This was a fast paced, female driven, funny, and impossible to put down read! I LOVED it!! I'm not sure this book should have worked, but for me it totally did! I'm also here for the plus size fmc rep, I would absolutely recommend this book! Just don't take it to seriously.

Unfortunately the writing in this felt very juvenile and just wasn’t up to par with my tastes. The overuse of punctuation (i.e. ??? And !!!) felt wrong and out of place. For a story that wanted to convey serious subject matter, it didn’t seem that serious. Just not for me.

This book was the perfect Vampire Diaries/ Buffy/ Twilight mashup ever! It has a cheesy vampy storyline but with amazing girl power and made me smile a LOT. It was a book I looked forward to reading and stayed up late to finish it… even after the baby fell asleep.. which is saying a lot because she’s a baby so I should be sleeping every chance I get! LOL

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
The world of your favorite fantasy Fang Fiction is real, and imagine getting pulled into the plot. I honestly did not know what to expect of this book, but I devoured it. It was unique, and I liked the premise. There were parts where I started skimming a little, mostly earlier in the book, but as the plot thickened, I was fully in.
It's an enjoyable read for Vampire fans! Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the Publisher for the ARC of this entertaining read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Fang fiction is a fangtastically great time if you're a fan of vampire fan fiction, love stories about books, and pop culture references. This story opens with Tess, a PhD student of literature, who ends up leaving this life behind after a traumatic event. Becoming an insomniac, losing her best friend, and become a night manager at a hotel, Tess finds comfort in her favourite vampire books: Blood Feud. She knows the ins and outs of all the characters and storylines. She has also written articles on social media and has kept on top of conspiracy theories suggesting that these vampires are real. The author of these popular books remains unknown and feeds into the popularity about these books.

One night while working at the hotel, Tess meets one of the vampires and quickly learns that yes, indeed, Blood Feud is real, and that this vampire villain needs Tess to help them on a quest to reunite them with a loved one. Soon after, Tress is thrust into a world of vampires and witches, jade pools, and enchanted meadows. Even though she knows these books inside and out, she quickly discovers that there are more questions than answers. What is fact and what is fiction? Who are the villains in this story?

This was a highly enjoyable read which had diverse and quirky characters. There are many nods to popular vampire fiction and pop culture in general. Interspersed in the story are excerpts from Blood Feud, text messages, emails between characters, articles, and pod cast episodes. It's tongue in cheek and wickedly funny that will have you eagerly consuming this book. Talking about consuming, the book is a fascinating read about fiction, villainy/heroism, trauma, and resilience. The author was very sensitive in writing about trauma. For those interested there is also a playlist found at the back of the novel and a playlist that can be found on spotify. This was a fun and entertaining read!

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!