I fully expected to love this book from the cover alone, and oh my god it did not disappoint. I’ve been vampire obsessed since I was a kid, and I have very strong opinions about vampire media. And oh my god this book did everything right.

Tess, our main character, is obsessed with a vampire book series. Reading these books helps her cope with some of the hardest moments in her life.* To her surprise, it turns out vampires (specifically those starring in her favourite books) are REAL and she gets roped into their dramatic, dangerous, and intriguing lives. I’ve never read a romance with quite so much world building, but oh my god I was sucked in immediately.

The book does a fantastic job balancing some very heavy content and themes with lighter, slightly ridiculous ones - like a vampire who’s obsessed with pop culture, specifically twilight.

I also absolutely adored Kate Stayman London’s iconic use of various story telling formats - as readers, get the story told to us a very unconventional way, and we’re often piecing things together ourselves. The narrative has breaks for podcast transcripts, text conversations, news paper articles, buzzfeed style quizzes, even chapters of the blood feud books themselves, and so much more. This is something I think can be so confusing if it isn’t executed properly, but it’s so perfectly done in fang fiction- it’s so interesting and adds so many layers to the story.

The characters in this book are all so well written - complicated and messy and interesting. Calum and Octavia, twin vampires in the blood feud series Tess is so obsessed with, are probably two of my favourite vampires I’ve ever read. The entire cast of characters, from humans to vampires, was so diverse. It’s always so boring when yet another vampire in media is cis het and white. You’re telling me we’ve had we’ve had decades (centuries even!) of vampires who never once strayed away from the path of heteronormativity? Seems fake to me!! And this was absolutely not the case in fang fiction - a major plot is a romance between queer women of east and south Asian descent. There are trans vampires, queer vampires, and vampires of so many different ethnicities and backgrounds. I really loved how every single character was written - from mains to sides, they were all so complex and interesting. I could read a spin off about any one of them.

Overall, I absolutely adored this book. My one issue that I had is concern over some language used when describing a lesbian character - I’m always a little apprehensive when a slur is used before an actual label for a queer character (even if it’s done with the intention of reclaiming a term). This might have been changed in the final version, and I did enjoy the queer rep in the rest of the book, but this one moment gave me pause.


*content warnings: sexual assault, violence, death

I liked this. It was different than I thought it would be. In a good way though. It was the perfect October read

This was a really fun and unique book! It was the perfect campy, atmospheric, not creepy or scary spooky season book. It felt modern and relevant yet also like an old school romance novel. I thought the author did a really good job of keeping the writing level (not too emotional but not flat) in a way that made the unbelievable aspects of the fantasy seem completely plausible while also keeping the heavier topics meaningfully woven into the story. If sexual assault is a trigger for you, be aware that it is central to the plot of this book but know that it was addressed with sensitivity and gentleness. The romance in this book ended up being the least important storyline for me; I loved the friendships and found family parts even more.

Synopsis: After dropping out of a PhD program, Tess scratches her literature and writing itch by reading her favorite book, Blood Feud, and contributing to online fan forum speculation that the vampire main characters in the book actually do exist. Yet she’s still shocked when one of them shows up to her workplace, telling a fantastical story about escaping from an enchanted isle filled with warring vampire clans and magical lands that is exactly as described in Blood Feud. And only Tess can help reunite snarky and brilliant Octavia with her bad boy (and smoking hot) brother Callum and save the vampires from their evil leader?

This had SO much promise. I was ready to love this book and then it fell woefully short. I could not get into it. Two stars for the clever title

I've loved both of Kate's books, so she is going on my auto-read list. The premise of this book was so fun - surprise, the world of the most popular vampire YA book series is totally real, including the characters! I do feel this book skewed more towards Tess' personal journey and growth, but it was so enjoyable to be along for that ride. I will say there is a content warning for SA (in a flashback, on page but very vague), so be aware of that. I'd honestly love to read more books about Tess and Callum's life in the future.

This book is, at its heart, the story of a woman recovering from a sexual assault. When her favorite vampire book series turns out to be real, Tess has to learn how to trust her capabilities again after being violated. As a survivor of sexual assault, I felt like this book was an incredibly accurate representation of what it feels like to have to learn how to trust yourself and others again. I really appreciated the way that the book leans slowly into revealing more information about the event to give ample time for survivors to duck out if needed. Every aspect of Tess’s world is affected by her assault and the guilt and uncertainty felt very accurate to my personal experience. It felt like this was written by someone who intimately knows what having your bodily autonomy violated feels like.
Now back to the vampire part. Tess is an expert on the Blood Feud book series. This leads to one of the main characters enlisting her to help break the other vampires from the book out of a special prison world. The vampire aspect is very cheesy and camp. It does a wonderful job of harkening to the vampire culture of the 2000s and 2010s. I was deeply entrenched in vampire shows at the time, so this felt very nostalgic to me. The way the author blended a very sexy genre into a story about sexual assault was very artfully done. It almost felt like a period piece. It was based in the vampire culture of the 2000s, not in 2024. I admit that the writing sometimes felt typical for that time, while also twisting the stereotypical vampire tropes.
All in all, I thought that the way the book twisted vampire culture into a story about a woman’s bodily autonomy was enthralling and well done.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the eARC, but it did not affect my review in any way!

