Thank you to Kate Stayman-London, Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review

I may be 27, but I never fully left my Twilight phase. This book was so fun and campy, but still managed to cover serious topics such as SA, anxiety, and depression in a thoughtful way.

I was nervous that the whole book was going to focus just on Tess on the Isle, but I was so pleasantly surprised when we kept up with what was going on back in New York.

The climax felt a bit, well, anti climatic, and seemed to wrap up almost too quickly (spoiler alert, but I feel like they should’ve stayed by the cabana suite to make sure the bad vamps burned up before leaving to rest/relax)?

The epilogue was so cute though, and I loved that Tess for her comeback and closure.

3.5/5

I am so obsessed with this book. While I am so, so thankful to have read an arc of this, I am desperate to have a physical copy on my shelf like a little trophy (and to stare at that incredible cover) and I simply don’t know how I’m going to wait until October. I mean, I’ve been waiting 4 years since I first read One To Watch for Kate Stayman-London to come out with another book so I could really solidify that she’s an auto-buy author for me, so I guess I can wait another few months to hold the physical book in my greedy little hands.

Anyway. On to the actual review. I loved this book. Clearly, right? Books with mixed media are just so fun to read, and the way it was put into this book just fit the story so well. I felt the same way about One To Watch with that, and it reminded me a lot of that. This first reminded me of Twilight (in the sense that it’s a book involving Vampires) but then also Game of Thrones (in the sense that it involves a book series that fans have been waiting for years for a new book) but then it also had the unique plot point of mixing the characters of the book with supposedly fictional characters of a book series they love. It was just so unique and fun, I couldn’t put this down.

I genuinely don’t know if a book has ever made me both laugh and cry so much. Let’s start with cry. This book starts with a trigger warning for sexual assault and noting that the survivor is healing throughout the book (+ resources for readers who may also be seeking support). This is a tough topic for me, and one I often avoid in fear of it not being handled well. I am so glad I decided to pick this up, because the reason I cried is because of how well this was handled. It was motivational and hopeful while still remaining completely real. It wasn’t a constant topic throughout the book, and felt included at appropriate times while being talked about in important and fitting ways. Now on to this book being so, so funny. I want to list so many quotes, but I know that they won’t mean much out of context. So instead I’ll just say that I’m glad I read this while sitting alone because I audibly laughed out loud multiple times, and would have turned some heads in public.

I feel like I’ve already raved and rambled for too long so I should wrap this up soon. The friendships in this book? Top tier. The romance? I swooned. Even the side characters and stories were so strong and well developed! Oh, and the banter? I mean, I’ve already said how much this made me laugh.

Okay one last thing to add - as a size 16, I love that the main character was also a size 16. There are a few characters described as curvy, just simply as a physical description. Sometimes books with a plus size character can put such a focus on that characters body, often in a negative way, and often by the character herself. It’s refreshing to read a book where a woman’s body is just described and not commented on, or only commented on in a positive way. Honestly the way women in general were talked about in this book was incredible.

Please pick this up. It’s unique, it’s well written, it’s such a fun story with amazing characters and a cute little romance that’s super inclusive. I will not hesitate to reread this & recommend it as much as possible.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book! I voluntarily read this book, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 The future was so bright for Tess as she started grad school at Columbia and found a soul sister friend until her world and her dreams came crashing down around her. Her favorite vampire books are her guilty escape from the horrors of the real world, which so many of us readers can relate to. When the characters from her favorite series, Blood Feud appear in her New York life, her worlds collide in the strangest of ways. Fang Fiction flawlessly blends fantasy and reality in a seamless manner, highlighting the enduring effects of trauma and showcasing survival and resilience. Kate Stayman-London creates an absolutely wonderfully written, unputdownable novel!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ thank you netgalley and random house publishing group for this arc!

i had so much fun reading this book!
fang fiction follows tess, a woman searching for purpose after dropping out of her dream grad school following a sexual assault. now working night shift at a hotel and estranged from her best friend, tess ends up forced out of limbo when she learns her favorite vampire book series… is real.
there’s romance (both queer and heterosexual!) , there’s action, there’s quests, there’s a very diverse cast of characters!
for those looking for representation, our fmc tess is plus size and her best friend joni is indian-american and a lesbian.

as for my review:
was this the best literary experience ive ever had?no it was not. the writing left a lot to be desired.
were the characters beautifully developed and complex? also no. these characters were incredibly 2 dimensional with vague motivations. the romances also felt pretty random, like the author knew these characters needed to be together but she didn’t know why they liked each other. and as a result, the audience doesn’t know either!
but did i have fun and giggle a lot? was i entertained? do i recommend this book? yeah!!! i did, i was, and i do!

please note the trigger warnings before reading, but i personally feel the topic of sexual assault was handled gracefully. there are also no graphic depictions of sexual assault, though the depictions of trauma responses due to assault may be triggering for some.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an advanced readers e-copy of Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London.

