I'm probably just not the right audience? I don't tend to like more than 2 POV in a story because it feels chaotic, distracting, and often unnecessary. This book unfortunately was chaotic on a few levels with the additional extra media built in. I just couldn't get into the story because I was too busy trying to figure out who's head o was in or switching gears.
Fan fiction isn't really my thing and despite liking vampire tropes I was never a Twilight or Buffy fan, I think fitting in to this category would make this book more enjoyable.
Over all the underlying story was respectful of SA victims and the lasting trauma which I very much appreciate. I may have over expected the amount of romance that would be involved.

In the end this is 3 stars for me.

I love any books about vampires and this one was no different. I loved the lore and the description of the vampires. A funny and quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC

I really liked the premise of this novel, and I enjoyed it for the most part. However, there was a few things that just kind of irked me a little bit. I could have done without some the extra inclusions, such as the podcast transcripts and the emails. They were a little tedious to read, which that might be attributed to the format I was reading the ARC on. Hopefully, I will change my mind on these inclusion once the novel is published, I really think the formatting is my issue. Though not all inclusions are bad, the inclusions of Blood Feud were fantastic. They were helpful to have in terms of the world building, and generally just to know what is going on.

That being said, I really did enjoy the rest of this novel. It did start slow, but once it got going it never stopped. The characters were absolutely fantastic and fleshed out really well. This is a solid vampire novel for those who love that trope!! The novel does deal with really heavy themes (SA off page, surviving SA). There is a preface detailing all TW's, so please be sure to read it!

Also, please read the TW's at the beginning of this novel!

4/5

As someone who is in my Buffy phase, I really appreciated this book. Chaotic Morally-gray vampires like Spike have my heart. They’re just soft boys on the inside.
This book has a unique plot with very fun characters. Astronomical amount of Twilight and other vampire movies referenced, which is to be expected. I need the vampires to acknowledge that their existence has been used for romanticizing creepy guys.

Thank you NetGalley for eArk!

So I'm decidedly not a vampire person, but I loved Kate Stayman-London's last novel, so I was excited about this one as well. It did not disappoint. Whip smart commentary wrapped up in a fantasy tale about a former academic and how she gets mixed up with a vampire story. I highly recommend this to you, even if you couldn't get through Twilight.

Fang Fiction is a quick, fun read, perfect for the upcoming summer season. The world building is well done, the dialogue is fun and the characters are interesting. It’s not your typical vampire romance, which I very much enjoyed. It’s always nice to see a new spin on a much written about theme.

Although the plot of Fang Fiction centers around the (off-page) sexual assault of Tess, it also manages to be fun and silly, balancing both the dark and the light in a way that felt natural. I really enjoyed the thoughtful use of vampires (and their strength and ability to control people) as a means of allowing the main character to heal and to learn to trust herself and other people again. I also loved the elements of fandom and fanfiction, how a community created primarily online can be a source of escapism, obsession, joy, and support. Fans of Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and other vampire media will probably enjoy this book.

Fang Fiction dealt with the heavy topic of rape in a thoughtful, sensitive way. I appreciated the trigger warning at the very front of the book so there were no surprises. Tess and her trauma struck me as very realistic, especially her fear and panic when she was triggered years later, which was occasionally tough to read.

Overall, my main takeaway was that this book was fun, didn't take itself too seriously (especially on the Isle, which is pure imagination and wish fulfillment), and is a fast-paced romp. Just mind the trigger warnings.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Thank you Random House for the ARC. Unfortunately this just wasn't the book for me, between the multiple POVs, podcast dialogue, and segments from Blood Feud the book felt disjointed. It felt like there was too much going on and it never truly grabbed my attention.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for honest feedback.

I’m going to start off by saying that if you expect this to be a romantic comedy please go back and look at the genre tags on this because it is NOT that. This book may have vampires in it but there’s some really heavy themes in this book. In fact, if you are a survivor of SA I fully suggest you read the TWs on this book before jumping in.

All that aside this book was amazing. She managed to combine heavy themes, vampires, and some good old fashion feminism together into a story that was really hard to put down. I liked that her vampires weren’t super human mutants but more like regular people who just happened to be vampires. It made them more relatable and fun to read about (side note: if there’s a sequel I need more Hamish, thanks!)

As for our main and side characters: Tess/Callum/Joni/Octavia. I loved all of them. You rooted for them the entire time, even when they were being stupid but especially by the end when everyone had their “personality glow up”

Maybe it’s cause I’m a millenial who lived through the Twilight era but I’m giving it 4 stars. (Again, read the TWs and remember that surviving SA is a major theme in the book.)

