A review by niakantorka
Spark: How Fanfiction and Fandom Can Set Your Creativity On Fire by Atlin Merrick

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

I loved this book in parts, its positive energy and its many encouraging words for people who write or think about writing fanfiction. I also loved some of the essays or short snippets to pieces. 

Essays that stood out to me were those (in chronological order) from Tei, Sebastian Jack, Dannye Chase, E.C. Foxgloves and all of the ones in section 4 of the book (that’s divided into 6 sections) - please excuse my lazy bum for not looking everyone up. 

I also loved all the short, poignant snippets like those from Neil Gaiman or Ursula K. LeGuin. 

Why not more stars then? In my opinion there was not enough variety in the fandoms mentioned. The biggest proportion was about Sherlock Holmes and his fandoms, especially Sherlock (around 70-75 %) and the other 25-30 % were also mostly fandoms of Western culture e.g. the MCU, Xena, Star Trek, Harry Potter, X-Files, Buffy, The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings and Our Flag Means Death (honourably mentioned once). 

That’s in part due to the fact that Atlin Merrick, Spark‘s editor, is mainly participating in Sherlock fandom and asked their friends and acquaintances to contribute for this book. 

Note: I was in Sherlock fandom from around 2014 to 2016 and even wrote an exchange fic for it. It wasn’t that nice and happy place this book makes it out to be. Tumblr was one big cesspool before, when, and after The Abominable Bride came out. So this mostly rosey-dovey view rubbed me the wrong way at times, but I tried to leave it out of my rating.

But let’s be honest: Of course I would ask my fandom friends for their stories too, if I were to write a book about fandom experiences and how uplifting those can be. 

What lowered my rating for real was the aforementioned lack of diversity or let me call it the dominance of the Westerner’s perspective. For example, would I have appreciated it if some of the many many contributors for Asian fandoms (anime, manga, dramas, movies, books - really, take your pick) had had a voice in this book too. You know, just one essay about the wildness of Japanese manga fandoms and how often shows deriving from them break through the 4th wall by making fun of themselves and their fans. Or the craziness of censorship in China and what (also mostly female) authors of m/m novels do to circumvent it. Or how Thai BL shows set new standards on showing boys in love and what an inspiration that has become for their fans and fandoms. 

I did have a good time with this book and its content but it didn’t blow me away like I thought it would.

P.S.: I saw some controversy about K.J Charles' essay and that it was anti trans. I’m afraid I didn’t see it. It reads mostly like an „yay, for more female representation in books compared to the usual patriarchal society“ essay to me. It might be that I overlooked some hidden aspects because of the less frequent but still sometimes there English Second Language barrier. If someone explained to me what the problem was, I would very much appreciate it.