I've been missing vampire books and this one scratched the itch. Before I get too far into my review, let me preface that there are mentions of SA and other heavy subjects in this book that I certainly wasn't expecting. I went into this thinking the book would be more lighthearted, but was honestly pleasantly surprised by the depth of it.

Kate did a fantastic job creating a new world of vampires that aren't all that different from humans, making them generally more relatable and palatable. The humans and the vampires all had great character development, chemistry and banter.

I mean imagine having Edward Cullen come to you one day saying he needs your help to save his family? I'd agree way too fast.

A great read overall and keeping my fingers crossed for a book two!

This was such a fun read! I loved all of the characters and their development through the story. This felt like a fun, grown up version of Twilight but so much better

This was a fast paced, female driven, funny, and impossible to put down read! I LOVED it!! I'm not sure this book should have worked, but for me it totally did! I'm also here for the plus size fmc rep, I would absolutely recommend this book! Just don't take it to seriously.

Unfortunately the writing in this felt very juvenile and just wasn’t up to par with my tastes. The overuse of punctuation (i.e. ??? And !!!) felt wrong and out of place. For a story that wanted to convey serious subject matter, it didn’t seem that serious. Just not for me.

This book was the perfect Vampire Diaries/ Buffy/ Twilight mashup ever! It has a cheesy vampy storyline but with amazing girl power and made me smile a LOT. It was a book I looked forward to reading and stayed up late to finish it… even after the baby fell asleep.. which is saying a lot because she’s a baby so I should be sleeping every chance I get! LOL

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
The world of your favorite fantasy Fang Fiction is real, and imagine getting pulled into the plot. I honestly did not know what to expect of this book, but I devoured it. It was unique, and I liked the premise. There were parts where I started skimming a little, mostly earlier in the book, but as the plot thickened, I was fully in.
It's an enjoyable read for Vampire fans! Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the Publisher for the ARC of this entertaining read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Fang fiction is a fangtastically great time if you're a fan of vampire fan fiction, love stories about books, and pop culture references. This story opens with Tess, a PhD student of literature, who ends up leaving this life behind after a traumatic event. Becoming an insomniac, losing her best friend, and become a night manager at a hotel, Tess finds comfort in her favourite vampire books: Blood Feud. She knows the ins and outs of all the characters and storylines. She has also written articles on social media and has kept on top of conspiracy theories suggesting that these vampires are real. The author of these popular books remains unknown and feeds into the popularity about these books.

One night while working at the hotel, Tess meets one of the vampires and quickly learns that yes, indeed, Blood Feud is real, and that this vampire villain needs Tess to help them on a quest to reunite them with a loved one. Soon after, Tress is thrust into a world of vampires and witches, jade pools, and enchanted meadows. Even though she knows these books inside and out, she quickly discovers that there are more questions than answers. What is fact and what is fiction? Who are the villains in this story?

This was a highly enjoyable read which had diverse and quirky characters. There are many nods to popular vampire fiction and pop culture in general. Interspersed in the story are excerpts from Blood Feud, text messages, emails between characters, articles, and pod cast episodes. It's tongue in cheek and wickedly funny that will have you eagerly consuming this book. Talking about consuming, the book is a fascinating read about fiction, villainy/heroism, trauma, and resilience. The author was very sensitive in writing about trauma. For those interested there is also a playlist found at the back of the novel and a playlist that can be found on spotify. This was a fun and entertaining read!

I'm probably just not the right audience? I don't tend to like more than 2 POV in a story because it feels chaotic, distracting, and often unnecessary. This book unfortunately was chaotic on a few levels with the additional extra media built in. I just couldn't get into the story because I was too busy trying to figure out who's head o was in or switching gears.
Fan fiction isn't really my thing and despite liking vampire tropes I was never a Twilight or Buffy fan, I think fitting in to this category would make this book more enjoyable.
Over all the underlying story was respectful of SA victims and the lasting trauma which I very much appreciate. I may have over expected the amount of romance that would be involved.