It wasn't that the book was bad, it just wasn't for me. I usually love multiple POV's but this one jumped around a lot (Tess, Joni, Octavia, Callum). I'd get to a good part of the plot and it would be such a quick shift to another POV. I know this is supposed to keep you reading but the gaps between the character you'd been on felt so long, especially with the added podcast narrative, text message dialogue, and chapter excerpts of Blood Feud. I wanted more time on the isle. I also wish that the story would've focused more on one romance. A second book from Joni and Octavia's POV or in general a sequel regarding their love story would've been fantastic. To fit both Tess and Callum, and then Joni and Octavia's stories into the one book felt like a lot. I tried to focus on the details the author presented but ended up skimming some parts. I went into the read thinking this was going to be more of a romantic comedy but the plot was heavier than I anticipated. I had read the trigger warnings and new there would be some mentions of sexual assault but I didn't realize how heavily centered around the plot this would be.

This partially epistolary, riotously violent, and heart-wrenchingly expository novel is an absolutely fun and gripping novel. Following Tess, a former-grad student and vampire-novel conspiracist, Fang Fiction tells the story that all fans of vampire novels wish were true - all the stories are real.

Imagine if the characters from your favorite fantasy book were real.

Grad students Tess and Joni bonded over their love of Blood Feud, a series of vampire books. A few years later, they’re no longer speaking. Tess dropped our of school for reasons she won’t tell Joni, and now works at a hotel.

One night a woman approaches her, looking exactly like a character from her favorite book. To help her, Tess goes to the Isle where vampires are trapped, hoping to free them.

This story was a little slow at times, but was fun overall. It was interesting to figure out if everything from the Blood Feud stories was the truth for the actual vampires, such as who really the villain. This story also handles the aftermath and recovery from sexual assault, and addresses the issue with care. Overall, a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

To the author: please, PLEASE keep writing funny, witty, totally devastating novels like this!!!
To all future readers: you are in for SUCH A TREAT!!!! This novel, from start to finish, grabs ahold of you and simply won't let you go. Even after the book ended, I just wanted to read more! (Kate Stayman-London, please give us more of these darling characters!!) The world-building was beautiful, all the characters were so fleshed out, and while there were a couple of plot twists I did see coming, there were plenty more I didn't!
Tess, the main character, is so funny, kind, and relatable. From the first page, I could see she was dealing with some type of trauma and struggling so badly with it. There are mentions of sexual assault, but nothing graphic was described in the novel (THANK YOU!!!!). Overall, I fell in love with Tess, Joni, Callum, Olivia, and especially SYLVIE!! The Queer elements present in this novel were amazing, I so loved that the author didn't shy away from showing non-het relationships and non-cis identities as well. I spent my entire night reading this novel, and the only thing I regret is how quickly I finished it! Please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pick this novel up, especially all my AO3 peeps out there!!

4.5 rounded up~
Imagine you found out the world and characters of your favorite fantasy series were REAL and they needed your help! Well, that's Fang Fiction!
This book had strong women, vampires, witches, a Bar Between worlds, twists, turns, all of it! I couldn't put this book down. It was like a mix of Buffy, Twilight, and The Magicians. I mean that all in the best way possible, it was phenomenal. My only complaint is that I can't tell all of my friends to read it right this second, because it doesn't even come out until October!
Yeah, okay, I got to read this as an arc from NetGalley (thanks Random House!), but I swear my review would be the same if I paid for it. Honestly, I'd be a little happier if I paid for it because I'd get to keep it! You can bet I'll be buying a copy of this for my shelf as soon as it drops.

Isn't this what we all wish for? The opportunity to meet and/or interact with our favorite book characters? But, it can be more than we bargained for. What a great fantasy title - I loved every word!

First off, I'm not a romance reader, but I'm looking to expand my literary horizons and be able to provide more informed reader's advisory in the future. This seemed like a great jumping off point, because I love vampires, fandom culture, and a little meta for the hell of it. Tragically, it was not. I knew that the second a character announced themselves to be a huge whopping lesbian or whatever Joni said. It sent shivers down my spine. Seriously.

There's no need for so many POVs. The characters all have pretty much the same internal voice and there were multiple points where I forgot if I was listening in on Tess, Joni, or Octavia until their names were brought up (Callum was only saved from this from being the only man). Them changing every few paragraphs a lot of the time did not help this. The very minor differentials between personalities

The relationships weren't compelling at all. I have nothing much to say about Tess and Callum because I don't care about straight people (the ending of them just tag-team murdering creeps should have been the whole book, I don't care, don't @ me about this), but Octavia and Joni were such a laughably token relationship that it looped around to being camp. The dominant, high fashion girlboss femme and the subby, schlubby academic puppygirl? HELLO. I saw this half-joke, half-yearning-for-it-to-happen-to-me on Twitter like 15000 times from all my trans girl mutuals. I don't need it here. They fall in love IMMEDIATELY because the book happens over like, three weeks, two of those being on the Isle, which is an insane timeline and very funny when there is a moment where the protagonist mentions 'all those weeks ago'. What 'all those weeks ago', Tess? You spent at least half of that boning this man from what we can tell so it was probably like, four days from when you arrived on the Isle before that happened for the first time. This makes it sound like months.

