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A review by servemethesky
Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe by Lindsay S. Zrull
4.0
Whew! Initially I was ready to abandon this book because the writing style bothered me so much. Luckily I got a bit more into it and ended up really enjoying it!
I don’t think I’d ever read a book with a foster teen protagonist before, so I’m really glad this book exists.
The Instagram stuff felt outdated to me even though the book JUST came out. The protagonist had tons of Insta “fans” and got tons of comments on every post—that doesn’t happen anymore lol. Also, it seemed the author’s age betrayed her in her writing often. She had the main character say “interwebs” at one point which feels very 2010 Tumblr to me haha. I don’t know why she gave her characters such millennial names (Jessica and Emily) when they’re clearly supposed to be Gen Z or younger.
Sometimes it seemed a little preachy—like spitting too many facts about the realities of foster care—but they were accurate! The rants about the cosplay world not being inclusive enough were also very preachy—like seriously, I get it. Also also, the Poe references were excessive and I didn’t need to hear “the patron saint of goths” moniker every time she mentioned him.
I loved Jess’s friend group and foster mom Barbra and all their incredible cosplay. I loved the mental illness rep and compassion shown to people who struggle with their mental health. The scene with Jess’s mom in the library was hard to read, and depressing. It seemed glossed over, too! In trying to show compassion for the mom it glazed over how damn traumatic the incident was for Jess.
Overall, this book was very wholesome and I appreciated its wholehearted embrace of being your weird self and finding family where you can.
I don’t think I’d ever read a book with a foster teen protagonist before, so I’m really glad this book exists.
The Instagram stuff felt outdated to me even though the book JUST came out. The protagonist had tons of Insta “fans” and got tons of comments on every post—that doesn’t happen anymore lol. Also, it seemed the author’s age betrayed her in her writing often. She had the main character say “interwebs” at one point which feels very 2010 Tumblr to me haha. I don’t know why she gave her characters such millennial names (Jessica and Emily) when they’re clearly supposed to be Gen Z or younger.
Sometimes it seemed a little preachy—like spitting too many facts about the realities of foster care—but they were accurate! The rants about the cosplay world not being inclusive enough were also very preachy—like seriously, I get it. Also also, the Poe references were excessive and I didn’t need to hear “the patron saint of goths” moniker every time she mentioned him.
I loved Jess’s friend group and foster mom Barbra and all their incredible cosplay. I loved the mental illness rep and compassion shown to people who struggle with their mental health. The scene with Jess’s mom in the library was hard to read, and depressing. It seemed glossed over, too! In trying to show compassion for the mom it glazed over how damn traumatic the incident was for Jess.
Overall, this book was very wholesome and I appreciated its wholehearted embrace of being your weird self and finding family where you can.