This partially epistolary, riotously violent, and heart-wrenchingly expository novel is an absolutely fun and gripping novel. Following Tess, a former-grad student and vampire-novel conspiracist, Fang Fiction tells the story that all fans of vampire novels wish were true - all the stories are real.

Imagine if the characters from your favorite fantasy book were real.

Grad students Tess and Joni bonded over their love of Blood Feud, a series of vampire books. A few years later, they’re no longer speaking. Tess dropped our of school for reasons she won’t tell Joni, and now works at a hotel.

One night a woman approaches her, looking exactly like a character from her favorite book. To help her, Tess goes to the Isle where vampires are trapped, hoping to free them.

This story was a little slow at times, but was fun overall. It was interesting to figure out if everything from the Blood Feud stories was the truth for the actual vampires, such as who really the villain. This story also handles the aftermath and recovery from sexual assault, and addresses the issue with care. Overall, a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

To the author: please, PLEASE keep writing funny, witty, totally devastating novels like this!!!
To all future readers: you are in for SUCH A TREAT!!!! This novel, from start to finish, grabs ahold of you and simply won't let you go. Even after the book ended, I just wanted to read more! (Kate Stayman-London, please give us more of these darling characters!!) The world-building was beautiful, all the characters were so fleshed out, and while there were a couple of plot twists I did see coming, there were plenty more I didn't!
Tess, the main character, is so funny, kind, and relatable. From the first page, I could see she was dealing with some type of trauma and struggling so badly with it. There are mentions of sexual assault, but nothing graphic was described in the novel (THANK YOU!!!!). Overall, I fell in love with Tess, Joni, Callum, Olivia, and especially SYLVIE!! The Queer elements present in this novel were amazing, I so loved that the author didn't shy away from showing non-het relationships and non-cis identities as well. I spent my entire night reading this novel, and the only thing I regret is how quickly I finished it! Please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pick this novel up, especially all my AO3 peeps out there!!

4.5 rounded up~
Imagine you found out the world and characters of your favorite fantasy series were REAL and they needed your help! Well, that's Fang Fiction!
This book had strong women, vampires, witches, a Bar Between worlds, twists, turns, all of it! I couldn't put this book down. It was like a mix of Buffy, Twilight, and The Magicians. I mean that all in the best way possible, it was phenomenal. My only complaint is that I can't tell all of my friends to read it right this second, because it doesn't even come out until October!
Yeah, okay, I got to read this as an arc from NetGalley (thanks Random House!), but I swear my review would be the same if I paid for it. Honestly, I'd be a little happier if I paid for it because I'd get to keep it! You can bet I'll be buying a copy of this for my shelf as soon as it drops.

Isn't this what we all wish for? The opportunity to meet and/or interact with our favorite book characters? But, it can be more than we bargained for. What a great fantasy title - I loved every word!

First off, I'm not a romance reader, but I'm looking to expand my literary horizons and be able to provide more informed reader's advisory in the future. This seemed like a great jumping off point, because I love vampires, fandom culture, and a little meta for the hell of it. Tragically, it was not. I knew that the second a character announced themselves to be a huge whopping lesbian or whatever Joni said. It sent shivers down my spine. Seriously.

There's no need for so many POVs. The characters all have pretty much the same internal voice and there were multiple points where I forgot if I was listening in on Tess, Joni, or Octavia until their names were brought up (Callum was only saved from this from being the only man). Them changing every few paragraphs a lot of the time did not help this. The very minor differentials between personalities

The relationships weren't compelling at all. I have nothing much to say about Tess and Callum because I don't care about straight people (the ending of them just tag-team murdering creeps should have been the whole book, I don't care, don't @ me about this), but Octavia and Joni were such a laughably token relationship that it looped around to being camp. The dominant, high fashion girlboss femme and the subby, schlubby academic puppygirl? HELLO. I saw this half-joke, half-yearning-for-it-to-happen-to-me on Twitter like 15000 times from all my trans girl mutuals. I don't need it here. They fall in love IMMEDIATELY because the book happens over like, three weeks, two of those being on the Isle, which is an insane timeline and very funny when there is a moment where the protagonist mentions 'all those weeks ago'. What 'all those weeks ago', Tess? You spent at least half of that boning this man from what we can tell so it was probably like, four days from when you arrived on the Isle before that happened for the first time. This makes it sound like months.

Also, this is an incredibly white and straight view of fandom. Given that 3/4 of the main cast are POC and 2/4 are (explicitly) queer I would have liked to see, like, a little bit more on that? The podcast episode segments were awful, the ad read jokes were unfunny, and I see why it's a slow month for ads because you two just exposition dump to us and it sounds like the worst Spotify Original in the world.

