Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson is an honest, emotional exploration of friendship, fandom, and mental health. Told through texts, emails, and journal entries, the story captures the bond between two girls who meet online and grow close in unexpected ways. Raw and relatable, it's perfect for fans of unique, heartfelt YA.

I found this book hard to put down and throughly enjoyable until the last twenty percent or so. It felt like the story didn't really know what it was trying to be and I found the ending disappointing.

I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, but here we are. Fandom books can be very hit or miss for me, but this one really captured my attention and eventually my heart.

This is a messy, uncomfortable, true book about fandom and fandom relationships, and as such it's one of my favorite of the many books about fandom that have been written over the last half-decade or so (in the wake of Rowell's fangirl). I have gotten into passionate debates about Gena/Finn and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending, or the depiction of fandom as all-consuming throughout, but there's something about that portrait of fangirls that's undeniably real, and aligns with my own experience of fandom and that of *so* many other people I know. I like that this book is difficult and untidy and unkempt and doesn't leave you with easy answers about those things. I just really like this book.

The first thing I want to say about "Gena/Finn" is that, in my opinion, the marketing and title did not match the book and that I was set up for an outcome that did not happen and it left me feeling angry and betrayed. If you are a lesbian and/or looking for a wlw story, I strongly encourage you to check out the spoiler a few paragraphs down.

The second is that if you are looking for a light, fluffy read DO NOT, under any circumstances, read this book.

None of this is to say that the book isn't good. It is intense and emotional and honestly real about fangirl experiences though perhaps a little more extreme and complicated than most of us will go through.

It uses blog posts, Tumblr, (sent and unsent) emails, journal entries, poems written by the characters, and text conversations to tell the story and it is one of the best examples I've seen of that kind of storytelling. I've read several books that use those types of vehicles to tell a story, and I don't think I've experienced anyone better able to pull the reader into the story when doing so.

<spoiler>Now, this story does have elements characters of questioning sexuality, etcetera, so it is an LGBT story. One of the girls admits that she does sometimes feel attraction to other ladies. However, these girls <i><b><u<>do not end up together romantically</i></b></u<>. Their friendship is one of the most amazing I've seen displayed in fiction, but they don't end up together <i><b><u<>nor do either of them end up with a woman</i></b></u<>. Because of that, I felt disappointed in the book and angry for being misled, and it left a bad taste in my mouth, personally. Further, I'm not likely to read more from these authors.</spoiler>

This is a solid book plot, character development, and style wise, but I'm still mad about how I was set up to expect a very different book.

Was unable to read this book before it was archived.

A REVIEW COPY OF GENA/FINN WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR A FAIR AND HONEST REVIEW. NERDOPHILES WAS NOT COMPENSATED FOR THIS REVIEW. OUR OPINIONS ARE OURS AND OURS ALONE.

---

Title: Gena/Finn
Authors: Kat Helgeson and Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Spoilers: Mild

When I was growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Internet fandom was really just starting to find it's footing. Friendship began to transcend the usual boundaries and people started reaching out to one another through message boards and chatrooms. As the Internet became more prevalent those communities grew exponentially. Today, I'd wager that everyone has at least one fairly close friend that they met - or at least communicated with primarily - via the Internet.

And yet contemporary fiction hasn't really done much to acknowledge those relationships. Gena/Finn promised to fill that void and from the moment I read the synopsis I was hooked. When I finally got the chance to read it the first half of the book was everything I had wanted and more.

Gena/Finn tells the story of two young women brought together through the love of a fictional police procedural called Up Below. By all accounts the show and it's fandom seems a lot like the Supernatural fandom just with cops instead of demons. Gena and Finn are two young women from very different backgrounds in very different places in their lives. Both of them are active in the fandom and go by their eponymous online monikers. ('Gena' is what Genevieve goes by online while 'Finn' is Stephanie.)

And over the course of the book the two become closer.

Despite an age difference and one's secret past as a child actress, they come to rely on one another. They become confidants and their relationship develops quickly but organically. Together they help each other through relationships deals, self doubt, grief and more. At times it seems like they could even become something more than just friends and seeing they tackle that part of their relationship adds a really raw, emotional angle to it all.

The best part of this book is that it's told through text messages, instant messages, email, journal posts, and fanfiction. Gena and Finn's friendship feels so real because it emulates so many of the online friendships that readers like me have had. Even their interactions with other characters and members of the fandom feel real - online and in-person. (Having met online friends for the first time at SDCC, there were some really relatable moments at a certain point in this book.)

I can't speak highly enough about how this book tells it's story because it does so perfectly.

For that reason alone Gena/Finn probably deserves to be a four star - maybe even a five star - book. The first half of the book was everything I had ever hoped for and it does such a great job of capturing the intricacies of a online friendships in today's world.

But the story shifts drastically in the second half of the book and that just threw me off a bit. I don't want to spoil anything but it gets a bit depressing and a lot of what what I loved about the earlier parts of the book falls apart. Still, despite it's faults towards the end, Gena/Finn is probably one of the most realistic fangirl-centric books out on the market today.

I really recommend this book if for no other reason than to validate the kind of relationships it portrays. I can't imagine a book better explaining what it's like to know and love someone you may never have met before in person. If you've ever been a member of any fandom or if you've ever had a best friend over the Internet, you're going to seriously relate to the characters in this book -- and that's reason enough for you to check it out.