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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
I didn't really enjoy it. it was filled with ups and downs and very confusing themes for me and didn't make sense to me half the time. also didn't help that it was about a show and fan fiction and we didn't really understand what the show was about.
I read this back in the summer but I only just remembered that I wrote a review in the notes app on my phone thus why I'm posting this now. Without any further ado...
Wow. So this wasn't even remotely what I expected. There were so many choices that I just can't wrap my head around. I picked up Gena/Finn expecting, as a fangirl, to be able relate to the characters but I found it quite difficult. Gena's backstory was bizarrely convoluted while we didn't learn much of anything about Finn outside of the fact that she has a boyfriend she doesn't want to marry. I found that the way this book was marketed to be rather misleading. I find it hard to believe that I was the only one who went into this story expecting a fluffy read about a close friendship forged through a shared fandom that blossoms into something more. I mean, that is what it's about... kind of. But the fandom that I expected to be the story’s lifeblood gets lost among the murky story line. While Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell manages to make the reader fall in love with the world of Simon Snow, Gena/Finn barely scratches the surface of its made up fandom. Not to mention, its characters are barely, well… characterized.
I tried to organize my thoughts into bullet points so this isn't really a 'proper' review as much as it is spilling out my thoughts. I've marked where there are spoilers.
- It was strange to me that there was no mention of shipping in the Up Below fandom. I've been in fandoms and shipping is always going on. Male/male shipping especially runs rampant (anyone who has read fanfic and/or been on Tumblr knows this) so it’s bizarre to me that there is never a single mention of anyone shipping the two main male characters. It's entirely possible that Gena and Finn aren't into romantic ships, that's fine - in a way, it's refreshing to see a focus on friendship rather than romance - but the idea that *no one* in the fandom is in to shipping? That came across as artificial to me. Especially when, unless I'm way off, the authors are clearly trying to make readers think of shows like Supernatural and Sherlock.
- Along the same vein, I don't personally know of any fandoms that actively pit the two male leads against each other. That's a lot more common with female characters because of the ugly reality of internalized misogyny in fandom. But maybe there are fandoms like that out there and I just haven't come across one yet in my 7+ years of being on the internet? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It felt like an odd choice to me.
-I am not a fan of Gena's plot twist. It's not the mental illness aspect (I am all for accurate, fair representation of mental illness and I think to exclude mental illness from the novel would have made it all the more artificial when there are so many mentally ill members of fandoms, myself included) but rather the used-to-be-an-actress-on-a-show-with-one-of-the-actors-she's-obsessed-with thing. It immediately made the story less relatable. When a book is written about fangirls for fangirls you'd expect a story that readers can find themselves in. I think it's a safe assumption to make that most people reading this book are not secretly a former child actor who was on a show with one the actors they are currently obsessing over. It left me feeling alienated as a reader. The ending felt especially hard to believe.
- It can be hard to have readers relate to characters and feel engrossed in a story when its told through emails, texts, and forum posts but I’d still like to believe that its possible and the authors just missed the mark.
I would be hesitant to recommend Gena/Finn to anyone because it delivers on so few of its promises and misleads its readers. Maybe that was the point. But it just didn’t work for me.
Wow. So this wasn't even remotely what I expected. There were so many choices that I just can't wrap my head around. I picked up Gena/Finn expecting, as a fangirl, to be able relate to the characters but I found it quite difficult. Gena's backstory was bizarrely convoluted while we didn't learn much of anything about Finn outside of the fact that she has a boyfriend she doesn't want to marry. I found that the way this book was marketed to be rather misleading. I find it hard to believe that I was the only one who went into this story expecting a fluffy read about a close friendship forged through a shared fandom that blossoms into something more. I mean, that is what it's about... kind of. But the fandom that I expected to be the story’s lifeblood gets lost among the murky story line. While Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell manages to make the reader fall in love with the world of Simon Snow, Gena/Finn barely scratches the surface of its made up fandom. Not to mention, its characters are barely, well… characterized.