Also also, why is the goth a Taylor Swift stan? White girl hypercapitalism and faux allyship goes against all goth standards. Sick and twisted of you to do that, Ms. Stayman-London. I almost laughed out loud when the extras featured a whole section on what Taylor Swift songs were each character because so much of this book was so painfully clear then.

Writing-wise, there were an incessant number of interrobangs to the point that I got annoyed seeing them?! Besides that, there's nothing notable to say. It sure was some writing, or whatever. Most 'twists' were extremely obvious and it would have been more transgressive for the 'surprise' villain to actually just be the 'good' guy. Paternalism combined with a saviour complex is also a very evil, irritating thing. You don't need him to be a raging misogynistic hater for people not to like him. Callum was just as bad and irritating with the whole "it's your choice" thing, a phrase that has done irreplaceable damage to the literary community by making the bare minimum sound like the most romantic thing in the world, so thanks, Sarah J. Maas. Excellent work, really.

I'm not going to get into the SA content, because every survivor has a different journey, but as a survivor myself, I did not like it!

Given what I know about romance readers, they'd probably have a lot to like about this, so I'd probably give it a three stars for them (which I don't mean as a knock -- I would never want to yuck people's yum, different strokes for different folks, etc.) But for me, this is something I'm going to shelve and flash back to painfully the next time I boot up Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines and appreciate all that richness that universe provides to us.

(On a tangent here, because I'm very passionate about this: the vampire sire rules are so bad and make no sense. Why did Callum and Octavia feel such a deep need to serve Konstantin when he was straight up murdering children if he has no way to compel them to actual loyalty a la a sire bond? Okay, he gave you immortal life and lifted you out of poverty and child slavery, but he also put all those other kids into poverty and child slavery and then ate them? And Callum said aloud that they were his friends? But thralls are a thing? So why is there no sire bond when that involves sharing blood both ways? Is this a matter of blood potency or something? The glamour rules also made no sense to me, but that's such an extensive part of the book that I feel overwhelmed getting into it, really. You can just make food? Does the food have the same nutritional value as the things you glamoured, or...? But then sometimes it seems like they're making food out of thin air and it satisfies and nourishes you, so just PLEASE! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE! Even TERF captain J.K. Rowling had this figured out.)

Can I first say that this book made me kick my feet and squeal.....I felt like I was transported back to the early 2000's reading Twilight for the first time and wishing that world existed....but with more Spike from buffy, than Edward. This book gave me everything I loved! broody MMC, tortured FMC who finds her inner bad ass, and side characters that I need book sequels for! as much as I loved Callum and Octavia, I really connected with Joni and Tess and their friendship. This story doesn't slow down at all and I found myself staying up way to late to keep reading. This is my first Kate book, and I plan on picking up One to Watch next. overall I loved this story and if you want to feel a little twihard nostalgia (at least that is what it was for me) I think you will want to pick up this book.

This book was a fun read if you don't take it too seriously. The concept of this is unique and interesting and considering I am also a fan of fanfiction, I expected to love this but I ended up just liking it. I did really like that the FMC read fanfiction of these vamps and it turned out they were real and she was basically reading about their lives. I dubbed them "The Real Vamps of Blood-Feud" in my mind. I did feel like the book dragged a bit and considering this book isn't all that long, that says something in itself. I loved the mixed media aspect of this book as I think it adds a bit of extra fun and realness to the story. If you are looking for a silly, campy, vampy story, look no further!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Expected Pub Date: 10/1/24

"Fang Fiction" by Kate Stayman-London was a unique story with a concept captivating to any fanfiction writer, fandoms followers, or anyone who's gawked over Buffy.

This story was not your average 'Mary-sue girl falls into her fantasy world' trope. It more so plays as an escapism and a self-healing journey for our FMC Tess--she goes through a lot, and this story focuses more on her character growth rather than the 'sexy and romantic' aspect of vampires. There's a lot in this book, it's thicc with plot and sometimes I had to push myself to continue reading, or even re-read at some points. Occasionally there's too much information, other times there is too little (missing plot points, weird POVs). The coupling(s) in this story are okay, but it's lackluster in spark and chemistry, feels more like a good companionship.

3/5 Stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

Okay, so I loved Kate Stayman-London's debut, "One to Watch". This is a complete tone shift, but honestly? Her writing style is one I immediately vibed with. I loved it!

