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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I liked the way the stories connected the characters - it added an extra layer of depth which added value
You can find this review and others on my blog SleepySamReads!
This was a buddy read with the lovely Stacey! Go check her out!!
I've seen this book described as a love letter to geek culture and it is exactly that. I didn't think I was going to like it very much, but I actually ended up really loving it!
Taylor is a character I identify with very strongly. I've struggled with somewhat severe anxiety since I was a teenager, so I love seeing anxiety written in such a real way. I wasn't super invested in Taylor and Jamie as a couple, but I was happy for them in the end. Taylor is autistic, which I think is AWESOME representation. I checked, and Jen Wilde is also autistic so I'm sure others will love that this book is an ownvoice book! I also like the few mentions of Taylor being chubby and how she is sometimes self conscious about it.
I loved Charlie so much! I thought it was super cool to be able to have a character who is a YouTuber. I haven't seen that before. I love that Charlie is bi. It's also really really awesome that she's Chinese and bi. I know POC don't get to see themselves in characters very often, so I know there's some Chinese bi people out there who will identify strongly with Charlie. I also love that Charlie's love interest, Alyssa, is black. They are super cute together and it's always nice to see interracial queer rep.
Reese was an asshole, but I love the way he was handled and I think Charlie is so strong for the way she dealt with him.
I usually don't like books that try to cram every type of representation in it. Don't get me wrong, I love good rep. But sometimes authors tend to go overboard and it can come off badly. Jen Wilde had so much representation in the book but it flowed so effortlessly, I loved it!
All the pop culture references made my nerd heart very very happy.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and I adored how much representation was in it. I highly recommend it!
This was a buddy read with the lovely Stacey! Go check her out!!
I've seen this book described as a love letter to geek culture and it is exactly that. I didn't think I was going to like it very much, but I actually ended up really loving it!
Taylor is a character I identify with very strongly. I've struggled with somewhat severe anxiety since I was a teenager, so I love seeing anxiety written in such a real way. I wasn't super invested in Taylor and Jamie as a couple, but I was happy for them in the end. Taylor is autistic, which I think is AWESOME representation. I checked, and Jen Wilde is also autistic so I'm sure others will love that this book is an ownvoice book! I also like the few mentions of Taylor being chubby and how she is sometimes self conscious about it.
I loved Charlie so much! I thought it was super cool to be able to have a character who is a YouTuber. I haven't seen that before. I love that Charlie is bi. It's also really really awesome that she's Chinese and bi. I know POC don't get to see themselves in characters very often, so I know there's some Chinese bi people out there who will identify strongly with Charlie. I also love that Charlie's love interest, Alyssa, is black. They are super cute together and it's always nice to see interracial queer rep.
Reese was an asshole, but I love the way he was handled and I think Charlie is so strong for the way she dealt with him.
I usually don't like books that try to cram every type of representation in it. Don't get me wrong, I love good rep. But sometimes authors tend to go overboard and it can come off badly. Jen Wilde had so much representation in the book but it flowed so effortlessly, I loved it!
All the pop culture references made my nerd heart very very happy.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and I adored how much representation was in it. I highly recommend it!
This book is just so heartwarming. 3 geeky friends go to a big con, from it they meet idols and learn to be themselves. The three core characters and their friendship are great and there are just so many diverse characters who love nerdy stuff and are decent people.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Un libro entretenido pero que va perdiendo fuelle porque la trama es bastante obvia. Las dos relaciones amorosas son tiernas y encajan bien con el proceso de crecimiento personal de las dos protagonistas y el libro tiene un 10 en representación y discusión de temas como el sexismo, la bifobia o la gordofobia. Sin embargo, la historia en si misma es bastante inexistente, los diálogos básicos y en ocasiones, me parecía que los problemas presentados se trataban un poco superficialmente (con excepción tal vez del autismo de una de las protagonistas).
It's a fun and fluffy teen romance with cute, nerdy fangirls for protagonists — plenty here to enjoy. There were several elements I especially loved, including a bisexual protagonist who is comfortable with her sexuality from the beginning; a nuanced and sympathetic depiction of a non-neurotypical protagonist; and a strong theme of female friendship and girls supporting one another.
There were occasional times when the book would go off on a little cul-de-sac tangent or a character would give a speech and you could pretty much hear the author going "This is an Important Issue that I have Opinions about," (e.g. Taylor's discussion of her body image issues — she says herself that they're in the past and apart from one brief scene have barely any connection to the story at hand; it seems more like the author tacked it on so she could throw in an otherwise irrelevant speech about loving your body and not putting others down for theirs), and the story did occasionally veer into overt wish-fulfillment territory, but hey, what's a romance without a little wish fulfillment?
On a more technical note, I listened to the audiobook, but I kind of wish I'd read it instead, because the text conversations were occasionally hard to follow aurally. Also, the reader who did Charlie's sections kept momentarily slipping out of her Australian accent, which sometimes made it hard to keep track of who was talking in the conversations between Charlie and Alyssa.
Overall though it was really cute and definitely worth the read.
There were occasional times when the book would go off on a little cul-de-sac tangent or a character would give a speech and you could pretty much hear the author going "This is an Important Issue that I have Opinions about," (e.g. Taylor's discussion of her body image issues — she says herself that they're in the past and apart from one brief scene have barely any connection to the story at hand; it seems more like the author tacked it on so she could throw in an otherwise irrelevant speech about loving your body and not putting others down for theirs), and the story did occasionally veer into overt wish-fulfillment territory, but hey, what's a romance without a little wish fulfillment?
On a more technical note, I listened to the audiobook, but I kind of wish I'd read it instead, because the text conversations were occasionally hard to follow aurally. Also, the reader who did Charlie's sections kept momentarily slipping out of her Australian accent, which sometimes made it hard to keep track of who was talking in the conversations between Charlie and Alyssa.
