3.5 stars. Despite some issues, this book was so stinking adorable and had me enthralled enough to read it in one sitting, powering through to finish sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

There are really a lot of great things going on here--interesting characters, a really sweet love story between two girls who meet and bond at a convention, and a lot of good commentary on fandom and fanfic that's surprisingly nuanced. It talks about all sorts of issues in media and fandom like queerbaiting, heteronormativity, representation, and the marginalization of stuff for women/teen girls, all without feeling too preachy.

At about 2/3 of the way through, though, I had a few issues. I don't love how self righteous and entitled the main character, Claire, is in regards to things like the actors' and creators' personal lives and to having a say in the direction of the show. I'm conflicted because on the one hand I like that she's tenacious and doesn't back down, but on the other hand she drove me a bit crazy for a while.

I also disliked a few things that happened in regards to Claire's sexuality, mainly how almost every other character is all smug about Claire's sexuality like they know better than she does. The way her sexuality is revealed is pretty bs, too.

Despite being a bit frustrating sometimes, though, I think it all wraps up well (not too perfect but satisfying) and generally mitigates the quibbles I had. Overall, I just really enjoyed it!

<blockquote><i>”I want you to picture something for a second. I know you feel like an underdog…But imagine if you were a teenager again, and, instead of being a scrawny, uncool, nerdy, kid, you were a scrawny, uncool, nerdy, </i>gay<i> kid. Or… what if you were all that plus black? Or disabled? Or trans? Or anything? Who would your superheroes be then? What costumes would you wear on Halloween?”</i></blockquote>

Y’all, this book was <b>freaking amazing</b>. It had good representation, and it was wholesome, and it was cute, and it dealt with tough topics, and it was so fandom-positive I want to throw this book at every person I know with a loud and proud outcrying of <i>“REEEEEEEAAAAAAAADDDDDDD IIIIIIIIIITTTTTT”</i>

I mean, really, though, I have DNF’ed the past, idk, like, 5 books I’ve read? And this one hooked me from the very beginning? It’s such a gift to humanity and I’m so happy!

That being said, this book wasn’t without its faults, but before I talk about those I just want to rant about everything that I adored!

First off, the characters were all so gorgeously flawed and nuanced and I want to know them! I want to be friends with all of them (except Jamie)! Everyone was likable and wonderful and gorgeous. Claire was the perfect protagonist, all full of passionate love for fandom and insecurities and awkwardness. There were moments when I envied her and moments when I wanted to be like “Claire,,,,,,, no,,,,,,,” but that made her super real!

I wasn’t a fan of Forest for a while, but he grew on me and his issues with internalized homophobia were written really well. It made me uncomfortable at times, but never because I didn’t agree with what I was reading (okay, maybe sometimes) but more because I feel as though a lot of people can relate to Forest’s journey (Claire’s as well!) when it comes to discovering who you are and where you stand in the world. Forest’s inner journey redeemed him in my eyes.

The secondary characters, though definitely not as dynamic as Forest and Claire, also warmed my heart. Rico was funny and sweet, and I felt as though this passage described him nicely, <i>”[He was] a warm, gentle, thoughtful, ridiculously obnoxious, funloving weirdo who wants to make sure everyone feels heard and has a good time.”</i> Because honestly?? Big mood right there.

Tess was another amazing fave, and was by far the <b>most nuanced of the non-narrator characters</b>. It was interesting and relatable to read about she and Claire’s issues with confidence and how they differed from one another.

Jamie was a jerk and I hate him, end of story.

But back to my faves! Caty was another one of the good secondary characters – I loved her spunky style and that she made fandom and social media her career, and that she was as passionate about representation as the fans of the show. It was refreshing and hopeful to see a canon, successful queer character in a position that helped her make a difference.

And that brings me to my next point! I <i>love</i> positive portrayals of fandom in literature, and this one is <b>one of the best</b>. It’s not one hundred percent positive – though not in a bad way. Rather, it acknowledges when fandom and fans can get <i>way</i> too personal with actors, authors, and other real human beings. However, the way fandom is shown is generally, and overwhelmingly, positive. It describes the joy of going to your first Con, the wonder of realizing that real actual people are as passionate about your favorite things as you are, and the power that fans can have. You also got to see people that made fandom their career – like Caty, and a cameo character whose career was collecting and selling vintage posters of her favorite movies. It was hopeful and beautiful and lovely.

The story was also super original for a contemporary, and I enjoyed the plot almost as much as I enjoyed the characters, and I think it’s because the story, for the most part, is largely character-driven. A lot of the action, persay, happens in Claire and Forest’s heads. I am <b>physically incapable</b> of giving character-driven books less than three stars, and this one was just so realistic and wonderful!

