Jen Wilde

Charlie is a 19-year-old with a successful YouTube channel who's also recently starred in an indie zombie film that's achieved unexpected mainstream popularity. When that gets her invited as a guest at Comicon -- er, excuse me, SupaCon -- she is delighted, and so are her equally geeky BBFs, Taylor and Jamie, who get to join her. It's not all happy, geeky fun, though, as Taylor has to deal with her social anxiety and Charlie with being forced to do events with her douchey ex-boyfriend co-star show more in front of a public who are far too invested in them as a couple. But in the end, Charlie finds a new chance for love with a fellow vlogger/actress, while Taylor and Jamie may finally find themselves motivated to act on the attraction they've had to each other for ages.

It's a very sweet, pleasant, quick-reading story. I do have a nitpick or two with it... I mean, am I the only person who thinks telling someone you've just met that you've wanted to kiss them for a year because you've been watching them on YouTube is just a little creepy? Or at least a little uncomfortable? And I did find myself thinking from time to time that the author was perhaps trying just a little too hard to Address Important Issues, mostly involving feminist ideas, diversity, and the importance of accepting yourself and others. I have to say, characters lecturing each other about issues tends to make me cringe a little, even when I agree with them. In this case, though, I think that overall it actually works. I could honestly believe these characters saying these things to one another, rather than seeing their speeches as being solely the author talking to the reader. And it's really all just wonderfully good-hearted and affirming.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it, a lot more than I expected to. In one respect, I'm really not the target demographic for this, as it's been a very long time since I was a teenager, and I wasn't really a fan of teen romance even when I was. On the other hand, though, I am, always have been, and always will be very much the geeky fangirl, and on that level, reading this was... Well, it was weird, actually. When I was young, people did not write sweet love stories about people like me, and they certainly didn't get them published. If you were the sort of person who, say, went to Star Trek conventions (as I sometimes did), the world at large, if they thought about you at all, tended to regard you with some combination of mockery and bafflement. And if you were a woman who was into stuff like that, you were effectively invisible, unless maybe you were wearing the Slave Leia outfit. That last thing is actually still a little too true, but the world has changed a lot when it comes to nerds and geeks and how they're depicted, with geek culture now seeping into the mainstream in ways that I honestly find disconcerting. And, given all that, I can't help wondering how much it might have meant to me as a young teen, with all my isolation and social awkwardness and self-image problems, to have been able to read something like this, something telling me, "I see you. You are okay. And you are worthy of love." The situation with youngsters today is very different, of course, if only because they can connect to each other on the internet and never have to be alone in quite the same way I was. But maybe they still need this sort of thing once in a while, too. Especially the ones who, for one reason or other, still feel isolated and different. show less

It took me a while to get into this, because my last Swoon book was Let’s Talk About Love, which was fluffy and breezy and cute, and I was expecting this to push the same buttons instead of getting serious. I also didn’t identify as much with Emmy as I have with a lot of YA heroines, somehow. I think it’s the rock music and the elements of wish-fulfillment that surround that. It’s so not my life and has never been a dream, and also I Am An Old.

This is basically a long way to explain show more why this gets a 7 rather than an 8. Pure personal taste. Because, don’t get me wrong, this is a good book and a good queer book and tackles important issues that I don’t think any other YA has really hit on.

The queerness was definitely a highlight for me. Emmy’s bi. The love interest is genderqueer and there’s also a trans woman, a lesbian couple, a gay guy, and the girl Emmy starts the book dating. The band has a big queer fanbase, who play an active part in Emmy’s story. And I don’t think, for all the negative stuff this book takes on and all that Emmy’s aware of bi stereotypes in the media, that anyone is homophobic or misgenders the characters. (On the page, anyway. The trans woman cites past instances.) There’s also a sense of queer people sticking together because they get the struggles and that’s what friends do. A++ content.

In the efforts of saving space, I’m going to gloss over the romance, except to say that I appreciated that it didn’t follow the standard arc and was more about “are we dating? should we?” than it was about winning anyone over. What interested me more was Emmy’s struggles and growth. She’s an abuse survivor basically fighting her way forward from that the whole book, and believably so. Wilde’s basically tearing down the curtain around teen stars and showing you the person. It’s good, needful, important, inspiring stuff, even before the romance kicks in.

Like I said, some of the wish fulfillment stuff bugged me, like spending huge amounts of money without worrying about cost or oversight, but for all I know, though, that is what life can be like. And the abuse threw me somewhat because I’m the sort to get angry in sympathy with victims. (But again, me problem.) I definitely rec the book, though. It’s good, and fast, and takes queer rep to another level.

Warnings: Gaslighting, parental neglect, verbal abuse, general terrible parenting, no, worse than that. Alcoholism. Slut shaming, paparazzi, morally bankrupt TV hosts. Car accident.

7/10 show less

Bubbly-bright, hectic, and heartfelt as a power ballad, Jen Wilde's sophomore novel wears its heart on its sleeve just like protagonist Emmy. In line with Queens of Geek, The Brightsiders features characters of color, a multiplicity of gender and sexual identities, and characters at different stages of their own journeys. The intersections of Emmy's life--romantic, family, and career--are intense but sympathetically drawn, and feel true to the turmoil of late teenagehood, compounded by fame show more and the thrill ride of figuring yourself out. A great read for music enthusiasts, geeks, readers looking for themselves, and anyone who's experienced the tug-of-war between what their world expects and who they are. show less

For friends Taylor, Charlie and Jamie LA's SupaCon has been the dream. Full of comic books, cosplaying, video games and more, they're about to begin an epic quest into geekdom.

Jen Wilde has created a cast of characters that will hit home for many people. Taylor is a girl with high social anxiety. Part of this comes from being on the Autism spectrum. She doesn't feel as if she fits in with the world, and as much as she wants to enjoy SupaCon, it also terrifies her. But she is determined to show more meet the author of the Queen Firestone books. A series that helped her through growing up with social anxiety. Cosplaying as the queen herself, Taylor enters SupaCon hoping to turn her life around and find the courage she wants to be able to go to college in LA and live out her dreams of being a writer.

Charlie is a YouTuber and actress from the movie The Rising. Invited to SupaCon by the studio, she's doing her best to immerse herself into the geekiness of SupaCon and overcome her bad break up with co-star Reese. But popularity comes with a price and she is struggling to accept her personal life being the talk of the internet. Especially when Reese shows up to participate in The Rising panels and refuses to leave her alone in front of the cameras and adoring fans.

I don't do love stories. It's what I tell everyone when they suggest books to me, but Queens of Geek slipped past my filter because of the promise of intense geek out moments. Let me tell you, I was not let down. Pop culture and geeky references are in nearly every chapter of this book, and so well embedded that they just go with the flow of the story. I loved it!

And this book is about so much more than love. It's about overcoming personal challenges. Each character has their own set of insecurities that they have to fight through in order to enjoy the convention and eventually find the love they deserve. But rest assured it isn't sappy, or overdramatic. This is a fun and humorous read that will take you through what it's like to be at a convention, and all the emotions that roll with it. show less