Overall though it was really cute and definitely worth the read.
Not as good as I thought it would be. I definitely appreciated the diversity and the SF elements, but the writing was too mediocre/amateur.
2.5 stars.
I'd have loved this book if I'd read it as a young teenager. It has good representation (bi, autism) but the characters and overall writing could have been better well developed. I didn't really relate to any of the characters outside of the representation, but perhaps (definitely) I am not the target market for this novel. Recommended for young geeky teens!
I'd have loved this book if I'd read it as a young teenager. It has good representation (bi, autism) but the characters and overall writing could have been better well developed. I didn't really relate to any of the characters outside of the representation, but perhaps (definitely) I am not the target market for this novel. Recommended for young geeky teens!
I wanted to love this book more than I did so badly, but alas, the writing was not for me, which really sucks because this book has so much awesome representation. However, about half the time I ended up feeling like an informative tumblr post just threw up in front of me and started preaching to the choir at really awkward moments. Like I was getting a random lecture (about things I already know, no less) that didn't feel natural in the story at all to the point where this started verging on capital-I Issues book territory, but without it flowing into the storyline at all. Basically, this book had massive flow issues.
Additionally, a majority of the characters need significantly more fleshing out to make them feel like real people. There were so many moments where the author would literally just say, "This is what this character is like," and I would just be like, uh, really? Because I don't see it at all. So much telling, not enough showing. I feel like Taylor had the most well-developed personality out of all of the primary characters, but she still felt a bit flat to me.
Finally, a lot of the writing was just...not great. A lot of the action tags didn't make sense and the author seemed to have people giggling or chuckling every couple of pages, which was super distracting. I briefly considered counting how many times a character chuckled or giggled, but I don't have the attention span for that sort of thing.
I really really wanted to like this more than I did. :(
Additionally, a majority of the characters need significantly more fleshing out to make them feel like real people. There were so many moments where the author would literally just say, "This is what this character is like," and I would just be like, uh, really? Because I don't see it at all. So much telling, not enough showing. I feel like Taylor had the most well-developed personality out of all of the primary characters, but she still felt a bit flat to me.
Finally, a lot of the writing was just...not great. A lot of the action tags didn't make sense and the author seemed to have people giggling or chuckling every couple of pages, which was super distracting. I briefly considered counting how many times a character chuckled or giggled, but I don't have the attention span for that sort of thing.
I really really wanted to like this more than I did. :(
Kind of dissapointing, to be honest. It was predicable, cheesy and cliché. I hadnt read the sinopsis since I put it in my TBR and I'm glad I didn't, because it literally says everything that's going to happen. But even without reading the sinopsis, while reading the book you can expect whats going to happen miles before it happens.
It's not all bad, there's a lot of really good points: it's diverse, one of the main characters is bisexual, talks about anxiety, body shame...
It's centered around ComicCon(they call it SupaCon but it's pretty much the same) which is really cool for us fangirls and fanboys.
It's good to read in a readathon or in vacation because it's short, sweet and easy to read.
Over all, it was a fun read but it didn't live up to my expectations.
(Spoilers)
Now on to the negative part (its pretty much just a little rant).
First of all, the writing wasnt that good in my opinion, it felt a little like fanfiction in some parts.
In general it just seemed too happy and lucky. I dont think you meet your favourite youtuber who you have a crush on and she also has a crush on you. And then you start making out the second time you see each other and start dating out of the blue. It all seemed too cliché.
Also, when the manager uploads the wrong video and everyone finds out about their relationship, I mean, come on.
It all seemed too dramatic and unnecessary.
I think Jamie and Taylor's relationship was cute (who doesnt want someone like Jamie) but too cheesy.
The worst for me was the afterparty, it was all too lucky, everything went better than they even imagined (for some reason Charlie filmed an apology vídeo for Alyssa, even if she said she was ok with the relationship in the open and then they all become best friends with the writer).
It's not all bad, there's a lot of really good points: it's diverse, one of the main characters is bisexual, talks about anxiety, body shame...
It's centered around ComicCon(they call it SupaCon but it's pretty much the same) which is really cool for us fangirls and fanboys.
It's good to read in a readathon or in vacation because it's short, sweet and easy to read.
Over all, it was a fun read but it didn't live up to my expectations.
(Spoilers)
Now on to the negative part (its pretty much just a little rant).
First of all, the writing wasnt that good in my opinion, it felt a little like fanfiction in some parts.
In general it just seemed too happy and lucky. I dont think you meet your favourite youtuber who you have a crush on and she also has a crush on you. And then you start making out the second time you see each other and start dating out of the blue. It all seemed too cliché.
Also, when the manager uploads the wrong video and everyone finds out about their relationship, I mean, come on.
It all seemed too dramatic and unnecessary.
I think Jamie and Taylor's relationship was cute (who doesnt want someone like Jamie) but too cheesy.
The worst for me was the afterparty, it was all too lucky, everything went better than they even imagined (for some reason Charlie filmed an apology vídeo for Alyssa, even if she said she was ok with the relationship in the open and then they all become best friends with the writer).
Queens of Geek was amazing and I loved it! I loved all the representation in it and I loved all the characters (except Reese, what an asshole). I loved the story and just generally pretty much everything about it, especially all the fandom stuff. I just loved reading about people my age who are just as passionate about fandom things as I am. It made me feel understood. The reason my rating is 4 stars and not 5 is Charlie and Alyssa. I loved them and was rooting for their relationship to work out, but the relationship felt wayy too fast. I mean, they had never even met and they were moving so fast! It just felt like the relationship was really rushed and because of that didn't really work for me. Otherwise, amazing book!