Geekerella: Review
"Look to the stars. Aim. Ignite." - Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Everyone loves a good Cinderella, rags-to-riches story. I mean, Cinderella is one of the most adapted fairy tales, right up there with Beauty and the Beast. You see them everywhere. So it wasn't a surprise to me when Geekerella came out, a modern fandom-based retelling of the classic tale first written by Charles Perrault in 1697.
Geekerella follows a girl named Danielle, who lives with her stepmother and stepsisters and dreams of one day leaving them all behind. However, in order to do that she also has to let go of her late parents' house, along with all of the memories in it, including the fandom her father was obsessed with, Starfield. When she finds out her favorite show is getting a reboot, with a popular Hollywood actor as the main character, she takes her frustrations out on her blog, which becomes famous overnight. Pretty soon Darien Freeman, Starfield's new Prince, is caught up in Elle's world, and they might even get their fairy tale ending (if Elle doesn't get fired from her job, that is).
I went into this not expecting much. It's not often that I choose to read a YA contemporary, but apparently that's what I'm in the mood for this month? Either way, there was little expectations, and little hopes for a five star read here. And while it certainly didn't blow me away, it did surprise me in some aspects.
The pros:
1. The dual POVs: I'm a sucker for multiple points-of-view in a story, so I really appreciated that we got both Elle's and Darien's POVs. I definitely preferred Darien's chapters over Elle's, however. I have a feeling that if I were to reread this book, I would just skip her chapters and go straight to his. I'll talk about it more in my cons, but I didn't like Elle as a narrator very much.
2. The invention of Starfield: I feel like I don't need to keep saying it at this point, since I've worn this topic down to the bone, but I really don't like pop-culture references in books. It's the main reason I stay away from contemporaries. Not only do pop-culture references date the book I'm reading, but they tend to take me out of the story, which automatically makes me frustrated with the book. So, yeah, I figured a book all about fandoms and conventions was going to have a fair amount of pop-culture in it. But the fact that the author created a brand new fandom, instead of using established ones, really struck a chord with me. I can appreciate the love the characters have for this fandom a lot more, because I know nothing about it. But if Poston had used franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek (both mentioned in the book), I know I would've gotten antsy, because I love both of those franchises, and it would've bothered me to see them being played out.
3. Sage and Cal's relationship: Yes yes, I must talk about the rep in this book. Who's shocked? So yeah, I really like Sage and Calliope as a couple. Sage is Elle's coworker and best friend (eventually), and Cal is one of Elle's stepsisters. You know how in usual Cinderella stories, there's always one sister who is nicer to Cinderella than the other? Like, in the movie Ever After (my personal favorite adaptation), Danielle's sister Jacqueline is her ally against the other sister, Marguerite. Or, in the Disney Cinderella movies (the classics, not the remake with Lily James, though I love that one as well), Anastasia and Cinderella form a friendship when Anastasia falls in love with a baker, and Drizella is kind of left out in the cold. So, in Geekerella, Calliope is Elle's nice stepsister. I really did like Cal, and Sage was by far my favorite character, so it made me really happy to see the two of them end the book as a couple. It also helped that neither of them were the main characters, and it was shown as normal for the two to be dating. I love that in YA. Diversity is normal, yay!
The cons:
1. Elle as a narrator: Oh man, she bothered me. It was the classic "I'm not like other girls, I watch sci-fi and I write a blog." Like, girl. Get with the times. Everyone watches sci-fi. I haven't met one single person in my life that hasn't seen Star Wars. Okay, yes, the older shows like the original Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica are a little more evasive, but they're a thing, okay? She was constantly ragging on other people for getting into Starfield because of the reboot. But who cares if someone only just found a fandom because it was getting remade? The point is, they found it. Elle acted like she owned Starfield the entire book, not wanting to talk to Sage about it because "she wouldn't possibly understand" or whatever. Ugh, it annoyed me.
2. The tropes: Wow, the tropes. I don't think I've read a book that had this many tropes and cliches in it. I mean, yeah, it's modeled after a classic fairy tale, of course those tropes are going to be in it; the evil stepmother, home before midnight, losing a shoe, etc. etc. But did there really have to be every other cliche in the galaxy in this book? I've already talked about the whole "I'm not like other girls" cliche, but there was also the "closeted nerd" trope, the "punk rock on principle" trope...it was just too much! Seriously, find something else to fill your pages with.
3. The forced-in villain: Everyone knew that Elle's stepmom and stepsister Chloe were going to be villains. I mean, it's the literal storyline--the "evil" stepmother and stepsisters. But Brian and Mark as villains? They just felt tacked on. I'm sure that Poston meant well when writing Brian in as a character, but to me it felt like she just wanted to humanize Darien more by giving him an ex-best friend/stalker. But like? Completely unnecessary? Brian was not needed as a character, at all. And to top it all off it was revealed that Brian wasn't the big bad, but Darien's own father. Come on! How soap opera can you really get?
I'm sure some of you are thinking that I'm being too harsh on my critiques, but this book really did bother me. Yeah, I thought parts of it were cute, but that doesn't change the fact that there was so much wrong with it. I seriously considered DNFing at least three times while reading. By the time I thought about putting it down for the last time, it was more of "Well, I only have like 70 pages left, so might as well just power through."
Overall, it was a 3 star read for me. Not terrible, but not great. Average. Eh. Not worth reading again. I guess I won't be getting that fairy-tale ending with this book after all.
