book review: queens of geek, by jen wilde

please excuse me as i cry with my fandom merch

Three friends, two love stories, one convention: this fun, feminist love letter to geek culture is all about fandom, friendship, and finding the courage to be yourself. 

Charlie likes to stand out. She’s a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she’s over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie’s long-time crush on her isn’t as one-sided as she thought.

Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there’s one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie—no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.

Queens of Geek was my last read of 2018. I couldn’t have wished for a better way to end the year, as this made me incredibly happy. It’s not a perfect read, by any means, but it was exactly what I needed to end the year on a positive note.

1. It was very diverse! When I first read the premise, I already knew Queens of Geek was going to have both bisexual & anxiety rep, but it had a lot more than that! Charlie is an Asian-American girl, who gets involved with another black girl halfway through the book. Taylor also fit in the autism spectrum. Overall, this was so diverse everywhere and it was refreshing to read!
2. The fat-rep was on point. Taylor is a curvy girl and I can not even describe how happy it made me to read about a fat character that was also so much more than that. Actually, Taylor’s body is not a big deal at all, as she gets involved on cosplay contests, shows up on TV and falls in love with her best-friend. There are multiple occasions when Taylor comfortably eats hamburguer around her crush; and I know that this sounds so stupid, but it made me so happy? I am very self conscious to eat around people, but the fact that Taylor owed it gave me an unexpected boost of confidence.
3. This made me so happy. I read Queens of Geek in one sitting and I spent the entire afternoon laughing and gushing. I’m glad that I wasn’t reading it in public, otherwhise it would’ve been embarrassing. The relationships are adorable, there’s so much growth and representation through the pages and the characters were always so supportive. This was a joy to read!

1. It reads like a fanfiction. And not even one of the good ones. I’m a big advocate on fanfictions, don’t get me wrong. Some of the ones I’ve read were probably better written than full on novels. But Queens of Geek just wasn’t one of the good fanfictions out there. Poor writing, cliché scenes and some quotes that made me seriously cringe. I swear to God I even wrote a scene just like the one when Alyssa and Charlie are recording the Youtube video together. When I was 12.
2. Insta-love and insta-friendship. Because this is a very short novel, it is understandable that things had to develop fast. Still, it was a bit weird just how quickly some relationships became so important for the characters. Even though it threw me off a little bit, I still think you’re able to root for the characters despise that.

Overall, this made me so happy, though! I didn’t even care if the writing wasn’t great or if I could predict the lines they were saying next: this was still so fun to read. There’s so much to love about the characters and the amount of representation.

On top of that, the conversation on fandom was definitely an interesting one. Fandoms have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember – firstly, with Jonas Brothers (obviously), moving on to books & TV, and now where I’m kind in a mix of all of these, with a K-POP cherry on top. To follow these characters as they find themselves and life-time friendships because of something as a book series was relatable and inspiring.

My final rating is:

Have you ever read Queens of Geek? How did you like it? And what are some of your current fandoms? Have you ever made life-time friendships because of it?