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janine1122 's review for:
Queens of Geek
by Jen Wilde
I hovered pretty hard between giving this 2 stars and bumping it up to 3. I'm giving it 3 stars for nerd cred alone, but I think I have a lot to say...
First, I should probably start by saying this book does something that I have already acknowledged (if not in my reviews, then in my own mind) does NOT work for me: "Fake" nerdy things that are supposed to be "real" nerdy things. For example: The con that Jamie, Taylor, and Charlie are at in Queens of Geek is SupaCon. Not Comic Con. The person/character Taylor is obsessed with? Not a real person. Which is all well and good, and I'm sure there are copyright things involved that prevent authors from just saying Comic Con or whatever. But let's be real -- SupaCon sounds kind of stupid. Maybe Comic Con does too, but it's real and so I know what it is, and I'd rather just have it be acknowledged that that's where they are than some made up Con that is supposed to be the one we know.
Okay, that was a long rant. And maybe still isn't clear. Just for comparison, I love Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. My least favorite part of that book? The fanfic parts. Not because I don't appreciate fanfic (I do. I've both read and written it), but because it was essentially Harry Potter fanfic that couldn't be called Harry Potter fanfic. Which is also why I will most likely never read Carry On. The whole point of geeking out about something is how much you love it -- while I understand the sentiment of a "fake" thing that the characters love, it just is not usually a successful draw for me as a reader.
Okay so that's out of the way. How about the story itself? Eh... I liked Charlie. I will say that. I thought she was pretty kick ass, and even though she was clearly figuring things out, I enjoyed reading her story. She had the bonus of being there as one of the "stars," so it was cool going behind the scenes with her. She was also just a cool character.
Taylor, on the other hand, I found problematic. I was on board with her at first when she started talking about her anxiety -- I have people I'm very close to that suffer from anxiety, in different ways and to different extents. So a character suffering from anxiety? Sure, I get that. However...almost halfway into the book, we also learn that she is autistic? If that's the case, why is the reader not clued into this fact sooner? Why does it feel like a throwaway thing to learn, but also then suddenly immensely important? It is also never explained how her autism differs from her anxiety. There's a comment or two about how, when she's writing or putting her cosplay together she gets so into it that she completely loses track of the time, and doesn't hear people calling her name. That doesn't really feel that unusual to me, honestly. Haven't we all been there at one point or another, so engrossed in an activity that we kind of forgot the world around us existed?
Here's my other gripe...while I admire any author's attempt to write diverse, inclusive books, this one felt like it cheapened a lot of the diversity that was present. It was almost like the author had a diversity checklist: Characters that are minorities? Check. Bisexual character? Check. Anxiety disorder? Check. Autism? Check. But...throwing these things in there didn't really enhance the story or the characters in anyway. Knowing Charlie was Asian didn't really have any affect on the story, aside from a reference to her favorite home made meal. You'd never even know Jamie was of hispanic descent if not for a hispanic-sounding last name and a reference to his abuela. To me, truly diverse stories are about people whose backgrounds are critical to who they are, and are an integral part of the story without being in-your-face. The most recent (and best) example I can think of is The Hate U Give . In that story, I felt immersed in a community and culture that was very different from my own and who those people were and how they grew up was just a part of the story. It was entwined in every fiber of that story, because it was who those people were. It was not as ingrained in the characters in Queens of Geek.
I will say the one area that I didn't have a gripe with was, again, how Charlie's storyline was handled, and the way her bisexuality played a role in the story and her journey. I did think that was handled well, and I truly enjoyed Charlie, and her unfolding relationship with Alyssa. I also liked the romance between Taylor and Jamie, though it felt slightly less genuine? Maybe because Taylor is in such denial about her feelings for him, and his for her. When they do get together, it feels sudden. It's exciting, but handled unevenly from that point on. It also would have been nice to get some chapters from Jamie's POV -- the 3 friends are so close, it's kind of strange not to get his perspective.
I feel like I've been kind of harsh in this review. I think I just expected so much more from it, because I am a nerd, and all about fandoms and cons and all that stuff. I wanted this book to be great and had very high expectations, but it just never reached them. Luckily the book was a quick read -- if it hadn't been, I think it would have ended up as a DNF on my shelf.