Also, this is an incredibly white and straight view of fandom. Given that 3/4 of the main cast are POC and 2/4 are (explicitly) queer I would have liked to see, like, a little bit more on that? The podcast episode segments were awful, the ad read jokes were unfunny, and I see why it's a slow month for ads because you two just exposition dump to us and it sounds like the worst Spotify Original in the world.

Also also, why is the goth a Taylor Swift stan? White girl hypercapitalism and faux allyship goes against all goth standards. Sick and twisted of you to do that, Ms. Stayman-London. I almost laughed out loud when the extras featured a whole section on what Taylor Swift songs were each character because so much of this book was so painfully clear then.

Writing-wise, there were an incessant number of interrobangs to the point that I got annoyed seeing them?! Besides that, there's nothing notable to say. It sure was some writing, or whatever. Most 'twists' were extremely obvious and it would have been more transgressive for the 'surprise' villain to actually just be the 'good' guy. Paternalism combined with a saviour complex is also a very evil, irritating thing. You don't need him to be a raging misogynistic hater for people not to like him. Callum was just as bad and irritating with the whole "it's your choice" thing, a phrase that has done irreplaceable damage to the literary community by making the bare minimum sound like the most romantic thing in the world, so thanks, Sarah J. Maas. Excellent work, really.

I'm not going to get into the SA content, because every survivor has a different journey, but as a survivor myself, I did not like it!

Given what I know about romance readers, they'd probably have a lot to like about this, so I'd probably give it a three stars for them (which I don't mean as a knock -- I would never want to yuck people's yum, different strokes for different folks, etc.) But for me, this is something I'm going to shelve and flash back to painfully the next time I boot up Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and appreciate all that richness that universe provides to us.

(On a tangent here, because I'm very passionate about this: the vampire sire rules are so bad and make no sense. Why did Callum and Octavia feel such a deep need to serve Konstantin when he was straight up murdering children if he has no way to compel them to actual loyalty a la a sire bond? Okay, he gave you immortal life and lifted you out of poverty and child slavery, but he also put all those other kids into poverty and child slavery and then ate them? And Callum said aloud that they were his friends? But thralls are a thing? So why is there no sire bond when that involves sharing blood both ways? Is this a matter of blood potency or something? The glamour rules also made no sense to me, but that's such an extensive part of the book that I feel overwhelmed getting into it, really. You can just make food? Does the food have the same nutritional value as the things you glamoured, or...? But then sometimes it seems like they're making food out of thin air and it satisfies and nourishes you, so just PLEASE! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE! Even TERF captain J.K. Rowling had this figured out.)

Can I first say that this book made me kick my feet and squeal.....I felt like I was transported back to the early 2000's reading Twilight for the first time and wishing that world existed....but with more Spike from buffy, than Edward. This book gave me everything I loved! broody MMC, tortured FMC who finds her inner bad ass, and side characters that I need book sequels for! as much as I loved Callum and Octavia, I really connected with Joni and Tess and their friendship. This story doesn't slow down at all and I found myself staying up way to late to keep reading. This is my first Kate book, and I plan on picking up One to Watch next. overall I loved this story and if you want to feel a little twihard nostalgia (at least that is what it was for me) I think you will want to pick up this book.

This book was a fun read if you don't take it too seriously. The concept of this is unique and interesting and considering I am also a fan of fanfiction, I expected to love this but I ended up just liking it. I did really like that the FMC read fanfiction of these vamps and it turned out they were real and she was basically reading about their lives. I dubbed them "The Real Vamps of Blood-Feud" in my mind. I did feel like the book dragged a bit and considering this book isn't all that long, that says something in itself. I loved the mixed media aspect of this book as I think it adds a bit of extra fun and realness to the story. If you are looking for a silly, campy, vampy story, look no further!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Expected Pub Date: 10/1/24

"Fang Fiction" by Kate Stayman-London was a unique story with a concept captivating to any fanfiction writer, fandoms followers, or anyone who's gawked over Buffy.

This story was not your average 'Mary-sue girl falls into her fantasy world' trope. It more so plays as an escapism and a self-healing journey for our FMC Tess--she goes through a lot, and this story focuses more on her character growth rather than the 'sexy and romantic' aspect of vampires. There's a lot in this book, it's thicc with plot and sometimes I had to push myself to continue reading, or even re-read at some points. Occasionally there's too much information, other times there is too little (missing plot points, weird POVs). The coupling(s) in this story are okay, but it's lackluster in spark and chemistry, feels more like a good companionship.

3/5 Stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

Okay, so I loved Kate Stayman-London's debut, "One to Watch". This is a complete tone shift, but honestly? Her writing style is one I immediately vibed with. I loved it!