Kat Helgeson

I'm not crying you're crying.

Oh my god. This book. Just when you think you know where it was going, you end up somewhere completely unexpected.

Despite the cute premise, the back cover blurb, and the happy geeky fangirling that is this book's first half, it gets dark. And then it gets even darker.

Holy shit. Did it get dark.

But I still really liked it. It's a story about finding human connection, and how some relationships transcend labels. That happened with Gena and Zach, who were were show more basically siblings as children. And with Finn and Gena. And even Finn and Charlie and Gena.

This was a beautiful book. The telling was a bit strange but the epistolary format ended up working. It's a format I really enjoy because the reader has to do work and fill in the blanks.

And maybe I saw myself in the book, when the friendships I made via online fandom in high school and college survive to this day. show less

I adore this book. Even though it didn't go quite the way I expected it to, I still loved every minute of reading it. The world needs more books like this -- books that really get the fandom experience. I loved Fangirl, but the main character always felt so removed from fandom, despite being this really popular fic writer. With Gena/Finn, the two of them are so immersed in fandom and it's such a core part of the way they interact with the world that it felt much more authentic to me. I show more desperately need more books like this in my life - full of characters who experience the world the way I do and have these weird, crazy online relationships with people they've never met who all love the same thing. This book is definitely going on my list of favorites. show less

Review also posted on my blog: https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/review-the-catch-by-kat-helgeso...

This book has content warnings for controlling parents and bullying.

This is one of those books that has characters who will frustrate you to no end and yet still make you love them. It’s a book about ambition and friendship, and what happens when those two things come into conflict with one another. It’s not always pretty, but it feels very real — sometimes I felt that Vivi show more was fully justified in her frustration with her best friend, Anna, and sometimes I felt like Vivi was being unfair to her, and the same goes for Anna. It’s very clear that neither character is completely blameless in their struggles with one another, and neither is completely at fault, either. This was also resolved in a really satisfying manner, and I enjoyed it.

The pressure Vivi feels from her parents to go to college is also very real, and quite terrifying. Vivi is in love with the circus, but her parents want her to go to college so badly that they’re scheduling college tours and interviews for her while she’s away at camp and she only finds out because her older brother ratted their parents out. The emotional toll is high, and it’s stressful enough to drive her ambition in the circus higher than it’s ever been in her life. I felt Vivi’s stress and tension through reading, and there were several moments I felt my blood pressure rise because of it.

I also really loved the way the relationships were handled in the book. One of my favorite moments in the book was when Vivi said of her and Anna “We kissed here once, before we were old enough to understand that Anna liked girls and I didn’t. It was my first kiss if you count it, which I do.” I really loved the subtle nature of this and how the concept of a first kiss is treated as just that — a first kiss. It’s not “a first kiss during which Vivi kissed someone she was attracted to,” but the first time she kissed someone. I love that that kiss was just allowed to be, and while it may not be reflective of Vivi’s sexuality down the line it’s still something that she considers important to her.

I also really loved how Ben and Vivi’s relationship was treated. They have been in their relationship long-term and are pretty secure with one another, but they still have issues in their relationship that they know they need to resolve. They aren’t perfect, but they are also supportive and trying their best to be good for one another even if they aren’t always sure how. I also really loved how they acknowledged that having feelings for other people but not acting upon them is not cheating — it’s pretty normal for some people to have feelings for people other than their partner, and I loved how they chose to be cool with this as long as they were honest with each other about it. They struggled with communication issues, but they still tried, and I thought it was very sweet.

I also thought that the ending (no spoilers!) was very satisfying and touching. It felt like the right way to end the book, and I left the book feeling content after reading it.

If you love ambitious, imperfect female characters, competitiveness, healthy relationships, and summers at the circus, you’re going to love this book.

Final rating: 5 of 5 stars show less

Gena/Finn is the story of two young women who are brought together across the country by their shared fandom for the same television drama (think Supernatural). As their friendship intensifies via internet and phone, they begin to expand into other areas of each other's lives, and soon they find themselves questioning the nature of their relationship.

The book is written entirely through the written communications of the characters (emails, texts, blog posts, etc...). I found the form to be show more easy to get into, and overall enjoyable.

About a third of the way into the book, I started wanting a break in the form in order to portray deeper communication between Gena and Finn. The first time they meet in person, for instance, I wanted dialogue; I wanted to hear the actual conversations, instead of getting the story through emails and texts as they talk about their time together.

However! Moskowitz and Helgeson had a clever and satisfying solution to this. Later in the story, when all of the main characters are together, the form switches primarily to journal entries - still true to the written-communication-only rule, but the nature of this type of writing versus a text exchange allows for much more in-depth exploration of emotions, and portrayal of scenes almost like in a traditional novel form. Brilliant. show less