First, I should probably start by saying this book does something that I have already acknowledged (if not in my reviews, then in my own mind) does NOT work for me: "Fake" nerdy things that are supposed to be "real" nerdy things. For example: The con that Jamie, Taylor, and Charlie are at in Queens of Geek is SupaCon. Not Comic Con. The person/character Taylor is obsessed with? Not a real person. Which is all well and good, and I'm sure there are copyright things involved that prevent authors from just saying Comic Con or whatever. But let's be real -- SupaCon sounds kind of stupid. Maybe Comic Con does too, but it's real and so I know what it is, and I'd rather just have it be acknowledged that that's where they are than some made up Con that is supposed to be the one we know.
Okay, that was a long rant. And maybe still isn't clear. Just for comparison, I love Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. My least favorite part of that book? The fanfic parts. Not because I don't appreciate fanfic (I do. I've both read and written it), but because it was essentially Harry Potter fanfic that couldn't be called Harry Potter fanfic. Which is also why I will most likely never read Carry On. The whole point of geeking out about something is how much you love it -- while I understand the sentiment of a "fake" thing that the characters love, it just is not usually a successful draw for me as a reader.
Okay so that's out of the way. How about the story itself? Eh... I liked Charlie. I will say that. I thought she was pretty kick ass, and even though she was clearly figuring things out, I enjoyed reading her story. She had the bonus of being there as one of the "stars," so it was cool going behind the scenes with her. She was also just a cool character.
Taylor, on the other hand, I found problematic. I was on board with her at first when she started talking about her anxiety -- I have people I'm very close to that suffer from anxiety, in different ways and to different extents. So a character suffering from anxiety? Sure, I get that. However...almost halfway into the book, we also learn that she is autistic? If that's the case, why is the reader not clued into this fact sooner? Why does it feel like a throwaway thing to learn, but also then suddenly immensely important? It is also never explained how her autism differs from her anxiety. There's a comment or two about how, when she's writing or putting her cosplay together she gets so into it that she completely loses track of the time, and doesn't hear people calling her name. That doesn't really feel that unusual to me, honestly. Haven't we all been there at one point or another, so engrossed in an activity that we kind of forgot the world around us existed?
Here's my other gripe...while I admire any author's attempt to write diverse, inclusive books, this one felt like it cheapened a lot of the diversity that was present. It was almost like the author had a diversity checklist: Characters that are minorities? Check. Bisexual character? Check. Anxiety disorder? Check. Autism? Check. But...throwing these things in there didn't really enhance the story or the characters in anyway. Knowing Charlie was Asian didn't really have any affect on the story, aside from a reference to her favorite home made meal. You'd never even know Jamie was of hispanic descent if not for a hispanic-sounding last name and a reference to his abuela. To me, truly diverse stories are about people whose backgrounds are critical to who they are, and are an integral part of the story without being in-your-face. The most recent (and best) example I can think of is The Hate U Give . In that story, I felt immersed in a community and culture that was very different from my own and who those people were and how they grew up was just a part of the story. It was entwined in every fiber of that story, because it was who those people were. It was not as ingrained in the characters in Queens of Geek.
I will say the one area that I didn't have a gripe with was, again, how Charlie's storyline was handled, and the way her bisexuality played a role in the story and her journey. I did think that was handled well, and I truly enjoyed Charlie, and her unfolding relationship with Alyssa. I also liked the romance between Taylor and Jamie, though it felt slightly less genuine? Maybe because Taylor is in such denial about her feelings for him, and his for her. When they do get together, it feels sudden. It's exciting, but handled unevenly from that point on. It also would have been nice to get some chapters from Jamie's POV -- the 3 friends are so close, it's kind of strange not to get his perspective.
I feel like I've been kind of harsh in this review. I think I just expected so much more from it, because I am a nerd, and all about fandoms and cons and all that stuff. I wanted this book to be great and had very high expectations, but it just never reached them. Luckily the book was a quick read -- if it hadn't been, I think it would have ended up as a DNF on my shelf.