This book was <b>hella hilarious</b>. It gave me some awesome new terms like “gay panic” and “hetero brodudery,” and I had so much fun reading this! I don’t want to spoil anything by listing any of the jokes, but <b>this was a book written by a fandom person for fandom people</b>, and if you spend any inkling of time on the internet, you will surely find it as funny as I did.

But now, listen. I wish this book had been perfect. I wish this had been an easy five stars right off the bat, but it <b>wasn’t</b>. And that makes me so sad you wouldn’t believe! No doubt that with some improvements, <b>you will have to pry this book out of my cold, dead, hands</b>, but right now, with this unfinished copy, there are just some things I can’t ignore!!

First, I want to applaud this book for its examination of the lack of diversity in TV and movies, but for such an amazing and needed message, the actual representation in this book <b>didn’t live up to the message.</b> By no means do I want to take away from the representation in the book, because we have pan rep, and both of the narrators are questioning, buuuuut the main cast of the novel is overwhelmingly cis and white.

We have two side characters who are POC – Rico and Tess – but both of the narrators are white. And while the book acknowledges racism in both the entertainment industry (<i>”You know how many black characters have been on </i>Demon Heart?<i> Like two, and they were both demons. Now they’re dead.”</i>), and fandom/the LGBT community (<i>”You’re not pushing for more black characters, are you? You only care about one thing.”</i>), the fact that there are only two POC characters with speaking lines rubs me entirely the wrong way. It was mostly talk with very little action when it came to POC rep.

And also!! This book had literally no trans characters. None. Zip. Zero. It had all that LGB rep but where was the T? Where was it??<i>???????</i>???<blockquote><img src="https://i.imgur.com/okTU2zS.gif" width="300" height="230" alt="description"/></blockquote>
Okay – I’ll say this. There was 1 (one) (<b><i>ONE</i></b>) cameo androgynous character who is a server when Claire and Tess go to a gay café, and, Claire, upon not knowing what gender the character is, uses they/them pronouns, but this character is in the story for a paragraph, tops, and it wasn’t enough!! Why couldn’t a main, side, or tertiary character have been trans? There were so many possibilities, but this book didn’t take them.

<b>trigger warning // mild transphobia</b>

There is another moment when Forest is talking to Tess and she explains the difference between pan and bi, and he laughs it off and says <i>”’Wait, how many genders </i>are<i> there?’”</i> and Tess patiently explains about the gender spectrum, but Forest’s transphobia in the moment is nowhere near as challenged as his homophobia, and that was so disappointing for so many reasons.

<b>end trigger warning</b>

Another thing I had a problem with was the positive portrayal of straight slash shippers. And while this book didn’t, to me, fetishize mlm in the media like I was fearing it would, it didn’t explicitly call out the straight women who <i>do</i> fetishize gay men. I wish that had been acknowledged.

However, even though this book <b>definitely had its issues</b>, this was honestly just a <b>cute and wholesome book</b>! I would still recommend it to others, especially because of the three-dimensional characters and issues that it addresses. It was overall a cute read that was somehow quaint and larger-than-life at the same time. So wonderful!

<i>I was provided an eARC copy by NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review. All quotes and opinions are taken from an unfinished copy.</i>

This book was SO fun! I know nothing of cons and intense fandoms, but that didn't matter. I still went along for the ride with a wonderful main character who was grappling with who she was, learning about herself along the way, but still fighting hard for what she knew she believed in. The book also includes the main character's fan fiction, and I often end up skimming those sections in similar books - in Fangirl, for example - but here, I really enjoyed the fan fiction a lot too! Overall a really, really fun book! I can't wait to read more from this author.

It all starts when Claire stands up in a Comic-Con panel and asks the creators of Demon Heart, her favorite show, about her ship—in this particular case, she "ships" the two main characters, and wants to know if the show will take their friendship to a romantic level. The question might not be seen as unusual, except that both of the characters included are male.

The response to Claire’s question isn’t good. The showrunner gives her a vague non-answer, one of the actors involved recoils with a sneer, and not only is it a huge embarrassment to Claire, it’s a public-relations disaster for a show on the verge of being canceled.

So suddenly Claire is ‘randomly chosen’ to join the publicity tour around conventions in the Pacific Northwest. She rides on the bus with the actors and the creator, she gets to sit in the front row on all of the panels, and by the end of the week, she’s determined: She WILL see her ship become canon.

