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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
Told in texts, blogs, fanfic and email, the story follows two girls who are at points in their lives where they are on the verge of something. Good or bad, they’re not sure yet. Gena is about to head off to college, which will be awesome...probably, even with her folks totally not in the picture. Finn has moved to California with her boyfriend and this will hopefully turn out okay...she hasn’t found a job yet, not even one as a barista, let alone something to do with what she’s shouldered school loans to earn.
What unites these two girls is more than the fandom they share, but the fandom is what brings them together. While they connect over their shared obsession with Up Below character Jake, they also start sharing pieces of their lives and become closer, after a meet up at a Con, the two realize they’ve just met their best friend.
However, all is far from perfect. Finn’s boyfriend is starting to think of their future together, as in marriage, and she’s not quite sure she’s ready for that yet, she feels isolated in California. Gena’s dealing with a full plate of absent parents, mental illness and the always stressful transition to college life. When Finn heads out to RI to be with Gena, Charlie gives her a choice, is it Gena or Charlie, it can’t be both.
What Finn decides leads to another cascade of consequences for her and Gena.
I kind of want to say, “It’s too real Roy, it’s too real!” But, the IT Crowd’s my fandom.
I enjoyed the epistolary aspect of this novel. The e-mails, posts and comments sections, and texts gave the story a very realistic element for me. I felt like I was trolling those boards and reading between the lines. The frustrations of texting sometimes! I liked that the two girls fell totally in friend love, even if that got a bit confusing for Finn. It was awkward and complicated and seemed very in line with what we’d like the world to be, a place where love can be so many different things with so many faces.
I also liked that there was no concrete ending, no one ends up married (sorry spoilers).
What I didn’t love (which means I still liked it). I was really really invested in the story from the beginning, I identified with both Finn and Gena, but as the drama increased I did feel myself drawing out of the story a little bit. Everything seemed to be just a little too perfect storm, the meds, the fire, the death. I actually liked the twist of the story and how that threw Finn and Gena together in a different (kinda weird) way, making them almost more like mom and daughter than best friends. I also wasn’t completely sold on Gena’s mental illness, it wasn’t terribly done, but I also felt that there was something missing, it was a bit too shallow a depiction, a bit too much like fanfiction. I know, it’s a story that’s basically told in fanfic about fanfic, so how could that be bad?
Fanfic is great, I think it’s a valid and important part of self-expression, but I also think most fanfics are shallow and rely on cliches and tropes.
Funnily enough I could definitely see fangirls shipping various characters in the story. Like, how many people out there are going to ship FinnxGena? I can see it happening for sure. Also, I have to say I loved all the online interactions esp. between the characters and Tylergirl98 (I'm not sure I remember the #), so funny and totally understandable.
Despite my misgivings about the second half of the novel I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially those who enjoyed Rainbow Rowell’s novel [b:Fangirl|16068905|Fangirl|Rainbow Rowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355886270s/16068905.jpg|21861351]. Also, if you liked this or Fangirl, check out [b:A Hero at the End of the World|20521670|A Hero at the End of the World|Erin Claiborne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427857654s/20521670.jpg|36666223] by Erin Claiborne.
What unites these two girls is more than the fandom they share, but the fandom is what brings them together. While they connect over their shared obsession with Up Below character Jake, they also start sharing pieces of their lives and become closer, after a meet up at a Con, the two realize they’ve just met their best friend.
However, all is far from perfect. Finn’s boyfriend is starting to think of their future together, as in marriage, and she’s not quite sure she’s ready for that yet, she feels isolated in California. Gena’s dealing with a full plate of absent parents, mental illness and the always stressful transition to college life. When Finn heads out to RI to be with Gena, Charlie gives her a choice, is it Gena or Charlie, it can’t be both.
What Finn decides leads to another cascade of consequences for her and Gena.
I kind of want to say, “It’s too real Roy, it’s too real!” But, the IT Crowd’s my fandom.
