Hannah Moskowitz

This is a strange creepy book full of anger and complex feelings that are shown rather than told, and that I can't quite articulate. It is the story of Rudy, whose little brother Dylan is seriously ill, but the quest for a cure has taken them to a distant island where the fish can make people well. It is the story of Teeth, half fish, half human, who hates the culling of the fish he sees as his brothers.

There's a lot here. Rudy and Teeth's relationship, Rudy and Diana's strange romance of show more convenience, the question of just how sentient the fish are, with the moral implications of the behaviour of everyone on the island (and of the fish), the cruelty of the fishermen, the painful scraps left over from Teeth's childhood with his mother, and the feelings of being discarded and replaced, the way the fish are both the cure and the trap... strange strange book, that snags things deep in your mind and leaves you disturbed and uncomfortable afterwards...

The final scene with Teeth and Rudy, where the solution is to tell Teeth this isn't his problem, he's not obliged to fix this shit, he can run away for his own sake, is... not a message you find often in fiction. show less

Maybe I've been reading too much slash fic, but I kept waiting for all the homoerotic subtext to become, you know, text, and found myself disappointed. It's probably a symptom of it being "young adult" fiction, which is sadly still a cue to freak out over any depictions of homosexuality at all (that's not explicitly a fable about coming out). I'd hoped we'd be past that by 2014, but apparently not.

Regardless of that major criticism, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It's a fast and immersive show more read, with very well-drawn relatable characters. I enjoyed the sense of moral nuance this book shows; you never get the sense of there being villains in the traditional sense and ethical dilemmas are carefully explored. I also appreciated the realistic dialogue, which is surprisingly rare in fiction for this demographic (*cough* James Patterson *cough*). A lot of the background details and setting are loosely depicted, but I found this helped rather than hindered the narrative, almost as if it were setting a sense of atmospheric fog over the story, which plays nicely into the magical realism at its center. The vagueness at the edges gives the setting a sense of distance, while also allowing more focus on the emotions and personalities of the main characters. show less

Disclaimer: A free copy of this book was received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review.

Gena and Finn meet through the internet, bonded by their love for the show Up Below and one of the main characters - Jake. They’re both dealing with a variety of real life issues, from rent to romance, but always find happiness in each other. Their relationship progresses quickly, but other things start to get in the way. Long story short; it’s complicated.

The story show more starts strong. It’s exactly what it promises to be. It creates an Up Below fandom which feels like it heavily draws from Supernatural, which is absolutely a good thing. The style of the book is strong, any fan will be able to relate to the blogging and chatting and ALL THE FEELS.

Finn is extremely relatable. She’s dealing with relationship troubles, job troubles and just overall lack of satisfaction in her life. Gena is a little more confusing and distant, there are parts of her that some people might identify with but on the whole she’s a very strange character. She’s eclectic, strange and fairly needy. It’s not bad it’s just difficult to feel connected to her.

Do not pick up this book if you’re looking for an LGBT romance. It occasionally teases slightly but this is NOT a love story. The vaguely worded blurb, and even the title (Gena/Finn: in fandom speak we all know what / means) seem to hint at a romance. This is almost entirely baiting.

The third part of this book is confusing. It practically throws out the text/e-mail/blog format in favour of journal writing, which means that a large portion of the third part is just written like a normal first person book. It loses what made it special. The ending is dramatic in a way t didn’t have to be, and in fact it sort of hurts the book. It stops being entirely about fandom and starts dealing with heavy topics. Books SHOULD deal with heavy topics but that’s not really what this book is set up to present.

It was weird. The book devolves into an entirely different genre and while surprises are pleasant on occasion I didn’t pick up this book for this. The fandom plotline is almost entirely dropped - there’s maybe one or two blog posts that are never fully resolved. It was like the book didn’t know where it was going and suddenly decided to force a bunch of awkward plots to make the story more exciting. It quickly knocked itself down from being a five star book exploring fandom to a three star sort of average drama.

This was supposed to be a book about fandom and a relationship between two girls. It ended up being the story of a girl dealing with mental illness and PTSD. The latter is not a bad idea for a book - but advertise it as what it is. Don’t promise a character driven romp through fandom and deliver this. There was a good story before the authors decided it wasn’t dramatic enough and decided to change directions into a different sort of book entirely.

Nevertheless it’s a good read for fans of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, even if the ending falls short of expectations. show less

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