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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
I feel so many emotions right now. This was so wonderful and beautiful.
The character development, okay? IN 280 PAGES! And not just with the two protagonists but also with Charlie. I loved them all together. This is was shipping is all about.
Gena and Finn felt about Up Below like I felt for supernatural and Harry Potter and I could relate to them so much. The community you love and hate at the same time and how actors and characters become one sometime. AAGH SO MANY FEELINGS! The Author captured that so well.
This was such a short read, but it was also so great. I loved it so much. I wanna read it again right now. I want to read more, want to know what else is going to happen to these two (/three).
The character development, okay? IN 280 PAGES! And not just with the two protagonists but also with Charlie. I loved them all together. This is was shipping is all about.
Gena and Finn felt about Up Below like I felt for supernatural and Harry Potter and I could relate to them so much. The community you love and hate at the same time and how actors and characters become one sometime. AAGH SO MANY FEELINGS! The Author captured that so well.
This was such a short read, but it was also so great. I loved it so much. I wanna read it again right now. I want to read more, want to know what else is going to happen to these two (/three).
OMG the feels. Still digesting. will come back to this later.
This has some great depictions of friendship and how the lines can start to blur with certain people, with romantic love and friend love, with sexuality and confusion, and how the endings we want aren't always the endings we get.
I loathe ~fandom~ and grow irritated by even just the mention of it, but the way it's portrayed in here is a lot less grating than it's been in certain other books. There's a level of authenticity in it that doesn't turn things into a goopy, theater kid mess of ~randomness~ and ~quirky~ whatever, while still remaining interesting and true-to-life.
The ending is what really made the book for me, and the kind of disappointment and frustration of having to live the life you've chosen, rather than the temporary thing you want.
I loathe ~fandom~ and grow irritated by even just the mention of it, but the way it's portrayed in here is a lot less grating than it's been in certain other books. There's a level of authenticity in it that doesn't turn things into a goopy, theater kid mess of ~randomness~ and ~quirky~ whatever, while still remaining interesting and true-to-life.
The ending is what really made the book for me, and the kind of disappointment and frustration of having to live the life you've chosen, rather than the temporary thing you want.
I really enjoyed this book!
Honestly this book opened as super relatable (follows a friendship that started online through love of a mutual fandom) and then it ended SUPER DEEP.
very impressed.
Honestly this book opened as super relatable (follows a friendship that started online through love of a mutual fandom) and then it ended SUPER DEEP.
very impressed.
It was I good, I didn't love it but I did enjoy it..... I started it bc I wanted a light hearted contemporary..... it gave me that in the beginning but then took a super dark twist.... lol it was good though
The beginning of this book made me cringe- not because it was poorly written or anything, but because it felt so trivial. Like, these girls start to connect over a show that is clearly pretty so-so and they're over-complimenting each other on art and writing that is not good. It felt very realistic but in a way that made me remember how I sometimes really dislike the reality of the fan experience. (Sidenote: why are none of these girls shipping the two lead characters together??? Most unrealistic part tbh.)
I thought that the evolution and genuine nature of internet friendship was explored fairly well. I've definitely connected really closely with people without necessarily meeting them irl first, and this book validated that experience.
Where Gena/Finn gets really interesting, though, is in the aftermath of the fan convention. We begin to see the darker aspects of these characters' lives--mental illness, family issues, and then really intense grief--in ways that complicate the narrative. Rather than feeling trite and silly, the characters' relationships recenter around exploring the complexity of love. Toward the end, I teared up several times.
Although the subject matter started out on a somewhat too-sincere note (almost to the point of insincerity), I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by this novel's outcome.
I thought that the evolution and genuine nature of internet friendship was explored fairly well. I've definitely connected really closely with people without necessarily meeting them irl first, and this book validated that experience.
Where Gena/Finn gets really interesting, though, is in the aftermath of the fan convention. We begin to see the darker aspects of these characters' lives--mental illness, family issues, and then really intense grief--in ways that complicate the narrative. Rather than feeling trite and silly, the characters' relationships recenter around exploring the complexity of love. Toward the end, I teared up several times.
Although the subject matter started out on a somewhat too-sincere note (almost to the point of insincerity), I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by this novel's outcome.
