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Title: The Princess and the Fangirl
Author: Ashley Poston
Series: Once upon a Con #2
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Format: E-book
My Synopsis:
Imogen Lovelace is with her brother and her mothers at Excelsicon, a yearly event for her geeky family. She is a huge fan of the Starfield franchise and she’s launched a campaign to save the female lead, Princess Amara. The problem? Jessica Stone, who played Princess Amara in the latest movie, doesn’t want the princess to be resurrected; she just wants to move on with her (hopefully) Oscar-worthy career. When Jess misplaces her copy of the sequel’s script, she realizes that she has to find it or she will be ruined. Jess conscripts Imogen, who looks startlingly like her, to stand in at her panels and meet-and-greets while she frantically searches for the missing script.
My Review:
This series is completely adorable! Which makes it sound like it’s for younger kids, but it is written for young adults. Still–I’m going to let adorable stand.
There are so many things to love in this book. I love that Imogen has two mothers and her brother is gay. I love that everyone at Excelsicon is so unabashedly geeky. Attendees actively celebrate and encourage geekiness! I love that Poston addresses the darker side of fandoms. You know, those people who think that sequels or different actors or actresses will never be any good and who constantly troll actresses in particular about how they’re too fat or too thin or too ugly or too flat-chested or just too anything.
Mostly, I just love the characters that Poston creates. They’re regular people who get excited about the things they love and relate to. They’re perfect strangers who bond over a shared love of a TV show or movie. They’re people who are maybe teased or bullied about their enthusiasms in the wider world but who find acceptance among their own people at a Con or on a message board. They find quotes with ideas they need to hear in the shows they love and adopt them as their personal credos. And they understand that the color or shape of a character doesn’t matter; Princess Amara’s spirit lives in all of us. How can you not love a book like this?
I realize I haven’t said much about the plot. That’s because so much of this book is about its heart. But to address that for just a minute, the plot was maybe a bit implausible (Why wouldn’t Imogen be the one looking for the lost script instead of famous Jess?) but there were some twists and turns and I was surprised by the ending. I loved that Imogen realized how hard Jess’s shoes are to fill and that Jess started to better appreciate her fans.
If you’re looking for a deep, Literary read, these books are not for you. But if you’ve ever had serious conversations about what happens to characters after the book/movies end, drawn fan art, written fan fiction, pre-ordered tickets or books for sequels that you just couldn’t wait for, dressed up like a beloved character, quoted favorite lines, or been gloriously geek-tastic in any of a million different ways, this series is for you. I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Similar Books:
If you enjoyed The Princess and the Fangirl, you might also like:
- Geekerella (Once Upon a Con #1) by Ashley Poston
- Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer, read by Rebecca Soler
- Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood #1) by Juliet Marillier
Purchase Link:
Buy The Princess and the Fangirl at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe.
2 Comments
This and Geekerella have been on my kindle for way too long. I need to read them at some point.
The covers are awesome. 🙂
They are gorgeous covers! The books make me smile so hard, it’s ridiculous!