Hello Readers,
Thank you, Jamie and Qurik for
sending me a copy of The Princess and The FanGirl: A Geekerella Fairy Tale by
Ashley Poston for free in exchange for an honest review.
Spoilers
Publish date: April 2nd 2019
Today we have another fairy tale retelling and as you all
know I love a good retelling (now up to 10 reviews) this time we have we have a
genderbent The Prince and Pauper. This is the second book by Ashley I have
reviewed this week the first was Geekerella and this was just as warm and
fuzzy. I was honestly so excited when the email came through for this book, I
think it’s the quickest I’ve replied back because I loved Geekerella and
couldn’t wait to see what Ashely did next.
There are spoilers
in this review so Stop here if you don’t want anything ruined!! Final warning!!
Keep in mind this is a loose retelling of
The Prince and the Pauper and follows the basic underlining story when
two people who look alike swap places and both characters learn a lot from
there experience. Jessica Stone is the
actress playing Princess Amara in the reboot of popular sci-fi franchise
Starfield and currently under attack by a big part of the fandom, which she
wants nothing to do with anymore (Honestly I don’t blame her). Imogene is a
huge fan of the franchise and she wants nothing more than to save her favourite
character from getting killed (Princess Amara) and she just so happens to be
Jess’s doppelganger. The book is crammed full of witty references to all the
biggest fandoms, and the characters in my opinion represent nerd-culture at its
finest. I love it and I miss YALC!!!
A case of mistaken identity means that Imogene finds
herself pulled onstage for a panel and she quickly rises to the part and says that her character Amara shouldn't have died and the fans
are left feeling like Jess Stone is more relatable than ever. After the panel,
Jessica confronts her imposter. However, parts of the script for Starfield 2
are leaked online and Jessica is the main suspect. Jessica quickly realises
that she needs Imogene and convinces her to become “Jessica” so she can do some investigating. Jessica and Imogene both have distinctive
voices, personalities and flaws. I thought they contrasted yet complimented
each other beautifully. It was wonderful to watch them develop throughout the book.
Two aspects I really loved was the two different perspectives that we get and it was interesting to see the perspective of an
actress at a con and the contrast of a frequent con-goer. In addition to all the fun,
there's some great commentary on internet behaviour, online and fandom
culture, including how devastating it can be to be targeted by trolls. Off the
top of my head writing this in the real world think back to when a female Doctor Who (Jodie you’re amazing) was announced, Star Trek
Discovery "changing" the timeline and The Marvel vs DC debate. But, on a lighter note, there's a little fairy-tale magic in the air and some familiar faces from
Geekerella make an appearance; Elle, Darien, Sage and even The Magic Pumpkin! and we get to experience Starfield and ExcelsiCon again which was great.
Let’s quickly talk about the representation in this book
we get an f/f romance with a black female, we get an Asian male love interest,
we get gay side characters and remarkable range of diversity is held within this book. The characters don’t mention any labels or
specifics about attraction and it’s wonderful. There are also some feminist
undertones just sprinkled on top.
I loved both Geekerella and The Princess and The
Fangirl both left me feeling warm and fuzzy and they both gave me major
conblues.
L x
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