I enjoyed the epistolary aspect of this novel. The e-mails, posts and comments sections, and texts gave the story a very realistic element for me. I felt like I was trolling those boards and reading between the lines. The frustrations of texting sometimes! I liked that the two girls fell totally in friend love, even if that got a bit confusing for Finn. It was awkward and complicated and seemed very in line with what we’d like the world to be, a place where love can be so many different things with so many faces.
I also liked that there was no concrete ending, no one ends up married (sorry spoilers).
What I didn’t love (which means I still liked it). I was really really invested in the story from the beginning, I identified with both Finn and Gena, but as the drama increased I did feel myself drawing out of the story a little bit. Everything seemed to be just a little too perfect storm, the meds, the fire, the death. I actually liked the twist of the story and how that threw Finn and Gena together in a different (kinda weird) way, making them almost more like mom and daughter than best friends. I also wasn’t completely sold on Gena’s mental illness, it wasn’t terribly done, but I also felt that there was something missing, it was a bit too shallow a depiction, a bit too much like fanfiction. I know, it’s a story that’s basically told in fanfic about fanfic, so how could that be bad?
Fanfic is great, I think it’s a valid and important part of self-expression, but I also think most fanfics are shallow and rely on cliches and tropes.
Funnily enough I could definitely see fangirls shipping various characters in the story. Like, how many people out there are going to ship FinnxGena? I can see it happening for sure. Also, I have to say I loved all the online interactions esp. between the characters and Tylergirl98 (I'm not sure I remember the #), so funny and totally understandable.
Despite my misgivings about the second half of the novel I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially those who enjoyed Rainbow Rowell’s novel [b:Fangirl|16068905|Fangirl|Rainbow Rowell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355886270s/16068905.jpg|21861351]. Also, if you liked this or Fangirl, check out [b:A Hero at the End of the World|20521670|A Hero at the End of the World|Erin Claiborne|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427857654s/20521670.jpg|36666223] by Erin Claiborne.
!?!?
Really amazing writing, but I'm regretting reading this when I have things to do because it's a fantastic emotional rollercoaster.
I love the twist on the typical Love Triangle and the character dynamics are fantastic.
Really amazing writing, but I'm regretting reading this when I have things to do because it's a fantastic emotional rollercoaster.
I love the twist on the typical Love Triangle and the character dynamics are fantastic.
• the relationship between Gena and Finn—what can I say? It was beautiful and painful and I loved it so, so much
• an accurate portrayal of fandom (down to the ship wars, fanfic/art and terrible people)
• the format that was used to tell the story (text messages, emails etc.) was hard to get into—I felt very disconnected at times
• I wish that, instead of Finn's journal entries at the end, there had been a chapter or two from a different perspective—finding out what was going on through the journal felt very forced, unnatural
• the characters were all so real
• one of the character deaths hit me like a ton of bricks and I definitely cried a little—part of me was surprised, though
• an accurate portrayal of fandom (down to the ship wars, fanfic/art and terrible people)
• the format that was used to tell the story (text messages, emails etc.) was hard to get into—I felt very disconnected at times
• I wish that, instead of Finn's journal entries at the end, there had been a chapter or two from a different perspective—finding out what was going on through the journal felt very forced, unnatural
• the characters were all so real
• one of the character deaths hit me like a ton of bricks and I definitely cried a little—part of me was surprised, though
I started this novel with low expectations. I just started summer camp and wanted a light read to help me fall asleep at night.
Then, something happened in my life.
I stopped reading entirely. I'm still not fully okay right now. My emotions have been shut off.
I picked back up this book the other night, and a switch was flipped.
This novel has such a unique couple of perspectives on a fictional situation that I completely believe in. This story unfolded in a way that made me feel safe to hurt right now. This book is the permission I needed to think about my situation and to have feelings about it.
Humans have emotions, but people are the ones who decide to feel them.
"i know better now.
stanzas are for quitters
punctuation is for the brave.
If love is a semicolon then grief is a comma:
it won't ever stand alone,
but it will give you one breath,
in."
Then, something happened in my life.
I stopped reading entirely. I'm still not fully okay right now. My emotions have been shut off.
I picked back up this book the other night, and a switch was flipped.