In the end this is 3 stars for me.

I love any books about vampires and this one was no different. I loved the lore and the description of the vampires. A funny and quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC

I really liked the premise of this novel, and I enjoyed it for the most part. However, there was a few things that just kind of irked me a little bit. I could have done without some the extra inclusions, such as the podcast transcripts and the emails. They were a little tedious to read, which that might be attributed to the format I was reading the ARC on. Hopefully, I will change my mind on these inclusion once the novel is published, I really think the formatting is my issue. Though not all inclusions are bad, the inclusions of Blood Feud were fantastic. They were helpful to have in terms of the world building, and generally just to know what is going on.

That being said, I really did enjoy the rest of this novel. It did start slow, but once it got going it never stopped. The characters were absolutely fantastic and fleshed out really well. This is a solid vampire novel for those who love that trope!! The novel does deal with really heavy themes (SA off page, surviving SA). There is a preface detailing all TW's, so please be sure to read it!

Also, please read the TW's at the beginning of this novel!

4/5

As someone who is in my Buffy phase, I really appreciated this book. Chaotic Morally-gray vampires like Spike have my heart. They’re just soft boys on the inside.
This book has a unique plot with very fun characters. Astronomical amount of Twilight and other vampire movies referenced, which is to be expected. I need the vampires to acknowledge that their existence has been used for romanticizing creepy guys.

Thank you NetGalley for eArk!

So I'm decidedly not a vampire person, but I loved Kate Stayman-London's last novel, so I was excited about this one as well. It did not disappoint. Whip smart commentary wrapped up in a fantasy tale about a former academic and how she gets mixed up with a vampire story. I highly recommend this to you, even if you couldn't get through Twilight.

Fang Fiction is a quick, fun read, perfect for the upcoming summer season. The world building is well done, the dialogue is fun and the characters are interesting. It’s not your typical vampire romance, which I very much enjoyed. It’s always nice to see a new spin on a much written about theme.

Although the plot of Fang Fiction centers around the (off-page) sexual assault of Tess, it also manages to be fun and silly, balancing both the dark and the light in a way that felt natural. I really enjoyed the thoughtful use of vampires (and their strength and ability to control people) as a means of allowing the main character to heal and to learn to trust herself and other people again. I also loved the elements of fandom and fanfiction, how a community created primarily online can be a source of escapism, obsession, joy, and support. Fans of Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and other vampire media will probably enjoy this book.

Fang Fiction dealt with the heavy topic of rape in a thoughtful, sensitive way. I appreciated the trigger warning at the very front of the book so there were no surprises. Tess and her trauma struck me as very realistic, especially her fear and panic when she was triggered years later, which was occasionally tough to read.

Overall, my main takeaway was that this book was fun, didn't take itself too seriously (especially on the Isle, which is pure imagination and wish fulfillment), and is a fast-paced romp. Just mind the trigger warnings.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Thank you Random House for the ARC. Unfortunately this just wasn't the book for me, between the multiple POVs, podcast dialogue, and segments from Blood Feud the book felt disjointed. It felt like there was too much going on and it never truly grabbed my attention.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for honest feedback.

I’m going to start off by saying that if you expect this to be a romantic comedy please go back and look at the genre tags on this because it is NOT that. This book may have vampires in it but there’s some really heavy themes in this book. In fact, if you are a survivor of SA I fully suggest you read the TWs on this book before jumping in.

All that aside this book was amazing. She managed to combine heavy themes, vampires, and some good old fashion feminism together into a story that was really hard to put down. I liked that her vampires weren’t super human mutants but more like regular people who just happened to be vampires. It made them more relatable and fun to read about (side note: if there’s a sequel I need more Hamish, thanks!)

As for our main and side characters: Tess/Callum/Joni/Octavia. I loved all of them. You rooted for them the entire time, even when they were being stupid but especially by the end when everyone had their “personality glow up”

Maybe it’s cause I’m a millenial who lived through the Twilight era but I’m giving it 4 stars. (Again, read the TWs and remember that surviving SA is a major theme in the book.)