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A review by pumpkinspiciest
Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz, Kat Helgeson
3.0
So this book was a fast read! I was not expecting to finish this book in one day. I think it’s mainly because of the way the story is presented, it’s told through online journals, emails, text messages, etc. There actually is never a normal story form set up in this book. Which worked really well for the first half of the book. For the last half, I think that’s part of why this story just didn’t feel like I was connecting to it. I felt like I was connecting so well with the characters in the beginning. But in the last part, I think that it really should have switched to a more normal story telling mode because the journal writing was so strange. Gena was writing for someone to read in the future. But just the fact that she was actually writing while doing something else? I was like, yeah, that’s basically impossible.
It really made me disconnect with the story because all I was thinking during the journal writing was, just tell us the story from a normal perspective. Just let it play out, you don’t need to keep this “screen” between the story anymore, this isn’t adding anything like it was earlier. So that was kind of disappointing because I was totally on board for this story and then I just became so disconnected.
The other part that really disconnected me from the story was Gena’s relationship with Charlie. The relationship you have with a significant other is so tender there in the beginning. The way Gena was treating Charlie was just bad. It was not the way you treat someone. Like I wanted Charlie to get away from her because she obviously was NEVER going to be ready for what he wanted. Ever. She had too much she needed to figure out about herself and good on her for seeing that she needed to do that. But not good on her for stringing him along. It was also a problem for me with how wonderful Charlie was. There are great guys in the world. A lot of them. I made so many cringe faces reading the parts when he was interacting with Gena and Finn. It was just overkill.
Also, sorry. I didn’t expect to start this off so negative. I DID enjoy the layout of the book in the first half. It made it feel more real than telling the story in a normal story mode would have done. Because I see this play out all day on the internet. It’s one of the things I love most about the internet! I loved how the fandom worked out in the pages. Their relationship with TylerGirl was hilarious. All throughout the book. Because there’s always someone like that.
I really liked the way they talked about fandoms and how it can help you connect to people. I grew up right as the internet was coming into our daily lives. I was a pre-teen when this was happening. I remember having a group of friends online where we played characters from A League of Their Own. I was Betty Spaghetti. Haha! But it was awesome! I also made great friends on various message boards, people I’ve gone on to meet in real life. My husband has a whole group of friends he’s met through Twitter and they get to meet up sometimes at GenCon. I love it and I think it’s wonderful when a book handles this as well as this book did. I think the first half of this book is what Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here was hoping to be. Because Gena/Finn handled this beautifully.
Gena’s thoughts after a fan Con they went to perfectly describes every Con I’ve ever been to. You get to be with your PEOPLE. When I leave book cons or when I’ve left various fan cons, you so get that down after that rush of being around other people who get what you feel. So yeah, that whole part really stood out to me.
Overall, this wasn’t a bad book and it was a really fast read. I think if they had broken their “this has to be told through writing and not from first or third perspective”, this book would’ve been solid all the way through. I borrowed this from the library and I’m glad I did. It was a nice, fast read.
It really made me disconnect with the story because all I was thinking during the journal writing was, just tell us the story from a normal perspective. Just let it play out, you don’t need to keep this “screen” between the story anymore, this isn’t adding anything like it was earlier. So that was kind of disappointing because I was totally on board for this story and then I just became so disconnected.
The other part that really disconnected me from the story was Gena’s relationship with Charlie. The relationship you have with a significant other is so tender there in the beginning. The way Gena was treating Charlie was just bad. It was not the way you treat someone. Like I wanted Charlie to get away from her because she obviously was NEVER going to be ready for what he wanted. Ever. She had too much she needed to figure out about herself and good on her for seeing that she needed to do that. But not good on her for stringing him along. It was also a problem for me with how wonderful Charlie was. There are great guys in the world. A lot of them. I made so many cringe faces reading the parts when he was interacting with Gena and Finn. It was just overkill.
Also, sorry. I didn’t expect to start this off so negative. I DID enjoy the layout of the book in the first half. It made it feel more real than telling the story in a normal story mode would have done. Because I see this play out all day on the internet. It’s one of the things I love most about the internet! I loved how the fandom worked out in the pages. Their relationship with TylerGirl was hilarious. All throughout the book. Because there’s always someone like that.
I really liked the way they talked about fandoms and how it can help you connect to people. I grew up right as the internet was coming into our daily lives. I was a pre-teen when this was happening. I remember having a group of friends online where we played characters from A League of Their Own. I was Betty Spaghetti. Haha! But it was awesome! I also made great friends on various message boards, people I’ve gone on to meet in real life. My husband has a whole group of friends he’s met through Twitter and they get to meet up sometimes at GenCon. I love it and I think it’s wonderful when a book handles this as well as this book did. I think the first half of this book is what Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here was hoping to be. Because Gena/Finn handled this beautifully.
Gena’s thoughts after a fan Con they went to perfectly describes every Con I’ve ever been to. You get to be with your PEOPLE. When I leave book cons or when I’ve left various fan cons, you so get that down after that rush of being around other people who get what you feel. So yeah, that whole part really stood out to me.
Overall, this wasn’t a bad book and it was a really fast read. I think if they had broken their “this has to be told through writing and not from first or third perspective”, this book would’ve been solid all the way through. I borrowed this from the library and I’m glad I did. It was a nice, fast read.