Thank you, NetGalley and random house for this arc. I was so pleasantly surprised when I began reading the story! I thought it was another fluffy vampire story but it totally surprised me!! I fell in love with the adorable Tess, who is the main character. She is plus size and dealing with trauma from her past, but overcome it. I really love how the author described Tess I felt that I knew her and that she was a good friend of mine. I also love her relationship with Callum. Another great part of the book was the relationship between Joni and Octavia.. I think it was a refreshing look on a Sapphic romance and added nicely to the story!! I will definitely be reading more from this author and I highly recommend this book too. I also really enjoyed the adorable cover.!!! Thank you!!!

I loved this premise. The whole concept for this book was very fun and creative.

It starts so fricken good, very relatable to all us tumblr/fanfic/buzzfeed book fans. The main character has some trauma but the author manages to keep it light while also honoring those that have gone through something similar.

At times I was laughing out loud, very fun characters and world building.

At times I started to skim because I wanted to jump ahead and see what happened. The writing seemed stronger in the beginning of the book than in the end, but the beginning hooked me so I wanted to see what happened even if the writing slipped.

The diverse cast of characters was so great to see. Love the representation!!!

I will say I was pulled out of the book at the mention of blood moving faster in smaller veins since the opposite is actually true. That’s the only time that happened though when I was pulled out of the story.

4.5 Stars!

Do you ever wish you could be magically transported into your favorite fantasy/paranormal book series and help the characters you've been obsessing over for years solve a super important and world altering problem? If you said yes, then this book is for you. Also, if you said yes then you sound like an awesome person with great judgement and imagination.

This book is about Tess, a hotel night manager, who stumbles into one of her favorite book characters from the sensational vampire novel "Blood Feud". She finds out that all of the characters in this book are actually real and they are trapped on a not fictional island. Of course the fate of the vampires on this island is now in Tess's hands and she must transport to this island to figure out how to reunite and free them.

This book was the multimedia dream. It had text messages, emails, podcast transcripts, reddit posts, and tumblr posts! Multimedia components are my absolute favorite, so with this book having something multimedia in every single chapter was amazing.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

I absolutely ADORED this book. It was fun, campy, heartfelt, and a little bit therapeutic.

FMC Tess left her PhD at Columbia (and her best friend) due to a traumatic experience. and now works the night shift at a hotel in NYC. She spends most of her time running from her trauma by immersing herself into her favorite vampire books-- and arguing online about how the vampires in the book are real. After a triggering experience at her ex-best friend's birthday party, she goes to work only to be confronted by Octavia... one of the vampires in the book. She convinces Tess to travel to The Isle, the magical realm the vampires are stuck in, in order to make contact with her brother Callum, who is portrayed in the books as the sexy, violet, hedonistic villain.

Only once Tess gets to The Isle, she realizes that the vampire world in real life is not at all what was written in the books. And neither is Callum. Stuck in The Isle, Tess and Callum team up to find a way back to NYC and Octavia. In NYC, Octavia enlists Tess's ex-best friend Joni to help her find a portal to get Tess and Callum back. There are vampire politics to navigate, books to read, sex to have, trauma to resolve, and a big bad villain to defeat.

This book was such a brilliant, fun, and heartfelt but light exploration of female trauma and healing. The chapter excerpts from the vampire books, plus the text messages and emails between characters, podcast transcripts, and buzzfeed quizzes revolving around the vampire books gave it such a fun, campy feel. They also functioned as a way to provide the reader with more information than the characters had as the plot progressed, which helped tie in everything really nicely and build a concrete, believable world.

It's a refreshing take on vampires while still having all the same tropes we know and love from other vampire media. I also really appreciated the diversity of characters and the curvy main female character representation-- it was so refreshing to read about round bellies, wide hips, and soft bodies being loved and admired.

I cannot wait to recommend this to all my friends when it comes out (and October is the perfect release month, as this book will make a great addition to month themed reading lists).

As requested in the ARC, I will not publish my reviews on any other site until the onsale date. My reviews will run on October 1st on Goodreads and Tiktok.

Thank you NetGalley for this early arc copy!

This was such a ride of a Vampire read. We have two friends who met at a college mixer one day and they instantly hit it off over their love of a book series that is very Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets True Blood. Well flash forward to 3 years later and the fmc: Tress is working at a hotel during night shifts due to some mental issues from an event that happened while at college, and nobody really knows about it. While she is working her shift one night a beautiful woman approaches her, knows her name and she immediately realizes it’s one of the main characters of her beloved book series!!!! Octavia needs her help to reach out to her twin brother, Callum along with trying to help the other vampires who are also trapped on The Isle.

