a fandom will appreciate this book as well. I am looking forward to reading more from Lundin in the future!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book.

This book is like a love letter to lovers of fandoms and fan fiction everywhere. Great representation of the queer community and discussions about race representations in Hollywood. The character transformations (and lack thereof) are believable and honest. I didn’t want the book to end. Please, more Claire and Tess and Forest and Rico!

Just couldn’t get into it and stopped half way through because some of the characters actions made me uncomfortable

I was really excited to read this because it was a book about fandom! And I like fandom, so I assumed I would like this! Especially cause I've been a fan of some trash shows in my day and I write fanfiction so I understand where the main character Claire is coming from. Unfortunately, I think that's the only thing I understood about this whole novel.

Basically, Claire is obsessed with this show called Demon Heart and goes to see the cast at a convention, when she asks about the popular ship of the show Smokeheart. The cast basically shoots her down and Claire runs out crying. Then the PR team decides to invite Claire along with them for the rest of the convention circuit. It switches perspective between Claire and the main actor of the show Forest.

I think if this book had come out in 2012 when Supernatural was at an all time high, or even after when Teen Wolf was really big, this would have been a hit. But in 2018? This is the most embarassing, unrealistic drivel I have ever read.

I'm not going to spoiler tag but just know that from here on out there are spoilers. If you want a very articulate version of why I disliked this book, please read Madison's review <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2320776737?book_show_action=true"> here.</a>

The idea that an actor would speak out and be like "it's never going to happen" on tour is ridiculous. That the PR team would then INVITE THE PERSON WHO RAN OUT CRYING along with them is RIDICULOUS. That would never happen in the WORLD. And then Claire doesn't seem to realize that just because she might be queer doesn't mean she needs to force things around her to be queer? Her never stopping crusade to make the characters gay was painfully embarrassing. It was like she was twelve.

The romance in this wasn't believable because they literally had 1 thing in common and fought about it constantly. I wanted it to be cute but it was just painfully awkward.

The fanfiction pieces in this were unnecessary and cringy, especially since WE AS READERS DON'T KNOW THE SHOW. Why would we want to read fanfiction about it??

