FF Friday

[cyphomandra]

Britta Lundin, Ship It.

Claire Strupke is 16 and obsessed with Demon Heart, a not-at-all similar to Supernaturalshow in which demon hunter Smokey teams up with Heart, a demon with a, uh, heart, to save the world. Obviously she ships SmokeHeart (the main slash pairing - all the women, apparently, get killed off) and writes enough fic to be well-known in the fandom and, when the actors come to a con near her, she asks them about it (this was the first time I had to backbutton out of the ebook and look at something else until my second-hand embarrassment subsided, although not the last), and is devastated when Forest, who plays Smokey, shoots her down in flames. To salvage the show's PR, the production team invite Claire along on the convention tour. Claire seizes the opportunity to try and convince them to make SmokeHeart canon - but, she's also met Tess, a fanartist, following the tour, who is openly queer and very attractive, even if she's hiding her own fannishness from her popular friends. Claire has always been open about her love for fandom, but her own feelings are much more complicated…

I did have to click out of this quite a bit. Claire is a very determined fangirl and she rides roughshod over people's boundaries (she posts RPF about the leads that includes material Forest told her in confidence! Argh! She outs Tess as a fan to all her friends despite Tess specifically asking her not to!) but there's something appealing about her as well, and her final convention speech about not being ashamed of what (and who) you love is genuinely touching. The narrative is shared between her pov and Forest's, who does undergo his own arc and is thoughtless rather than deliberately cruel. Tess gets only a tiny mention in the blurb but is quite a big part of the story. Rico, who plays Heart, is a bit too obliging as a character (he can also be read as gay but closeted, which makes some of Claire's pushiness uncomfortable). Jamie, the showrunner, doesn't quite come off for me - there are some interesting moments there that never quite cohere and again, I could come up with a number of possible readings for him.

I was also not entirely convinced Claire would have no fandom friends (she doesn't even post on her tumblr that she's going to the con), given that she's also supposed to be a BNF in the fandom. But she doesn't talk about reading other people's fics, just her own (no compulsive reading of the latest chapter in the surely obligatory coffee-shop AU?), and she doesn't seem to have any beta relationships. She does have real-life not-friends and schoolmates who are believable, and I love her supportive-in-their-own way parents (her mum, who has an MFA in sculpture, ends up running weapons-making workshops from her hotel room for the con-goers). I do find myself wondering what the characters would be doing in 10 years' time.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

I somehow managed to vaguely hear about this book without knowing it was F/F. But since just reading your summary gave me second-hand embarrassment, I don't think I could take a whole book of that.

[cyphomandra]

I totally understand. There were quite a few chunks where I was doing the book equivalent of watching from behind my hands. (I did wonder whether it was a generational fannish thing and I am just old and set in my ways, but still, arrgh, don't show the actors your photo manips of them kissing).

[summerstorm]

Yikes. I can see how this would work if it was done by someone who really knew what everything was like, but this sounds so... unself-aware. Which is a shame. I've always been really open about fandom so I think if I read this I'd be not second-hand embarrassed but first-hand? Almost? Like, sure, I've got no shame, BUT I WOULDN'T DO THIS, yk. Thanks for the review!

[quodthey]

oh yikes. even just reading this review was difficult - kudos for reading the whole book, i would have given up out of embarrassment after two chapters.

honestly this sounds like it was written by someone who.. doesn't really understand fandom? like there are unfortunately Those Fans who show actors rpf and all, but the idea of being huge in fandom and not having friends? only rereading your own work? what on earth. it's not a vision of fandom i've ever had before.

[keighty]

I honestly wasn't sure if we were meant to like... agree with everything Claire was doing? Like was she meant to be admirable or likeable? some of the shit she does is like a nightmare fan convention horror story, but at no point did I really feel like she was portrayed as being in the wrong.

I felt like this could have been a fun book if Claire hadn't been quite so rabid OR if she wasnt treated as a protagonist we should be agreeing with. idk, it felt like something that could have been a fun read, but the ridiculous plot and the fact that I didn't really like any of the characters was disappointing.

[hlagol]

I had this same problem. Not every novel needs to be an afterschool special or morality play, but this is a YA work, and I do feel like the author more or less condoned a bunch of behavior that I find not just embarrassing but inappropriate.

[hlagol]

This one was chocked full of secondhand embarrassment for me, and I sorta felt like Claire didn't get sufficiently punished for breaking social and privacy norms. In that way, it kinda felt like one big meta mary sue.

[sylvaine]

Y i k e s. That sounds really unfun to read to me. Good to know I can continue avoiding this one.