Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (Book Review)

“You can’t pick and choose whose equality you support. That’s not equality.” 




Three Friends, Two Love Stories, One Convention

This is a young adult book about a group of young people (nerds) going to a Sci-fi convention, all with different interests & hobbies. Queens of Geek follows Charlie and Taylor, two teenage girls who travel from Australia to America to attend SupaCon (sort of a fictionalized Comic-Con) along with their mutual friend Jamie. Charlie is a vlogger-turned-actress who’s at the convention partially to promote a film she’s starring in and partially to indulge in some fangirling—some of which involves Alyssa, a vlogger she’s had a crush on for ages. Taylor is Charlie’s best friend, a huge fan of fantasy novels, who came to SupaCon to hang out with her friends. Of course, things don’t go as planned, and Taylor and Jamie—whom Taylor has had a crush on for ages—end up spending most of SupaCon without Charlie. This and a cosplay contest whose prize is meeting the star of Taylor’s favorite movies push Taylor to move out of her comfort zone, but is she ready?


You can find out more about the author Jen Wilde on her website HERE, facebook HERE and she is on Twitter HERE. I will be checking out what else she has on offer next month including the popular Eva Series

This book has a little bit of everything;

·       Shy geek recently diagnosed with Aspergers (aka Aspie) with dreadful anxiety.
·       Dealing with breakups and navigating a new relationship.
·       Bi storyline.
·       Deals with important issues like biphobia, fatshaming, sexism, and toxic relationships.
·       Multi-national and multi-cultural.
·       A story of friends supporting each other.

This is a nice, light-hearted easy read that deals with real issues in a good way. Whilst there are a few hiccups along the way, everything gets resolved and it’s a happily lived after story.

It deals with so many important topics really well and this is no mean feat considering there is so much covered. Another author might have been tempted to downplay some of the subjects but I’m glad Wilde didn’t do that, because let’s face it, in reality there are always multiple things going on to screw up your day. Think of it, anytime you had a crap day, was it one thing that went wrong, HELL NO! It was the fifth thing in quick succession that made your day unravel and go downhill. This book emulates the real life helter-skelter of life. 

As I was reading the book, I was constantly thinking of people that would enjoy it and probably get something from it. Being a bit of a geek myself, I could visualise myself, or some of my friends, in some of these situations. The LGBT community has always felt at home at comic cons, so it’s really nice to read a book aimed at that market. In fact, it's common place to have LGBT workshops and talks at cons these days, I always love listening to Nana Visitor with the Gays in Space (Listen here)

(Nana Visitor with Gays in Space in Las Vegas in 2017)
  
The only negatives I can say about this book is that it’s a bit simplified and nothing works out that perfectly in real life. But, the book is supposed to be an easy light-hearted read so it wouldn’t be fair to criticise the content because of this.

My fave quote in the book is “You can’t pick and choose whose equality you support. That’s not equality.” I would recommend this book to YA and adults to read, it’s also a good read for parents and teachers and would make a good class read. I give it an 8 out of 10 planets.



Other LGBT books I have reviewed are

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan HERE

When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid HERE

Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green HERE

Simon vs, The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli HERE


John the Captain Ryan



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