Geekerella || Ashley Poston

Never has a book spoken so vividly to my soul than Geekerella by Ashley Poston. I didn't give this book much thought as Book-Tubers talked about it in their book hauls and TBRs. They didn't seem particularly enthused about it and honestly, thought that it would be a half-hearted attempt at an author trying to understand fandom by throwing a smattering of well-known TV shows in here and there all while re-enacting Cinderella. Basically, Cinderella meets Galaxy Quest (although that does sound pretty amazing). With that in mind, I kept seeing it peering at me from the shelves of Waterstones and Easons and decided last week to actually pick it up. I figured it would be a cute and easy read between reading The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo and Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew. Within the first chapter, I was asking myself, "Why didn't I pick this up sooner?" and then looked up recipes for how to eat crow. 

This book spoke to my soul within the first chapter. I am a fangirl. If I am one thing in life, I am a fangirl. I love my television shows beyond words. I buy merchandise from said shows, I get very animated and passionate when I discuss them with others, I have made friends all over the world through the Internet thanks to my fandoms and my fandoms are probably the reasons why I'm alive and breathing. I identified with Danielle (Elle) and Darien on a level I never imagined when I picked up this book. These characters were saying things that I have actually said and thought. They say exactly what fandom means to me. I don't cosplay (I would love to) but I completely understand the allure and the joy that you get from cosplaying. I know what joy conventions are and I know what it feels like to be so comfortable talking to someone over messenger by making references to your favourite shows. I identified with their reluctance to admit their passion for their shows. 

A lot of the people I know at school never understood why I loved Star Trek or why I watched Battlestar Galactica and so they gave me that 'look'. Every card-carrying nerd, geek or dork knows that look. It's that look where they scrunch up their face and raise an eyebrow and their eyes look at you as if you have suddenly sprung three-heads and each head is speaking Japanese backwards. Like Elle, I know what it is like to hold back telling another person what your favourite show in the entire world is for fear of ridicule and someone calling you a 'freak' or 'weird' for liking that show. I have held back telling people that Star Trek: Voyager is my favourite show ever because I don't want to get that look of, "You watch Star Trek?" So what if I do? I shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of what I love and what makes me happy and Danielle and Darien made me even more proud of the fact that I am a fangirl and I am unashamed about that.

Poston wrote incredible characters within Geekerella. Naturally, you were going to get the wicked stepmother, the evil stepsisters, the 'Prince', his controlling father and every other character in-between. Cinderella is a pretty straight-forward fairy tale to tell yet Poston found such a fresh and imaginative way. It didn't feel like I was reading a Cinderella story for the most part. 

I will say that with one of the stepsisters being called Calliope, I instantly thought about the Cinderella movie with Brandy and Whitney Houston so my evil stepmother was the image of Bernadette Peters in my head. Random, but that's how I roll. I actually really liked the stepmother. I loved to hate her. She wasn't overly evil but she was the typical evil suburban, career-driven stepmother. Is there such a typical thing? Nevertheless, I liked that character. 

The stepsisters were indicative of so many young girls these days; desperate to be famous, following every fad out there and drooling over every chiselled abdominal muscle out there. Chloe was an abhorrent person. I adored her persona yet I wanted to take my hand and slap her every time she opened her spoilt mouth. The perfect representation of a Cinderella stepsister in my book. Calliope, on the other hand, was a different story. She was definitely the 'under-the-thumb' sister who did everything that Chloe demanded even though she didn't want to. I loved her character and her change at the end of the book - I'm not going to spoil it but I certainly didn't expect it and I loved it. 

Darien. Let's talk about Darien aka the Prince. Darien is an up-and-coming star on the teen heartthrob circuit - think Robert Pattinson heartthrob status. He shot to fame on a teen show and gets cast in the movie re-boot of Danielle's favourite show, Starfield. Danielle dismisses him off-hand as another brainless actor that is only doing the part for the money and doesn't know the first thing about Starfield. In actual fact, he's as big of a nerd for the show as she is but he has to feign stupidity for the sake of publicity. There were times when I really loved Darien and understood his dilemma but there were times where I wanted to shake him too. As a fan, he should know what it meant for his fans to meet him but he didn't want to meet them out of fear that something would happen to him. He didn't want to attend the convention and then he wanted to back-out of signings. He even had a little fanboy moment himself and was disappointed so he knew how that felt. I loved that Danielle stood up to him about his attitude. 

His father, or manager, was definitely a character that I did not like. He is riding on the coat-tails of his son to keep himself relevant. He controls every aspect of Darien's life. He manipulates everything and twists it to gain publicity and exposure for his son. He sees Starfield as a money maker whereas Darien really wants to do a good job in playing a character he's admired since he was a child and who he always wanted to be. Darien understands the pressure and wants to succeed, whereas his father only sees dollar signs. I certainly didn't like the father aka Mark but I wasn't meant to like him because Poston crafted him that way. 

