“I’m forever observing, trying to learn how to be an adult human being by watching others, and I’m constantly in awe of how easy some people make it look.”
I didn’t exactly hate this book, but I didn’t love it either. I love the geeky and dorky characters and how it completely revolves around modern-day things, like fandoms and social media, but I don’t think it was one of the better books that has these topics. If I were to be thinking about different books that revolved around fandoms and such, this book wouldn’t be one of the first to come to mind.
The representation in here is great. There is a girl who is half Chinese and half Australian, which is nice since we don’t always see many Asian characters in books. This character is also bisexual or lesbian (not exactly sure), which again is great representation as well.
The main problem I had with this book was simply the fandom stuff. I understood the social media aspect and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t quite understand the fandom that Taylor was into. I only knew that she was obsessed with this character “Queen Firestone”, but I still don’t know where this character even comes from. I also didn’t fully understand this “Queen Firestone” character either, and it definitely made it harder for me to get through this book.
I also didn’t really like the relationship that Taylor and Jamie shared. I liked their friendship, but I didn’t think it was entirely necessary for them to be together. I wish they stayed friends honestly, and I just don’t think that they are a great pairing. I was fine with Charlie and Alyssa, but again I found it to be just forced. It was so incredibly instalovey that I literally still don’t get how such a strong relationship formed in an instant. Like they literally saw each other and knew they were going to have a relationship. Uh… Yeah, it’s TERRIBLE INSTALOVE. I do think they are a great pair, but if there was going to be instalove it should’ve had just slightly more building.
Besides those major issues, I guess this book wasn’t bad. I liked the fun social media aspect that was incorporated into this book, and even though it wasn’t relatable at all, I still found it to be interesting. The nerdy and geeky characters were fun to be around, and I could sort of relate to them since I myself have in the past have been in different fandoms too. The obsessions they share for certain fictional things was something I could definitely relate to, which I liked.
If I were to rate this book purely for entertainment value, it would’ve definitely been close to 5 stars. Of course, I can’t always rate a book solely based on whether I like it or not, so my rating is sort of low. However, I did find this book to move at a quick pace that I could understand what was going on but also stay invested in the story.
Overall, this wasn’t the best read, but it wasn’t exactly very memorable either. It was honestly pretty forgetful, but as of right now I am okay with this book. I wouldn’t exactly recommend this to anyone, but it is still something worth picking up.