This novel has such a unique couple of perspectives on a fictional situation that I completely believe in. This story unfolded in a way that made me feel safe to hurt right now. This book is the permission I needed to think about my situation and to have feelings about it.
Humans have emotions, but people are the ones who decide to feel them.
"i know better now.
stanzas are for quitters
punctuation is for the brave.
If love is a semicolon then grief is a comma:
it won't ever stand alone,
but it will give you one breath,
in."
3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"...stories change in memory and in the retelling, and because you write and rewrite them until they’re what you want them to be, but this is one story I want you to remember the way it happened. I want you to remember the people we are now, the times I was there for you and the times I let you down. I want you to love me weak like I loved you crazy, and when we’re both on top again we’ll remember that we did it."
"...stories change in memory and in the retelling, and because you write and rewrite them until they’re what you want them to be, but this is one story I want you to remember the way it happened. I want you to remember the people we are now, the times I was there for you and the times I let you down. I want you to love me weak like I loved you crazy, and when we’re both on top again we’ll remember that we did it."
Powered through this one in a single sitting. I guess I see where a lot of the negative reviews are coming from - yes, there's a lot of external "drama" that comes out of nowhere in the last quarter of the book, and no, the main characters don't end up together - but I really, really liked it.
So this is gonna get personal, I guess, but most of my enjoyment came from the near-constant sense of having been there that I had while reading. I've been the eighteen-year-old who meets one of their best friends in the world (who, coincidentally, was also twenty-two at the time) through fandom. I've had that rush of intimacy, getting to know someone faster than you ever thought possible. I've clung to fandom and the friends I made through it while my real-world life fell apart. More esoterically: I've got the "had struggles with psychosis as a small child" backstory in my life's narrative, too. And I've dealt with trauma via a combination of embarrassing poetry and fandom. And yes, I've straddled that scary line between loving platonically and romantically.
It's that last point that I think is the disconnect between myself and a lot of the GR reviews I encountered while deciding if I wanted to read this. I saw claims of queerbaiting and I just... fundamentally do not agree. I'll stick my reasoning under a spoiler cut, because it's, well, spoilery.Gena and Finn are both very, very clearly bi. That they have romantic feelings for each other is explicit and canonical. That they don't end up together is not grounds for qualification as "queerbaiting" by any definition of the term I've ever seen. I also don't believe I'd have found it honest if they had ended up together, especially if they had a HEA or even a HFN as a couple. I don't think that is the story this book was trying to tell. And I think it succeeded at what I perceived to be its goal: to depict two queer girls navigating young adulthood, relationships, and the line between different kinds of love. That line is messy and it doesn't always end with "canon f/f", you know?
Anyway. I'm not sure this is my most coherent review, and I might come back later (when I'm a little less out of it) to try and clean it up. But overall I really liked this book.
So this is gonna get personal, I guess, but most of my enjoyment came from the near-constant sense of having been there that I had while reading. I've been the eighteen-year-old who meets one of their best friends in the world (who, coincidentally, was also twenty-two at the time) through fandom. I've had that rush of intimacy, getting to know someone faster than you ever thought possible. I've clung to fandom and the friends I made through it while my real-world life fell apart. More esoterically: I've got the "had struggles with psychosis as a small child" backstory in my life's narrative, too. And I've dealt with trauma via a combination of embarrassing poetry and fandom. And yes, I've straddled that scary line between loving platonically and romantically.
It's that last point that I think is the disconnect between myself and a lot of the GR reviews I encountered while deciding if I wanted to read this. I saw claims of queerbaiting and I just... fundamentally do not agree. I'll stick my reasoning under a spoiler cut, because it's, well, spoilery.
Anyway. I'm not sure this is my most coherent review, and I might come back later (when I'm a little less out of it) to try and clean it up. But overall I really liked this book.
-Could've been longer so that the conflict is sort of in the middle ish rather than the end
-The romance is a bit confusing considering Finn keeps calling Gena "kid" like......
-Wish they'd gone with the whole poly thing
-The style (emails, letters, posts, texts) made me feel disconnected from the characters a bit
-The romance is a bit confusing considering Finn keeps calling Gena "kid" like......