With regard to Danielle's scathing blog posts about Darien, I completely understood her anger and her protectiveness towards her show. I've been there. I was there when Star Trek was rebooted by J.J. Abrams. I wasn't sure about a number of the castings. When Zachary Quinto was announced for Spock, I had to do a double take because he was and always will be Sylar from Heroes to me. No matter how good his performance is, I will always see Sylar. Sorry, Zachary Quinto. I even furrowed my brow when Simon Pegg was announced for Scotty. That hesitation was laid to rest when I found out just how much Pegg loved Star Trek. I had to trust that he wouldn't ruin Scotty. Yet that is a common theme with the actors that have been cast in Star Trek incarnations; they haven't watched Star Trek. Even Kate Mulgrew who played Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager had never seen an episode of Star Trek prior to accepting the mantle of Captain of Voyager. She knew of Star Trek but hadn't watched it. 

I did wonder and do wonder if some of the people in the reboots and the new series only took the job for the money. That is always a fear with anyone cast in a reboot. Yes, they need to work and pay bills, but to fans, it's more than a paycheque. That is explored in the character of Jessica Stone, Darien's co-star, love interest in Starfield and faux-paramour for the duration of filming. Jessica wants to be a star. She wants Oscars. She wants awards. She's driven and is very methodical in the way she approaches her craft and what roles she commits herself to. She's a very unlikeable character and she was everything that I hate about Hollywood; only seeing the awards, the dollar signs and the acclaim. 

With castings, I feel very much like Danielle in whether or not it is "fan-tastic or fan-service". I pretty much am relating all of this back to Star Trek, just so you know (if you hadn't guessed by now). When the casting for Abrams' Star Trek came through and to an extent, Star Trek: Discovery, I had wondered how much of it was on merit and how much of it was on the fact that they were good-looking. Chris Pine, for example, he is most certainly a very handsome bloke and so was Shatner in his hay-day but I wonder if he was cast to bring in the female young adult audiences. All of the main cast of Abrams' Star Trek are very attractive people. I cheered for Zoe Saldana being cast because I've loved her for years since seeing her in Center Stage. Yet I couldn't help but wonder if they were eye-candy to entice in a new generation or a new 'type' of fan. Even with Discovery, casting Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies) and Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies Bond girl) was a genius move and I was beyond excited to see Michelle Yeoh being a captain and to have another girl as a Captain. Janeway finally had a pal as a lead Captain. Alas, Yeoh's character was killed off in the second episode. I felt like it had been a ploy to get new fans in. I get into this more in depth in my blog posts reviewing Discovery episodes so I won't go into the rant here because I already feel as if I'm going off topic and I'm supposed to be reviewing a book. 

Even now with Star Trek; Discovery, I have gone through cast announcements and teaser trailers and uniform designs and new Klingon designs that are far beyond anything that I recognise in Star Trek. I completely understand how Danielle feels because something that was my safe place, my happy place, my refuge, my escape, and my life-line is being turned on its head and morphed into something that I'm not entirely sure that I recognise. Yet, I'm willing to give it a chance.

The characters of Danielle and Darien weren't hyperbolic or too over-the-top when it came to their excitement for their fandoms. I've been there. I said those things. I've stopped mid-sentence to say something and geek out. I've referenced all of my fandoms in the vain hopes that my colleagues will know what I'm quoting. Spoiler alert: they don't. I know what the convention atmosphere is like; that feeling of being in a room with like-minded people and not having to be shy or timid or rein in your excitement for fear of embarrassing the person who drove you there. It has such a feeling of belonging, of family and that it isn't just this franchise or that franchise: we're all one. I loved that moment in the book when Darien started monologuing and everyone stood in solidarity, regardless of the fandom. We all accept each other and love each other all the same - you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. 

I loved that practically all of my fandoms were represented or mentioned in some way or another;

- Star Trek
- Battlestar Galactica
- Firefly (and Nathan Fillion was fanboyed by Darien - so cute. Fillion has that affect.)
- Stargate SG-1 (the villains in Starfield are called the Nox and the Nox are a race in SG1)
- Marvel

This book could easily have been a disaster and insulting to the avid fan. I felt that Poston had such a command of fandom. I felt like she understood every one of my fandoms and also respected them which I definitely appreciated. It's rare that I hear Star Trek mentioned in a book where it isn't meant in a derogatory fashion. Poston knows what it is to be a fangirl and she delivered a book which made me ridiculously proud to be one. So, Ashley, I thank you for that. 

I will say that for anyone that isn't a fangirl/boy that this book can be somewhat overwhelming. So many fandoms are thrown are you in the 320 pages that it's easy to get lost in it all. I, however, bathed it in. I couldn't get enough of it. As I said previously, it's not every day that I see my favourite shows afforded such love and prestige. I loved it. I would certainly recommend this book to any of my fangirl friends. I've gushed about it to them already and told them that this is basically, "me in a book minus the whole step-mother thing."

(I know that Voyager is missing a nacelle.)

I am happy to say that I gave Geekerella 5 out of 5 stars. I'm so glad that I picked it up when I did and that it re-affirmed how much I love being a fangirl and that I don't care what others think. Star Trek: Voyager got me through my father's passing almost a year ago. I would sit up to the early hours of the morning watch Voyager and I would escape and I would get lost in the philosophy of Voyager and take strength from Captain Janeway just like Danielle. I may not 'Look at the Stars. Aim. Ignite' but I certainly know that this book aimed at my inner fangirl and ignited her once again. 

Thank you, Ashley Poston, for this absolute gem of a book. This fangirl is very happy.