I tried to organize my thoughts into bullet points so this isn't really a 'proper' review as much as it is spilling out my thoughts. I've marked where there are spoilers.
- It was strange to me that there was no mention of shipping in the Up Below fandom. I've been in fandoms and shipping is always going on. Male/male shipping especially runs rampant (anyone who has read fanfic and/or been on Tumblr knows this) so it’s bizarre to me that there is never a single mention of anyone shipping the two main male characters. It's entirely possible that Gena and Finn aren't into romantic ships, that's fine - in a way, it's refreshing to see a focus on friendship rather than romance - but the idea that *no one* in the fandom is in to shipping? That came across as artificial to me. Especially when, unless I'm way off, the authors are clearly trying to make readers think of shows like Supernatural and Sherlock.
- Along the same vein, I don't personally know of any fandoms that actively pit the two male leads against each other. That's a lot more common with female characters because of the ugly reality of internalized misogyny in fandom. But maybe there are fandoms like that out there and I just haven't come across one yet in my 7+ years of being on the internet? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It felt like an odd choice to me.
-
- It can be hard to have readers relate to characters and feel engrossed in a story when its told through emails, texts, and forum posts but I’d still like to believe that its possible and the authors just missed the mark.
I would be hesitant to recommend Gena/Finn to anyone because it delivers on so few of its promises and misleads its readers. Maybe that was the point. But it just didn’t work for me.
This was so good, though it got waaaaaay darker than I expected. I went into this thinking it would be light and fluffy the whole way through with no conflict more dramatic than boy drama or questing sexuality-related drama. Nope. That is something to know before going into this book. If you're looking for something light and fluffy, this may not be the book for you. This book touches on some very serious topics such as mental illness and grief (personally, I think it handles those topics really well and really honestly). Just something to be aware of.
I loved both Gena and Finn. They had such distinct voices. They were so different but they fit together like puzzle pieces. I also grew to love Charlie, tbh I never would have expected it but by the end of the book I genuinely cared about him. And Zack!! I loved Zack so much, his conversations were some of my favorite parts of the book.
And the show... wow I wish I could watch it. I was kind of picturing a darker Brooklyn 99... like if B99 had the same tone as like Vampire Diaries or the current seasons of Teen Wolf. Maybe the only reason I was getting B99 vibes was cause of the police aspect... (it's not like I haven't watched anything other than that show all week that would be absurd............). Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson managed to capture the fandom atmosphere perfectly. Everything from the vernacular people use to the love and support in comment sections, to the stupid drama and ship wars was spot on. It's clear that the authors either are involved in fandom themselves or did some pretty intense research.
The format of the book was really interesting! It makes sense for the set up, given that so much of the things that happen in the book are online. Though it felt a little weird in part 3, I kinda think switching to regular prose may have worked better there but idk. For the vast majority of the book it was fantastic.
The writing was also really great! Usually in this type of format you don't get a ton of actually prose-like writing that would can pull lines that really speak to you or whatever from. But, especially in part 3, I couldn't resist making a few highlights. The way grief was described and discussed managed to perfectly put into words extremely complex emotions and concepts that I've never managed to articulate myself.
This book what not what I expected, but I loved it so very much.
I loved both Gena and Finn. They had such distinct voices. They were so different but they fit together like puzzle pieces. I also grew to love Charlie, tbh I never would have expected it but by the end of the book I genuinely cared about him. And Zack!! I loved Zack so much, his conversations were some of my favorite parts of the book.
And the show... wow I wish I could watch it. I was kind of picturing a darker Brooklyn 99... like if B99 had the same tone as like Vampire Diaries or the current seasons of Teen Wolf. Maybe the only reason I was getting B99 vibes was cause of the police aspect... (it's not like I haven't watched anything other than that show all week that would be absurd............). Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson managed to capture the fandom atmosphere perfectly. Everything from the vernacular people use to the love and support in comment sections, to the stupid drama and ship wars was spot on. It's clear that the authors either are involved in fandom themselves or did some pretty intense research.