Everything about this was so cringy and I agree with Madison that this book really shouldn't have been published. There was basically nothing I can recommend about this book. I even thought it stretched on way too long. It wasn't even short! I can't fathom the love other reviewers are having for this book. A major letdown all around and one I would encourage everyone to stay clear of.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bleh. I should’ve known that a book by a Riverdale writer would be annoying and problematic. I have lots of feelings and I’m not completely settled on my 3-star rating. I’d even say if Goodreads allowed half stars, I’d give it 2.5 which is very disappointing, seeing as it’s been compared to some of my favourite books (Queens of Geek, Geekerella, Fangirl, Eliza and Her Monsters) AND the fabulous Mackenzi Lee called it “one of the good ones”.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
I was so excited for this book. Come on: a book about queer fangirls with awesome rep? Sign me up!
If you want that, read any of the books listed above instead.
Let’s break this down bullet point style because I have too many things to say:
Likes:
• Rico, my innocent cinnamon roll
• Trudi and Chuck (the main character’s parents)
• uhhhh
• Rico
• The writing style *heart eyes*
• The nerdy references
• did i mention Rico
Okay, when it’s all out there, there wasn’t much that I liked. Rico was literally the only character I actually enjoyed reading about, and who didn’t make me roll my eyes.
Dislikes:
• Claire, the main fucking character
• Tess, the love interest
• Forest, the other main character
• Caty, the ACTUAL PYSCOPATHIC social media manager person or whatever
• Every single character could drop dead and I wouldn’t give a shit tbh
• THAT NOBODY’S ACTIONS HAD CONSEQUENCES *insert that vine*
• fucking dumbshit Claire
• TESS AHDKSHKAJH
• Smokey and Heart are the WORST names EVER WHY WOULD YOU NAME YOUR SUPERNATURAL RIP-OFF CHARACTERS S M O K E Y AND H E A R T WTF
Writing this is making me really want to lower my rating. Lol.
Okay let’s get into some details. Claire Strupke is a hardcore fangirl for the (like I said above) demon-hunting-teenage-heartthrobs-Supernatural-rip-off TV show called Demon Heart. And yes, the show is about a demon named Heart who, you guessed it, is the only demon who has a heart.
Wow. So creative. Such imagination.
Claire finds out that the actors of Demon Heart, Forest Reed and Rico Quiroz, and the showrunner, Jamie Davies, are coming to the Comic-Con near her town. She somehow convinces her hippie artist (and probably stoner) parents, Chuck and Trudi, to let her go, so off Claire and Trudi go.
Long story short: Claire goes to a Demon Heart panel, is her obnoxious, annoying self, and has this whole thing with Forest Reed in front of everyone. Forest calls the fans of Demon Heart ‘crazy’ and Claire leaves the panel in tears, which made me chuckle tbh.
The publicity team for the show goes into overdrive and they form a plan to get host a contest, but Claire is the only entry, so she of course wins. Claire wins the chance to travel with the Demon Heart team to the rest of their convention stops and do social media stuff to make them look better.
Stay with me here. You’re just going to have to expand your limits of belief.
So, Claire and her mom join them on the tour bus off they go. I honestly can’t remember what cities they go to, but I think it’s Portland and then Seattle.
Oh, there’s also this girl Claire meets back in line for the panel, a chubby black girl called Tess, and they exchange Tumblr URLs. Claire realizes from Tess’s bio that Tess is pansexual. Okay, a chubby black pansexual girl. Rep for the win. Claire also realizes she thinks Tess is hot as hell (well, she doesn’t say that, but she might as well have).
The rest of the book is filled with pretty unmemorable events, so I’ll just gloss over those: Claire and Forest fight, Claire and Tess go on a date and make out, Claire and Forest fight, Claire writes sexytime fanfiction, Claire and Forest fight, Claire’s mom is funny and nice, and Claire is mean to her, etc. etc.
Now we’re at the last thirty or so percent of the book. Claire has been obsessively trying to get Jamie Davies to change HIS show to represent what SHE wants, and she even resorts to hacking his Twitter account (with the help of Caty, mentioned above), changing his banner to smutty fanart, and tweeting nice things about the Demon Heart fans. Uh, okay, this is officially insane. And sure, Jamie admits to queerbaiting with Smokey and Heart (ick) to get more viewers, but like, just stop watching the show then, Claire. You can’t force people to write their shows for you. There’s a reason fanfiction exists.
OH MY GOSH. How could I forget to mention? There’s a scene in, I think, Seattle? Claire and Tess have gone to sushi place to talk, I forget about what or when this scene happened. Whatever. Anyways, they’re talking, and Tess’s friends show up, because of course they do. Why is everything so damn convenient in this book? So Tess invites them to sit with them and she becomes a completely different person, which Claire is confused about, but then figures out is because Tess’s friends don’t know she’s a total nerd. Also, somehow this group of “tank top and heels” wearing, skinny, white girls, are friends with Tess. This doesn’t add up, tbh, because she obviously doesn’t fit in with their clique.
Claire eventually decides to tell Tess’s friends about her Demon Heart obsession, which honestly isn’t that embarrassing in the year 2018 and literally should not have been such a big deal. Tess asks Claire to talk privately so they step outside, which leads to them yelling in the street and Tess outing Claire to her mom, who shows up during the fight.
“Your daughter’s gay.”
This will sit with me for a while. Tess, a pansexual girl, who claims to have been discriminated against for multiple things, has just OUTED A QUESTIONING PERSON. This is DISGUSTING and quite frankly, I wanted to stop reading right then and there.
A lot of other stuff happens, like Forest and Rico kissing during a panel (and I honestly feel like Forest and Rico were queerbait because Forest ends up with Caty after the two dudes kissed and Forest felt SPARKS AND ALL THIS GAY SHIT. But nope. Wow, Britta Lundin, did you base Jamie Davies off yourself???). Claire moderates this panel and then after being asked by a 10-year-old fangirl how to respond to mean people about writing fanfiction, Claire launches into this ridiculous rant about who-fucking-knows-what. I don’t even remember. It was lame and ended with her coming out as queer. Which is cool, but she’s still a terrible person.
Claire and Tess both apologize (right…because telling somebody that you like an “embarrassing” tv show is the same as OUTING someone. Bullshit.) and they make out in front of everyone.
Hold on a second. *opens Goodreads* *changes rating for Ship It from 3 to 2 stars*. Okay, I’m back. That’s better.
Well, I think that about wraps it up. Overall, I adored the first 25% and I was expecting it to be a 5-star rating, but it fell quickly and boy howdy am I livid. Lol.
Would not recommend.

I wish this book was better. I was really pleased with the premise, and the LGBTQ+ angle. I really hoped i would have something to show my students that would be on par with Fangirl, but with a different angle. This book is just not as good, and is a bit of a mess. It's obvious that the author wanted to write a lesbian Fangirl, but the fanfiction element is ultimately painful to read. Writing bad fanfiction is ultimately a thing, but it doesn't mean I want to read it in a published novel. I will still recommend it, but I hope someone else tackles the topics.

