The Fan Fiction Studies Reader serves as a primer to the world of fan fiction studies by excerpting eleven essays by academics in the field. These essays are grouped into four thematic areas: Fan Fiction as Literature, Fan Identity and Feminism, Fan Communities and Affect, and Fan Creativity and Performance.

Sophie took away a huge amount from these essays, most importantly a new way of looking at media texts which is worlds apart from what she was taught at school. Many of the choices made by female slash writers also became more understandable when viewed through these lenses, although Sophie often ended up with more questions than she did answers, “that’s all very well but what about these types of stories?” She was particularly intrigued by the assertion that fan fiction is better explained as a form of theatre than of literature.

Two criticisms Sophie had were with the choices of essays selected. First, many of the essays dated from the early years of modern fandom and the very beginnings of fan studies research in the early-mid eighties. While she appreciates the value in looking at the subject at its beginning, many of the issues raised are no longer relevant in the vast majority of fandom today. For example, many of the essays discuss the way fanfiction is shared through edited zines at conventions, these days an almost unheard-of method of distribution.

Secondly, while fanfiction itself is broad and global, the essays here are focused on a very tiny subsection of the practice as a whole. In fact, you could get away with calling this the Star Trek Fan Fiction Studies Reader given that ten of the eleven essays mention the show to at least some degree. While modern fanfiction does, of course, share its roots with the stories shared in zines in the late 1960s, they are now worlds apart and it was hard to see much exploration of the way the medium has evolved.

The history and literary analysis of fanfiction is amazing. There should be more books exploring this topic.