The format of the book was really interesting! It makes sense for the set up, given that so much of the things that happen in the book are online. Though it felt a little weird in part 3, I kinda think switching to regular prose may have worked better there but idk. For the vast majority of the book it was fantastic.
The writing was also really great! Usually in this type of format you don't get a ton of actually prose-like writing that would can pull lines that really speak to you or whatever from. But, especially in part 3, I couldn't resist making a few highlights. The way grief was described and discussed managed to perfectly put into words extremely complex emotions and concepts that I've never managed to articulate myself.
This book what not what I expected, but I loved it so very much.
I really loved the first half of this book. The characters felt real and their fannishness was so true to my experience of fandom--in terms of talking about emotions by discussing fandom events and fannish favorite characters, the intensity you can build in a relationship with someone online, how distancing it can be to keep aspects of your fannishness secret from a non-fannish partner as Finn does keeping her fannish intensity from Charlie... all of that rang SO true. The depiction of a character, Gena, who has a handle on managing her mental illness and past trauma was also really refreshing.
I hated the middle development and especially the ending. Learning that Gena was a child star who had costarred on a tv show with the actor who plays one of the two dudes on her fannish-obsession tv show felt very forced. There's a lot to say about how fans interact with their fannish objects, but this made it feel weird to me, and the emotional weight of the book lost a lot of steam as Finn and Gena's correspondence and relationship took a back seat to plot about Gena's upcoming guest appearance on their show.
The last quarter of the book pulls even further away from the emotional core of the novel. We learn that an explosion happened on set the day Gena was there. We're not sure how it happened, but the actor she had known and who played one of the show's main characters dies, and Gena is hospitalized and spends the rest of the book pretty much incapacitated with trauma from it while Finn and Charlie host her and try their best to keep up with her medical bills.
I don't have a problem with the notion of putting characters through the wringer in a novel. However, in this case the trauma distances the characters from one another and obscures the ways their relationships chance to one another in response. We see Finn journaling with increasing anxiety about Gena's health, and Gena's pieces of the book descend into poetry (I personally don't like poetry, particularly as narrative device, so I didn't bother to put in the work reading between the lines on her bits). We don't see them come through this difficult situation together--instead, they're awkwardly living together at the end of the book, emotionally estranged, and instead of taking an opportunity to explore the possibilities of deep platonic attachment and love between two people (which is very common in fandom!), we see a weird ending where the two women no longer have fandom in common and only know how to relate to one another in spiky anxiety anymore. It felt like an emotional cop-out from either having an actual queer romance or having an interesting relationship, and felt like the end result is that fandom might just not be worth it anyhow?
I dunno. I think think there are so many interesting stories to tell about fandom and the people who create it. We didn't need this story to resort to Gena knowing the actors personally to explore the emotional connection two women can build over a shared interest. We didn't need the actor to die and Gena to be implicated in the explosion to explore mental illness, trauma, PTSD, and the fannish network of survival, found family, and care. These plot devices detracted from rather than supporting the strengths of this book.
Also, side note--I know it's a YA novel and we have to Keep Those Clean or whatever, but... why do we always have fannish representation that is afraid to engage with sexually explicit fanfic and the ways people connect to it? It seems like every mainstream novel about fangirls is keen to make sure their characters only write gen. Which, many people DO only write gen! But.
This book was SO readable, the characters sparkled at the beginning and felt SO true to fannish life, and was set up SO well. I'm disappointed that the authors chose to go the dramatic direction they did rather than keep with a good thing.
I hated the middle development and especially the ending. Learning that Gena was a child star who had costarred on a tv show with the actor who plays one of the two dudes on her fannish-obsession tv show felt very forced. There's a lot to say about how fans interact with their fannish objects, but this made it feel weird to me, and the emotional weight of the book lost a lot of steam as Finn and Gena's correspondence and relationship took a back seat to plot about Gena's upcoming guest appearance on their show.