I'm at a loss on how to rate this novel. On one hand, it provides such an amazing portrayal of online life and fandom. The conversations between Gena and Finn, as well as their online friends, felt so authentic that at times I honestly thought I was a part of a real online conversation. I was also impressed by how realistically the authors portrayed things like conventions and fanfiction and fandom disputes. So kudos on that.
On the other hand, I was really disappointed by the ending and lack of development at the close of the novel. Finn's inability to commit to either person she loves was frustrating to read, and from a diversity standpoint, not meaningful--not once is her (or Gena's) sexuality brought into focus or examined, which leaves the novel with so much unused potential. Gena's depression and grief was well-written at the start, but the tragedy and her battle for mental health didn't seem to accomplish anything other than moving the plot along. There's no lesson learned, and the book ended without a feeling of resolution.
In short, I was 100% into this story for the first 2/3, and then everything fell flat. I had such high hopes...
On the other hand, I was really disappointed by the ending and lack of development at the close of the novel. Finn's inability to commit to either person she loves was frustrating to read, and from a diversity standpoint, not meaningful--not once is her (or Gena's) sexuality brought into focus or examined, which leaves the novel with so much unused potential. Gena's depression and grief was well-written at the start, but the tragedy and her battle for mental health didn't seem to accomplish anything other than moving the plot along. There's no lesson learned, and the book ended without a feeling of resolution.
In short, I was 100% into this story for the first 2/3, and then everything fell flat. I had such high hopes...
A book about fandom? A book about people meeting other people through fandom and forming meaningful relationships that don't translate easily in the "real world"? A book that I found on list of LGBTQ-themed books ? Yes, please. Sign me up!
I really wanted to like this book. I have such close connections to fandom and the people I've met through fandom (including my wife!) that I was really excited to see this play out in book form. And, for the most part, the authors nail the entire world of fandom. The format of this book--epistolary--through blogs, emails, chats, texts, journals, pictures was really well executed. And I'm glad the reader was only privy to what could be written in some sort of text/word format. The first part of this book was interesting and addicting in a way, even if I didn't care a thing about whatever TV show they were talking about and didn't care for the fan fiction at all, but it was so great to see everyone interact and rage and disagree. It was sweet to watch this friendship grow (though how they became so close, so quickly is something I still don't get, but whatever. It was sweet).
And then PLOT happens, and the entire tone of the book changes and the promise of whatever Gena and Finn have (whether romantic or not) changes and I didn't care. I didn't even like them anymore--separately or together. I felt somewhat duped. Duped by my expectations, I guess. Duped by the promise of this great friendship that may materialize into something more. SPOILER: It doesn't.
I really felt, when it was all said and done, that it was a massive waste of my time. But the first bit was good and different.
Spoiler
It's notI really wanted to like this book. I have such close connections to fandom and the people I've met through fandom (including my wife!) that I was really excited to see this play out in book form. And, for the most part, the authors nail the entire world of fandom. The format of this book--epistolary--through blogs, emails, chats, texts, journals, pictures was really well executed. And I'm glad the reader was only privy to what could be written in some sort of text/word format. The first part of this book was interesting and addicting in a way, even if I didn't care a thing about whatever TV show they were talking about and didn't care for the fan fiction at all, but it was so great to see everyone interact and rage and disagree. It was sweet to watch this friendship grow (though how they became so close, so quickly is something I still don't get, but whatever. It was sweet).
And then PLOT happens, and the entire tone of the book changes and the promise of whatever Gena and Finn have (whether romantic or not) changes and I didn't care. I didn't even like them anymore--separately or together. I felt somewhat duped. Duped by my expectations, I guess. Duped by the promise of this great friendship that may materialize into something more. SPOILER: It doesn't.
I really felt, when it was all said and done, that it was a massive waste of my time. But the first bit was good and different.
when I hear a book is about fandom and friendship, I expect it to stay relatively lighthearted and simple, but that book is no Hannah Moskowitz book. this story was unexpected. it handled grief and mental illness from the outside pov in unconventional ways, but it all came together. I loved the mixing in of poetry at the end. I like that I spent a lot of this book not knowing what was coming next. I like that we are left with hope but not resolution. like real life.