A solid "meh."

It was entertaining enough that I was able to read 75% of it in one day (the day my ARC from Netgalley was going to expire -- thanks, Netgalley for the review copy!), but it really took me until a third of the way to be remotely interested in the book. I almost quit a few times. It's a YA book about fandom, so I wasn't expecting a masterpiece here, and obviously it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief (which is fine by me, generally), but compared to others in the genre (GEEKERELLA or FANGIRL), it was a bit disappointing.

Had I read this book two weeks ago, I would've thought the main character (Claire) was annoying AF and ridiculously fake. But then I actually went to a con (I was working the Once Upon A Time convention a few weekends ago) and met diehard fangirls in IRL. I realized that her character is not at all an exaggeration of what hardcore fangirls are like. I'll confess to reading fic (and even writing it on occasion, because it's a good creative writing outlet), but that's really my only connection to any fandoms. But man, the stuff that happens in this book and the drama is totally legit. Cons are a very strange experience. All that said, her character still bugged me a bit at times, but they all did. The people in this book have their moments of over-the-top horribleness as human beings. But, they mostly redeem themselves, and it advances the plot, so whatever.

My biggest issue with this book is the alternating POVs, which seems to be a theme in so many books I've read this year, and they all switch male/female perspectives. I really hate that in general, but I've really struggled to find someone who writes it well. To me, it doesn't feel like the characters are actually changing. They all have the same style of internal monologue, ways of describing things, etc., so it bugs me. It would have been better if it stuck with one POV.

I also wasn't a fan of the random fanfic chapters interspersed, because it's hard to read fanfic for a fake show that you don't really know anything about. I guess maybe the intent was for readers to substitute their own fandom characters into those portions? Idk. I found myself barely skimming those and quickly moving on. And honestly, the fanfic portions read like the rest of the book, which made it weird too. Like, the main character is a 16 y/o girl, so the fanfic she's writing should read like a 16 y/o wrote it, not the author. (Or maybe it's the overall book writing that feels young on the whole -- at times I was trying to figure out the age range for the target reader. The language and sex in the book is clearly not intended for middle schoolers, but it is a Freeform book and seems to be aimed younger in terms of writing level, so I have no idea).

And truthfully, I found the Claire/Forest/Rico friendship a bit odd. Claire is this 16 y/o girl, Forest is like 24, and then Rico is 35ish...and yet they are all chatting and hanging out like they're the same age, which gave me a little bit of a creepy vibe at times (just cuz like, would a 35 y/o actor be texting a 16 y/o fangirl he's known for like 3 days through a con?). Personally, I would have rather had Claire be 19 or 20, lose the eccentric parents storyline (because it wasn't necessary the the plot and felt like an afterthought), and it would have been less weird-feeling and Claire still could have gone through her whole self-discovery development arc. Especially because there are a lot of rumors about what goes on at cons in terms of adult dude actors behaving inappropriately with underaged girls. It just gave me a bit of a gross vibe.

There's a lot of intersectionality in this book, which is great and I think she handled well -- it wasn't over the top where it felt like she was pushing an agenda or taking it over the top, which can often happen when writers try to address it. But, she addressed some very real issues in Hollywood (particularly these types of shows) in a way where it supported the plot and led to some character growth, while also calling out the industry.

Overall, if you're not someone who would go to a con or read fanfic, this is definitely not the book for you (I think you'd be lost and annoyed). If you are, you might enjoy it.

For fans of Queens of Geek, Eliza and her Monsters, Fangirl and Geekarella, this book is for you.


Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc.

Meet Claire. She writes fanfiction about a show called Demon Heart so when she finds out her favorite actors are coming to her home state for a convention, she races for the chance to go. Using her platform, she asks the show's writer and actors whether they think the two main characters, Smokey and Heart are romantically involved (which is mostly what she writes her fanfiction about) and is sad to learn that Forest, the actor who pays Smokey is less than enthused about the subject of his character being gay.

Meet Forest. He got his big break in Demon Heart and has dreams of becoming a big actor, playing a lead in a movie based on one of his favorite video games. After causing steam after Claire's question at the convention, he is even more disappointed to find that she's coming along for the convention tour.

Claire and Forest both grow as characters. Claire isn't so sure that she's queer, even when she falls for a girl she met while touring with the show and Forest needs to tone down his ego and border-line homophobia. These two are great in their banter and their growth as people and eventually friends.

What I loved:
The fandoms
The character arcs
Supportive and funny parents
Great inner dialogue
The diversity
Satisfying ending

I cannot wait to buy it when it releases.