Kate Stayman-London has done it again! This author is one of my favorites and I was so excited to read Fang Fiction! For lovers of fantasy and romance - this book is the best of both worlds. You will escape reality and stumble into the world of Blood Feud of blood thirsty vampires and love interest!

I loved this book so much from the very beginning, I will be on the lookout for more books from the author (would love this to become a first in a series!) It was just so good! Basically imagine that all of a sudden you were living in your favorite fantasy book.

Tess the main character has basically been avoiding life after a terrible sexual assault. Imagine her surprise when a character from vampire series, Blood Feud shows up at her workplace looking for her. Are vampires real? Is she ok?

Can not wait for more!

A reader gets their wish when characters from a popular vampire book series turn out to be very real. Tess Rosenbloom quit her dream after a traumatic experience and has lived her life in survival mode ever since. Then a character from her favorite book series shows up and demands her help. Tess faces being trapped with hostile vampires and PTSD while she tries to fulfill a promise and find a way back to herself again. This is fanfiction in the best way and was incredibly fun to read.

This was really unique! I think my only issue with the characters was that I couldn’t relate with them. I think the idea and concept would make a great book but it just fell a little flat. The other thing is that this book was more marketed to be a silly romcom and then felt very serious due to the SA.

Wow I really enjoyed this. If you were a huge fan of twilight or the vampire diaries or enjoy reading fan fiction now, I think you’ll like this book, I wouldn’t say that it was *good* but I enjoyed the heck out of it, and for that I give it 3.75 stars. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review!

Believe it or not, this is my second book this month about a fictional supernatural pop culture phenomenon that turns out to be true. In this case it’s Blood Feud, a series of very popular, anonymous vampire novels that online rumors suggest might be based on real events. Tess is a diehard fan of the series who is approached by a woman claiming to be one of the real vampires, and she needs Tess’s help. Hijinks ensue.

A fun premise and an interesting story. I’m not sure I agree with the marketing that it’s a romance, though. There is some romance in the book, but it comes about quickly and isn’t really the point.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

I found this book so frustrating. I wanted to like it so bad but it was just all over the place and I never really connected to the characters or the writing style.

I am quite sad to say this didn't really work for me. It was fine, just fine not good or great, up until the halfway point, when my interest just sort of flopped and sagged, and my emotions gave up on it. The book is well-written in the sense that the prose is good and the dialogue interesting, but the premise here I think was a wasted premise. I think the author was trying to create a fun meta romance but the meta aspects didn't work for me, and I didn't really care about the fake world she was creating. The excerpts from the fake book series were not fun to read. That is essential in this type of book. I also didn't care at all about the love interest or the other drama that was going on. The most interesting parts of this book were very much underused: the main character's relationship with her best friend, and the best friend's lesbian romance with another vampire. Maybe a case of the story being told about the wrong character?

I did enjoy this when I started it I couldn't put it down. I was first wanting it for the cover but the inside, the story was more than expected.

Vampires are real and sexy.

This book just wasn’t for me. Doesn’t mean it was bad. Just not for me.

Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC

I generally liked this book - however, I don't think it did anything NEW, y'know? Also read it you like modern fantasy, vampires, and vague "I'm not like other girls" vibes.

Attention all Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight fans—this book is a must-read! Super fun and quirky. I was surprised this kept me hooked from beginning to end. I couldn't put it down! If you’re looking for a vampire story that strikes the perfect balance between fantasy and romance, this one is definitely for you.

Fang Fiction - the only book that made me want to read the book that was in the story. Vampires, dark academia, and a true villain? Yes PLEASE. This story was so funny it had me cracking up late at night and during class. I loved how there was little mixes of a podcast, segments of the book that we were transported into, and conversations via texts. It all came together so nicely and even with such a dark background for our main character Tess I was thrilled she got her happy ending. It was like I was clicking “next episode” as I read this. Absolutely fantastic story with multiple povs, epic battle, and a pretty reliable fandom. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for gifting me a copy of this.

This book unfortunately was one that maybe didn't know exactly what she wanted to be. It felt as I was reading, that it would move from being a more serious book (with the topic of the FMC's SA) but then would become cheesy, and it wasn't in a good way. Some books can do this and still have a positive effect overall on the story but this one was missing that spark. The idea was there but the follow-through was not the best.