Many chaotic events happen during this in the best of ways and I finished this in less than 12 hours honestly. I just couldn’t wait to find out more and it was amazing, I was very much jamming out to my own Buffy the Vampire Slayer playlist I have. I could not get enough of Tress and Callum- they gave me serious Spike and Buffy vibes in the best of ways. While her bestie… well I don’t want to give -all- of it away 🤭

⭐️5 Stars ⭐️

Okay, this book was just way too chaotic for me. There were so many POVs that felt pointless and that just took away from the flow of the story— like random blog/podcasts about the vampire books. We also got POVs from friends that yes, they are important but they distracted from my ability to focus on the main story…

In the end, I really couldn’t even tell you much about what this book was about because I just couldn’t keep focused on it. I tried, I really did. I liked the concept, but the execution really needed some changes.

3.5 stars

I absolutely loved the concept of Fang Fiction, but ironically it read too much like fan fiction for me.

The world building, the overall concept, and the additions of podcast transcripts and online articles within the chapters are fantastic. I just felt it was a little too tell and not enough show.

The romance, in my opinion, needed to be fleshed out and the villain of the story given more of an arc. The reader is told many things, but they are not shown to us in character actions or active plot.

I wish it had been given one more edit to build the story and characters to the next level. I really enjoyed the concept, but felt I was looking at the skeleton vs a full bodied story.

TW: sexual assault

3.5 stars

I picked this book up for the whole “girl falls into her favorite fantasy world” trope, but stayed for the complex commentary on fan culture, escapism, and self-healing. Fang Fiction was nothing like I was originally expecting. I went into it thinking that this was going to be another campy vampire story. I was delightfully surprised to find this a fascinating use of the monster as an externalization of human fears, a commentary on fan culture, and the exploration of healing after a trauma. In short, it was definitely NOT your average vampire story.

I ADORE the topic of fan culture and escapism. When it’s done right, it just hits so well, and Staymon-London does it right. Blood Feud is a hit series written by the anonymous August Lirio. These books happen to be a comfort series for Tess, a PhD candidate who dropped out of her program after she was sexually assaulted. It is also the only thread she has left connecting her to her estranged best friend, Joni. The two are total Feudies, so much so that Tess wrote an article on Buzzfeed about how the vampires in Blood Feud might be real. Which she was actually right about. Now Tess must work with the sexy and slightly villainous Callum, to reunite her with his twin Octavia.

This book won’t be for everyone, but it was for me on a lot of levels. I loved the chemistry between Callum and Tess, I thought they had a really cute dynamic. I also really appreciate Joni and Octavia’s relationship, both for the sapphic representation and for the ‘dating your favorite trope’. The pacing was decent, I loved the dry humor, and there were some really fun places the characters explored, like Bar Between. I’m also big on reading author’s notes, because I often find they add a really interesting layer to the story, and Staymon-London’s definitely did not disappoint. She briefly mentions that she chose vampires to tell this particular story, because in literature vampires are traditionally representative of love and sex. I think this is a great piece of subtext that adds nuisance to the sexual assault plot.

The main issue I had with this book is that I was left with wanting more. More time with the characters, more development of the platonic and romantic relationships, more of the world Staymon-London was building on the Isle. As such, I think this book would’ve been better off broken up into a duology. Now I know that is so much easier said than done. Staymon-London was trying to tackle a lot in this book in terms of themes, and some particularly intense ones to boot. While she was mostly successful, I think it could have been so much better if we saw more passage of time for the events in this book.

I hate to leave things on a (semi) bad note, so I will say this. The book leaves a lot of open at the end, so I am excited for any future possibilities.

honestly this book was very fun and unique.
I loved the premise and the world/magic system. Also loved the use of the internet/book excerpts throughout this book in order work build/ explain things.
Also LOVED it was multiple POV, kept the pacing fast.

I do with there was a little bit more from the other characters. I also did feel some of the characters were a little superficial and the relationships a little immature towards the end of the book. I also wish the ending wasn’t so rushed.

All in all, really a fun read though! I enjoyed it

Tess is a graduate school drop out who manages a cute hotel in Brooklyn and LOVES reading her guilty pleasure Blood Feud. But what happens when the hot villain of your favorite book needs your help?!

This book is like a love letter to all of your favorite vampire books! Yay for a plus size FMC!!!! Thank you Kate! This book is so unique! First of all I want to read the Blood Feud books because they sound right up my alley. I love the fact that this story also includes its own books that you get a glimpse of (I’ve never read anything like this before!). It’s my dream come true of actually being able to visit places in your favorite book and meet the characters. If you are a fan of Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and Buffy then this is the book for you!! I could not put this book down and I really hope there will be a sequel!!

I’ll be posting my review on instagram: Bookishkater as well as on Amazon on publishing day. And goodreads also is bookishkater.