-Wish they'd gone with the whole poly thing
-The style (emails, letters, posts, texts) made me feel disconnected from the characters a bit
This book is in equal turns beautiful and heartbreaking. It took me a little while to get what the fandom Gena and Finn love was about, but once I got that under wraps, it was impossible to put down. I could be wrong, but I think the Jake and Tyler relationship was very loosely based on Supernatural (not that anything that happens on Up Below is the same as Supernatural...in my experience anyway, but the idea of two main male characters, who have a huge fandom that is biased toward one character more than another? Yeah, that is parallel at least.)
Best thing about this book is the idea that online friendships can be and are real.... Gena doesn't have anyone except for Finn, so when things get kinda crazy, I love that these two female characters were there for each other, even when it means sacrificing, possibly things in their "real" life.
Whether you're part of one or multiple fandoms, whether you write, read, or stay clear of fanfic, you have to give this one a try. Seriously.
And, like my previous fave book by Hannah Moskowitz, (and maybe still my fave) Gone, Gone, Gone, there is a big emotional aspect to this story. If that kind of thing works for you, then you don't want to miss this unique book.
Best thing about this book is the idea that online friendships can be and are real.... Gena doesn't have anyone except for Finn, so when things get kinda crazy, I love that these two female characters were there for each other, even when it means sacrificing, possibly things in their "real" life.
Whether you're part of one or multiple fandoms, whether you write, read, or stay clear of fanfic, you have to give this one a try. Seriously.
And, like my previous fave book by Hannah Moskowitz, (and maybe still my fave) Gone, Gone, Gone, there is a big emotional aspect to this story. If that kind of thing works for you, then you don't want to miss this unique book.
Gena/Finn, why are you doing this to me?
You were awesome to read for about 150 pages and then you became weird.
Alright, what did I like about this book?
- the whole fandom aspect of it. I myself, am a huge fangirl - I have many shows and movies I get ridiculously enthusiastic about. And yes, it is important to me - I love all these things. Creativity SHOULD incite a reaction and I know that most people can remain calm during a trailer for the new Star Trek movie, but I CAN´T. I loved reading about people I could absolutely relate to on a very personal level.
- The relationship (in the beginning) between Gena/Finn: I really wanted them to end up together because it felt like romantic love for most of the book.
- The writing style was surprisingly good. Every other book I´ve attempted to read that only consists of texts, e-mails, notes etc. was horrible to get through. But in this case it felt quite realistic and compelled me to continue reading.
- The edition I had has the pinkest pink that has ever been pink underneath it´s cover. It´s awesome!
And now to the bad things:
- basically the last 100 pages. The whole dramatic turn of the story felt forced to me and the end was rushed and didn´t give me any resolution for the story.
- So... Gena/Finn DON´T end up together. Finn is still together with her boyfriend and wants to marry him. And Gena is (probably) together with Steven or at least on the way there. I felt a bit cheated because Gena and Finn seemed to be building a romantic realtionship. I don´t know - if they only ever become best friends... why not write it like that? You can convey an unbelievably strong sense of love that two people have for each other and NOT write it like a romance.
- The poems are not my cup of tea. I´m one of those people who just don´t get poetry.
I guess... this is it. I kind of love this book for the first 150 pages, but I hate it for the rest.
You were awesome to read for about 150 pages and then you became weird.
Alright, what did I like about this book?
- the whole fandom aspect of it. I myself, am a huge fangirl - I have many shows and movies I get ridiculously enthusiastic about. And yes, it is important to me - I love all these things. Creativity SHOULD incite a reaction and I know that most people can remain calm during a trailer for the new Star Trek movie, but I CAN´T. I loved reading about people I could absolutely relate to on a very personal level.
- The relationship (in the beginning) between Gena/Finn: I really wanted them to end up together because it felt like romantic love for most of the book.
- The writing style was surprisingly good. Every other book I´ve attempted to read that only consists of texts, e-mails, notes etc. was horrible to get through. But in this case it felt quite realistic and compelled me to continue reading.