With its insightful depiction of fan communities and their sometimes messy interactions with each other and with the source material, Ship It was a book that I wanted to love without reservation. And I did love the idea of a small show, perpetually on the bubble, supported by fans that the creators don’t always understand. That part of the book was masterfully done, including the not-so-perfect ending.

But I struggled with the fact that most of the characters act like they know Claire's sexuality better than she does. everyone from Forest, the star of Demon Heart, to Claire's maybe-sort-of girlfriend Tess, seems to be pushing Claire to define her sexuality rather than allowing her to discover it herself. From the actors to the showrunner to her own girlfriend, everyone seems to have a better idea of Claire’s sexuality than she does. But, although Claire’s discomfort with the pushing is clear, it’s not clear whether any of the characters are ever made aware of why their intrusiveness is a problem.

And then there’s Tess. I would have loved, frankly, for the story to have been about her: A woman of color who loves this television show, but still views it with a critical eye due to the lack of female characters and characters of color, she would have made an excellent point of view character. But after Claire and Tess argue (about these very things, among other topics), Tess:

a) Decides Claire’s sexuality for her
b) Outs Claire as gay...TO CLAIRE'S MOTHER.

And although Claire eventually forgives Tess, I couldn’t do it. This potentially harmful, dangerous action is played off as an argument that got out of hand, rather than something that could have resulted in Claire losing her home and her family. Tess barely knew Claire’s parents, and regardless of that, had no business taking away Claire’s agency by outing her without her permission. The entire story crumbled for me after that point, and I couldn’t enjoy it after that moment.

For that reason, Ship It doesn’t quite make the grade for me. Well, that, and the mention of Jonas Brothers incest fic. It was jarring, irrelevant, and clearly only included for gross-out shock factor.

Claire is a fan of the show Demonheart and she just knows that the two male leads, Heart and Smokey belong together. She ships them so hard that she writes slash fanfiction on the pairing. When she discovers that the actors and showrunner of Demonheart will be appearing at a Comic Con near her, she has to attend. Claire quickly gets in over her head and shocks Forest, the actor who plays Smokey by asking if Heart and Smokey will ever kiss. Forest is adamant it will never happen and calls her crazy, sitting into motion Claire "winning" the opportunity to join the group on their other convention tours. As the two get to know one another they start questioning what they know about themselves, including their own sexuality. Claire has been seen as a lesbian before and has quickly shrugged it off, Meeting Tess, an african-american fellow fan who identifies as heteroromantic pansexual has her thinking things might not be as black and white as she thought. Forest meanwhile wants to project a tough straight guy image in order to get the role of his dreams. As he realizes the importance of fans he starts to wonder if it's worth it. Part travel adventure, part growing up story, this is a tale of geeks and nerds and not being ashamed to show your true self, be it sexual orientation or liking something others may find embarrassing. An enjoyable read that was extremely well-written, depicting realistic characters who don't have everything figured out, and that's ok. A book for nerds, and a book for those who identify as LGBT+ who might see themselves in the characters, and that's more than ok.

A story of fandoms, fanfic, and finding yourself.

Claire is obsessed with the show DemonHeart; she has watched each episode multiple times, reads all the fanfic, and even writes some of her own. She couldn't be more excited when she finds out that the actors will be at the local ComicCon. When Claire uses the Q&A time at the panel to ask about a possible relationship between the two main characters - both male - she couldn't be more disappointed by the actor's reaction. Now Claire is determined to make her dream a reality, no matter the cost.

This book is told from two perspectives - Claire's and Forest's. Forest is one of the main actors on DemonHeart; he is a young actor without much experience and is really hoping for a starring role in an upcoming show based off of his favorite video game. He is beyond frustrated when Claire wins the "contest" to join the actors on the rest of their ComicCon tour. Meanwhile Claire met a nice girl at the Boise con and is seeing her at later events as well. She really enjoys spending time with her new friend, but does that mean she's a lesbian?

This book is cute and fun and funny. It's great to watch Forest grow as he learns about the fans that follow his show. Claire grows quite a lot, too, throughout the book, and discovers that although you can't always get what you want, you might still be able to help someone else get what they need. Claire's artist parents are hilarious and embarrassing and wonderfully supportive throughout the whole escapade.

I have teens at my library already clamoring for this book, and it isn't expected to be published until May 2018. Highly recommended

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: some of Claire's fanfic is a bit explicit; some language issues
Overall Rating: 5/5

Bonus points for intersectionality! There is an African-American character who describes herself as "homoromantic pansexual."

Read-Alikes: Tash Hearts Tolstoy, Fangirl, Carry On

I received a complimentary copy of this novel through NetGalley for the purposes of review.