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A review by exteenawreads
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A cute and quirky YA romance that is, you guessed it, a Cinderella retelling. At first, I was thinking this would likely be nothing special. It's not like you can really be surprised by a fairy tale retelling, and it's YA, which isn't my favorite. BUT I'm a sucker for geeks and geeky themes and geeky characters, so this turned out to be a lot of fun.
Our FMC is the classic Cinderella archetype - stepdaughter to a terrible stepmother who has two twin daughters that are also terrible. The fun take is that she is the geeky daughter of geeky parents - who cosplayed, started a fan convention, and were obsessed with an old Star Trek-esque show. Where Elle takes after her geeky late parents, her stepmom and stepsisters are country club debutante brats. Elle has her Cinderella moment at a convention cosplay contest/masquerade, with a boy she's been texting and she *thinks* is another cosplayer but is actually the heartthrob actor playing the Captain Kirk-esque character in the reboot of her favorite show.
Our MMC, said heartthrob actor, is very Henry Cavill coded - he's just a nerd at heart who is excited to play characters from his favorite nerdy show. He's got the classic shitty manager/dad who cares more about his kid's image than his happiness, which makes our guy friendless and miserable despite his fame. Texting his fellow nerdy friend, who he conveniently wrong-numbered, is his only source of joy. And then he finds out who she is while he judges the cosplay contest.... And thus our Cinderella moment.
I was meh on this book at the beginning, finding Elle to be kind of annoying in a gatekeeping nerdy asshole way - but honestly who could blame her considering her terrible family and lack of IRL friends. The author does a great job making real believable villains out of the stepmom and stepsister - there were moments I felt actually angry and had the thought "well she should simply kill them", and had to remember this was a contemporary romance not a fantasy novel. Oh well. The moment near the end, which I won't spoil, but it's basically the equivalent to the "mice and other creatures help make Cinderella a dress", made me *almost* tear up. It was a fun little twist on the Cinderella story, especially for people who grew up weird nerd kids, loving weird nerdy scifi, and doing weird nerdy things like cosplay - desperately wanting to find a community where they belong.
One last quip - what were they THINKING with these audiobook narrators? The female voice is okay - but the male voice sounds like a 40 year old which is so weird considering the character is 18. The audiobook is also a bit of a mess in general. There were repeated lines and a few other weird edits. Probably more enjoyable as a physical read.
Our FMC is the classic Cinderella archetype - stepdaughter to a terrible stepmother who has two twin daughters that are also terrible. The fun take is that she is the geeky daughter of geeky parents - who cosplayed, started a fan convention, and were obsessed with an old Star Trek-esque show. Where Elle takes after her geeky late parents, her stepmom and stepsisters are country club debutante brats. Elle has her Cinderella moment at a convention cosplay contest/masquerade, with a boy she's been texting and she *thinks* is another cosplayer but is actually the heartthrob actor playing the Captain Kirk-esque character in the reboot of her favorite show.
Our MMC, said heartthrob actor, is very Henry Cavill coded - he's just a nerd at heart who is excited to play characters from his favorite nerdy show. He's got the classic shitty manager/dad who cares more about his kid's image than his happiness, which makes our guy friendless and miserable despite his fame. Texting his fellow nerdy friend, who he conveniently wrong-numbered, is his only source of joy. And then he finds out who she is while he judges the cosplay contest.... And thus our Cinderella moment.
I was meh on this book at the beginning, finding Elle to be kind of annoying in a gatekeeping nerdy asshole way - but honestly who could blame her considering her terrible family and lack of IRL friends. The author does a great job making real believable villains out of the stepmom and stepsister - there were moments I felt actually angry and had the thought "well she should simply kill them", and had to remember this was a contemporary romance not a fantasy novel. Oh well. The moment near the end, which I won't spoil, but it's basically the equivalent to the "mice and other creatures help make Cinderella a dress", made me *almost* tear up. It was a fun little twist on the Cinderella story, especially for people who grew up weird nerd kids, loving weird nerdy scifi, and doing weird nerdy things like cosplay - desperately wanting to find a community where they belong.
One last quip - what were they THINKING with these audiobook narrators? The female voice is okay - but the male voice sounds like a 40 year old which is so weird considering the character is 18. The audiobook is also a bit of a mess in general. There were repeated lines and a few other weird edits. Probably more enjoyable as a physical read.