- The edition I had has the pinkest pink that has ever been pink underneath it´s cover. It´s awesome!
And now to the bad things:
- basically the last 100 pages. The whole dramatic turn of the story felt forced to me and the end was rushed and didn´t give me any resolution for the story.
- So... Gena/Finn DON´T end up together. Finn is still together with her boyfriend and wants to marry him. And Gena is (probably) together with Steven or at least on the way there. I felt a bit cheated because Gena and Finn seemed to be building a romantic realtionship. I don´t know - if they only ever become best friends... why not write it like that? You can convey an unbelievably strong sense of love that two people have for each other and NOT write it like a romance.
- The poems are not my cup of tea. I´m one of those people who just don´t get poetry.
I guess... this is it. I kind of love this book for the first 150 pages, but I hate it for the rest.
Originally posted at Lady Knight Reads
I have a lot of complicated feelings about this book. I loved so much of it, but then it really crashed for me at the end. Gena/Finn is about fandom, friendship and the different kinds of family. All things that are super relative to my interests, obviously. Fandom is a huge part of my life, the friends I’ve made through it have pulled me through some of the darkest times in my life, and this book very accurately captures that sense of community and family. The final third of the book was an absolute mess though. It lost the charm held in the earlier pages and left me feeling unsatisfied after finishing the last page, which was so disappointing.
Gena and Finn’s stories are told through a series of blog posts, text messages, and private messages/chats. The format worked extremely well, and kept the story moving at a face pace. The characterization is pretty good. Gena and Finn are both fully fleshed out characters with distinct personalities. I clicked with Gena instantly, she just sparked off the page for me. Finn took longer for me to warm up to and I never quite connected to her. However I felt like Finn had actual character development as the story progressed while Gena just seemed to not. I don’t know. She was a different person at the end of the book than she was at the beginning, but not in a good way, and I don’t feel like any of the stuff she was suffering with was ever resolved which was frustrating because I loved her so much and I wanted better for her.
Like many online relationships, their friendship became very intense very quickly (again, SO REALISTIC) I actually really loved the way that it was handled and I don’t want to say anymore for fear of spoilers but SO. MANY. FEELS. I just adored them so much. I was also a huge fan of the minor characters, and ended up caring a lot more of them than I expected.
The plot was also not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was just going to be about fandom and friendship but there was so much more going on than that. There are lots of fun (and not so fun) surprises that will give you emotions, and despite the fact that I did not love the ending, I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories about friendship and fandom.
I have a lot of complicated feelings about this book. I loved so much of it, but then it really crashed for me at the end. Gena/Finn is about fandom, friendship and the different kinds of family. All things that are super relative to my interests, obviously. Fandom is a huge part of my life, the friends I’ve made through it have pulled me through some of the darkest times in my life, and this book very accurately captures that sense of community and family. The final third of the book was an absolute mess though. It lost the charm held in the earlier pages and left me feeling unsatisfied after finishing the last page, which was so disappointing.
Gena and Finn’s stories are told through a series of blog posts, text messages, and private messages/chats. The format worked extremely well, and kept the story moving at a face pace. The characterization is pretty good. Gena and Finn are both fully fleshed out characters with distinct personalities. I clicked with Gena instantly, she just sparked off the page for me. Finn took longer for me to warm up to and I never quite connected to her. However I felt like Finn had actual character development as the story progressed while Gena just seemed to not. I don’t know. She was a different person at the end of the book than she was at the beginning, but not in a good way, and I don’t feel like any of the stuff she was suffering with was ever resolved which was frustrating because I loved her so much and I wanted better for her.
Like many online relationships, their friendship became very intense very quickly (again, SO REALISTIC) I actually really loved the way that it was handled and I don’t want to say anymore for fear of spoilers but SO. MANY. FEELS. I just adored them so much. I was also a huge fan of the minor characters, and ended up caring a lot more of them than I expected.
The plot was also not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was just going to be about fandom and friendship but there was so much more going on than that. There are lots of fun (and not so fun) surprises that will give you emotions, and despite the fact that I did not love the ending, I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories about friendship and fandom.