Everyone loves a good Cinderella, rags-to-riches story. I mean, Cinderella is one of the most adapted fairy tales, right up there with Beauty and the Beast. You see them everywhere. So it wasn't a surprise to me when Geekerella came out, a modern fandom-based retelling of the classic tale first written by Charles Perrault in 1697.
Geekerella follows a girl named Danielle, who lives with her stepmother and stepsisters and dreams of one day leaving them all behind. However, in order to do that she also has to let go of her late parents' house, along with all of the memories in it, including the fandom her father was obsessed with, Starfield. When she finds out her favorite show is getting a reboot, with a popular Hollywood actor as the main character, she takes her frustrations out on her blog, which becomes famous overnight. Pretty soon Darien Freeman, Starfield's new Prince, is caught up in Elle's world, and they might even get their fairy tale ending (if Elle doesn't get fired from her job, that is).
I went into this not expecting much. It's not often that I choose to read a YA contemporary, but apparently that's what I'm in the mood for this month? Either way, there was little expectations, and little hopes for a five star read here. And while it certainly didn't blow me away, it did surprise me in some aspects.
The pros:
1. The dual POVs: I'm a sucker for multiple points-of-view in a story, so I really appreciated that we got both Elle's and Darien's POVs. I definitely preferred Darien's chapters over Elle's, however. I have a feeling that if I were to reread this book, I would just skip her chapters and go straight to his. I'll talk about it more in my cons, but I didn't like Elle as a narrator very much.
2. The invention of Starfield: I feel like I don't need to keep saying it at this point, since I've worn this topic down to the bone, but I really don't like pop-culture references in books. It's the main reason I stay away from contemporaries. Not only do pop-culture references date the book I'm reading, but they tend to take me out of the story, which automatically makes me frustrated with the book. So, yeah, I figured a book all about fandoms and conventions was going to have a fair amount of pop-culture in it. But the fact that the author created a brand new fandom, instead of using established ones, really struck a chord with me. I can appreciate the love the characters have for this fandom a lot more, because I know nothing about it. But if Poston had used franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek (both mentioned in the book), I know I would've gotten antsy, because I love both of those franchises, and it would've bothered me to see them being played out.
3. Sage and Cal's relationship: Yes yes, I must talk about the rep in this book. Who's shocked? So yeah, I really like Sage and Calliope as a couple. Sage is Elle's coworker and best friend (eventually), and Cal is one of Elle's stepsisters. You know how in usual Cinderella stories, there's always one sister who is nicer to Cinderella than the other? Like, in the movie Ever After (my personal favorite adaptation), Danielle's sister Jacqueline is her ally against the other sister, Marguerite. Or, in the Disney Cinderella movies (the classics, not the remake with Lily James, though I love that one as well), Anastasia and Cinderella form a friendship when Anastasia falls in love with a baker, and Drizella is kind of left out in the cold. So, in Geekerella, Calliope is Elle's nice stepsister. I really did like Cal, and Sage was by far my favorite character, so it made me really happy to see the two of them end the book as a couple. It also helped that neither of them were the main characters, and it was shown as normal for the two to be dating. I love that in YA. Diversity is normal, yay!
The cons:
1. Elle as a narrator: Oh man, she bothered me. It was the classic "I'm not like other girls, I watch sci-fi and I write a blog." Like, girl. Get with the times. Everyone watches sci-fi. I haven't met one single person in my life that hasn't seen Star Wars. Okay, yes, the older shows like the original Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica are a little more evasive, but they're a thing, okay? She was constantly ragging on other people for getting into Starfield because of the reboot. But who cares if someone only just found a fandom because it was getting remade? The point is, they found it. Elle acted like she owned Starfield the entire book, not wanting to talk to Sage about it because "she wouldn't possibly understand" or whatever. Ugh, it annoyed me.
2. The tropes: Wow, the tropes. I don't think I've read a book that had this many tropes and cliches in it. I mean, yeah, it's modeled after a classic fairy tale, of course those tropes are going to be in it; the evil stepmother, home before midnight, losing a shoe, etc. etc. But did there really have to be every other cliche in the galaxy in this book? I've already talked about the whole "I'm not like other girls" cliche, but there was also the "closeted nerd" trope, the "punk rock on principle" trope...it was just too much! Seriously, find something else to fill your pages with.
3. The forced-in villain: Everyone knew that Elle's stepmom and stepsister Chloe were going to be villains. I mean, it's the literal storyline--the "evil" stepmother and stepsisters. But Brian and Mark as villains? They just felt tacked on. I'm sure that Poston meant well when writing Brian in as a character, but to me it felt like she just wanted to humanize Darien more by giving him an ex-best friend/stalker. But like? Completely unnecessary? Brian was not needed as a character, at all. And to top it all off it was revealed that Brian wasn't the big bad, but Darien's own father. Come on! How soap opera can you really get?
I'm sure some of you are thinking that I'm being too harsh on my critiques, but this book really did bother me. Yeah, I thought parts of it were cute, but that doesn't change the fact that there was so much wrong with it. I seriously considered DNFing at least three times while reading. By the time I thought about putting it down for the last time, it was more of "Well, I only have like 70 pages left, so might as well just power through."
Overall, it was a 3 star read for me. Not terrible, but not great. Average. Eh. Not worth reading again. I guess I won't be getting that fairy-tale ending with this book after all.
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