The last quarter of the book pulls even further away from the emotional core of the novel. We learn that an explosion happened on set the day Gena was there. We're not sure how it happened, but the actor she had known and who played one of the show's main characters dies, and Gena is hospitalized and spends the rest of the book pretty much incapacitated with trauma from it while Finn and Charlie host her and try their best to keep up with her medical bills.
I don't have a problem with the notion of putting characters through the wringer in a novel. However, in this case the trauma distances the characters from one another and obscures the ways their relationships chance to one another in response. We see Finn journaling with increasing anxiety about Gena's health, and Gena's pieces of the book descend into poetry (I personally don't like poetry, particularly as narrative device, so I didn't bother to put in the work reading between the lines on her bits). We don't see them come through this difficult situation together--instead, they're awkwardly living together at the end of the book, emotionally estranged, and instead of taking an opportunity to explore the possibilities of deep platonic attachment and love between two people (which is very common in fandom!), we see a weird ending where the two women no longer have fandom in common and only know how to relate to one another in spiky anxiety anymore. It felt like an emotional cop-out from either having an actual queer romance or having an interesting relationship, and felt like the end result is that fandom might just not be worth it anyhow?
I dunno. I think think there are so many interesting stories to tell about fandom and the people who create it. We didn't need this story to resort to Gena knowing the actors personally to explore the emotional connection two women can build over a shared interest. We didn't need the actor to die and Gena to be implicated in the explosion to explore mental illness, trauma, PTSD, and the fannish network of survival, found family, and care. These plot devices detracted from rather than supporting the strengths of this book.
Also, side note--I know it's a YA novel and we have to Keep Those Clean or whatever, but... why do we always have fannish representation that is afraid to engage with sexually explicit fanfic and the ways people connect to it? It seems like every mainstream novel about fangirls is keen to make sure their characters only write gen. Which, many people DO only write gen! But.
This book was SO readable, the characters sparkled at the beginning and felt SO true to fannish life, and was set up SO well. I'm disappointed that the authors chose to go the dramatic direction they did rather than keep with a good thing.
THIS BOOK WAS SO AMAZING AND GOOD AND EMOTIONAL AND HEARTBREAKING AND...AND...AND...!
There are not enough stars to rate this. This book was so emotional and really relatable. It has been awhile since I had gotten so devastated over a book like this and it's left me with a hole in my heart.
I've never read anything by Hannah Moskowitz, but I'm glad that this was the first book that I've read by her. The emotions between Finn and Gena were so real and Finn just wanting to help Gena and be there for her.
Now I don't know what to do with myself. The ending was deep and satisfying. I would recommend this book to anybody. 10/10 stars.
There are not enough stars to rate this. This book was so emotional and really relatable. It has been awhile since I had gotten so devastated over a book like this and it's left me with a hole in my heart.
I've never read anything by Hannah Moskowitz, but I'm glad that this was the first book that I've read by her. The emotions between Finn and Gena were so real and Finn just wanting to help Gena and be there for her.
Now I don't know what to do with myself. The ending was deep and satisfying. I would recommend this book to anybody. 10/10 stars.
Honestly, this book was a solid three stars for me. Then we got to part three. Meh.
rounding up from 3.5 stars. super fast read and i loved how it's delivered in texts, private messages, fan fic boards and emails. gena/finn feels modern and real. towards the end, it falls apart for me a bit and i felt unsatisfied by the ending. that said, i really enjoyed its fresh perspective and seeing their online relationship unfold and grow.
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. It's heartbreaking and raw and I really loved it.
This book confused me? Like I get the plot and the characters and the entire fandom part of it, but it got so intense so fast and I don’t understand how it escalated to that point?
Also I wasn’t digging the whole email/text/poetry format, like it worked but it left me wanting more, I feel like a lot was missing.
Also the ending??? What the frick whats going to happen???
Also I wasn’t digging the whole email/text/poetry format, like it worked but it left me wanting more, I feel like a lot was missing.
Also the ending??? What the frick whats going to happen???