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A review by renkeeling
Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
OKAY WOW so this is definitely a new favorite of mine. I read this for the chance card pick for the bookopoly readathon and like .... I’m so happy I did. OKAY SO the usual breakdown:
What I Liked:
-there’s SO MUCH representation in this book! Charlie is bi and Chinese-Australian & Taylor suffers from social anxiety & she’s on the autism spectrum & she’s also plus-sized. I can’t speak on how well the bi, race, or autism rep was done cuz I’m not bi, a part of that racial group, or autistic, but I do have social anxiety, and I related to Taylor’s SO MUCH omfg. Literally when she explained how it felt I was like YES. THAT IS ME. I AM YOU. And I’m also plus-sized and I really appreciated the rep. I don’t think it was as well done as the anxiety rep, but it was still pretty good.
-the romance between Charlie & Alyssa was so so soooooo cute
-I also loved the romance between Taylor & Jamie (but I liked Charlie’s & Alyssa’s better)
-the friendships in this book were so cute and so well-done!
-I really enjoyed the exploration of Charlie dealing with how others perceived her breakup. breakups are super difficult so I could relate to how she was feeling in a lot of ways, but I especially enjoyed the added layer of how it was hard since they’re in the public eye
-this book was paced SO WELL! I was seriously flying through this book soooo fast it was insane.
-the author also did a really good job with establishing all of the characters and showing growth throughout the book! the character arcs were defiantly really well-done, especially Taylor’s!
-there are a few Tumblr posts that Taylor makes throughout the book & I really enjoyed reading those. they were defiantly realistic and fun and relatable to read.
What I Didn’t Like:
-I think that while I did enjoy both POV’s, Charlie’s defiantly outshined Taylor’s. Once I got into Taylor’s POV I did enjoy it, but the initial switch was a little disappointing at times because Charlie’s chapters would end on a BANG and then it would be an immediate switch to Taylor’s which often, IMO, weren’t as exciting. I just think the transitions between the two could’ve been done a little better
-I didn’t like the structure of this book. I think that the climax & breaking point especially could’ve been done a lot better
-I didn’t think about this until I was looking at the reviews, and Emma from emmmabooks pointed out that the rep for Charlie being a YouTuber isn’t that realistic and I have to somewhat agree. For the most part I felt like it was realistic, but when it didn’t feel realistic was when a certain situation happened with a video at the end of the book. For one, Charlie edits her video in like...an hour? Maybe less? And I’ll admit I usually edit my videos in that amount of time so it’s not impossible, but most people I know take a lot longer than that to edit. Also, since Charlie is so big on YT I was surprised that she didn’t have an editor who edited her videos for her since I feel like most bigger YT’s do. And the situation that happens after the video was uploaded felt very unrealistic because her manger basically makes this mistake but it’s a total newbie YouTuber kinda mistake
TW’s for this book include: mentions of cheating, mentions of anxiety, panic attacks, biphobia, fat shaming
Overall, I REALLY enjoyed this book and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who’s interested!
What I Liked:
-there’s SO MUCH representation in this book! Charlie is bi and Chinese-Australian & Taylor suffers from social anxiety & she’s on the autism spectrum & she’s also plus-sized. I can’t speak on how well the bi, race, or autism rep was done cuz I’m not bi, a part of that racial group, or autistic, but I do have social anxiety, and I related to Taylor’s SO MUCH omfg. Literally when she explained how it felt I was like YES. THAT IS ME. I AM YOU. And I’m also plus-sized and I really appreciated the rep. I don’t think it was as well done as the anxiety rep, but it was still pretty good.
-the romance between Charlie & Alyssa was so so soooooo cute
-I also loved the romance between Taylor & Jamie (but I liked Charlie’s & Alyssa’s better)
-the friendships in this book were so cute and so well-done!
-I really enjoyed the exploration of Charlie dealing with how others perceived her breakup. breakups are super difficult so I could relate to how she was feeling in a lot of ways, but I especially enjoyed the added layer of how it was hard since they’re in the public eye
-this book was paced SO WELL! I was seriously flying through this book soooo fast it was insane.
-the author also did a really good job with establishing all of the characters and showing growth throughout the book! the character arcs were defiantly really well-done, especially Taylor’s!
-there are a few Tumblr posts that Taylor makes throughout the book & I really enjoyed reading those. they were defiantly realistic and fun and relatable to read.
What I Didn’t Like:
-I think that while I did enjoy both POV’s, Charlie’s defiantly outshined Taylor’s. Once I got into Taylor’s POV I did enjoy it, but the initial switch was a little disappointing at times because Charlie’s chapters would end on a BANG and then it would be an immediate switch to Taylor’s which often, IMO, weren’t as exciting. I just think the transitions between the two could’ve been done a little better
-I didn’t like the structure of this book. I think that the climax & breaking point especially could’ve been done a lot better
-I didn’t think about this until I was looking at the reviews, and Emma from emmmabooks pointed out that the rep for Charlie being a YouTuber isn’t that realistic and I have to somewhat agree. For the most part I felt like it was realistic, but when it didn’t feel realistic was when a certain situation happened with a video at the end of the book. For one, Charlie edits her video in like...an hour? Maybe less? And I’ll admit I usually edit my videos in that amount of time so it’s not impossible, but most people I know take a lot longer than that to edit. Also, since Charlie is so big on YT I was surprised that she didn’t have an editor who edited her videos for her since I feel like most bigger YT’s do. And the situation that happens after the video was uploaded felt very unrealistic because her manger basically makes this mistake but it’s a total newbie YouTuber kinda mistake
TW’s for this book include: mentions of cheating, mentions of anxiety, panic attacks, biphobia, fat shaming
Overall, I REALLY enjoyed this book and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who’s interested!