This is a cut above your standard contemporary YA novel with a smart misfit telling the story. Often these witty characters are entertaining but unrealistic-they either talk like adults, or they're always ready with the perfect comeback, or they always pick the high road. The author deftly avoided those pitfalls and created a wonderfully flawed and endearing character in Scarlett.
I'm afraid to say too much, because if I talk about what I liked the most it will give too much away. I will say, if you liked Fangirl, you will probably like this. ( )

When I first heard about this book, it was compared to both Veronica Mars and Fangirl. I can see the second but not really the first. And unfortunately for this book, it lacks the charm of Fangirl and the short page-length limited the character development that made Fangirl so compelling and lovely.

I did enjoy the book but thought it felt a bit rushed.
However, I appreciated the fact that in this book, women and girls supported each other. And that at the end of the day, Scarlett realized that her mean girl nemesis also has feelings and insecurities and that maybe she's not that awful. I did want way more Ruth than there was in the book because she is an awesome kick-butt character.

What I really wanted was more of the online fandom, and to show just how close people can grow via that vehicle. It was implied and even stated a few times, but never really shown in practice. I remember my online fandom communities and how we would provide advice and support to each other over non-fandom things. We shared our lives with each other - probably more than we should have, in hindsight, but I made some good friends through online fandom, and we're still friends nearly 18 years later. I never saw that closeness, that support network in the book, despite it being said it existed.

However, excellent rant about Jonathan Franzen and David Foster Wallace and other white male authors who can't see beyond their own ego to write a realistic fictional woman in a non-insulting way. A+++ rant; would read again. ( )

"Scarlett is very funny, and her first- person narration is full of snappy literary and cultural references that will endear her to readers. But Breslaw doesn’t allow her heroine to hide behind her wit. Eventually, Scarlett begins to truly see the pain and beauty of reality."

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libsrv.wku.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=149&...

It was incredibly compelling. Which was surprising, because there aren't much in the way of events here. It's very much about feeling the texture of someone's life. Scarlett Epstein is a fanfiction writer who lives with her divorced mom in a New Jersey suburb. Her dad, now an up-and-coming novelist, has moved to a loft in Brooklyn and married a gorgeous young writer. Epstein feels left-behind and out of place. Even her old crush, Gideon--a guy who used to be as big of a fan as she was--has moved on and turned into someone totally different.

So far this is pretty normal. But you always sense that there is something more here. There's just enough narrative distance. It's not so much that the book judges or dislikes Scarlett--it's that the book sees more of her than she does. Scarlett has built a narrative for herself where she's this geeky person who's so far above everyone around her, and that narrative has truth to it. She _does_ see more. But there are also things that she doesn't see.

That's where the story within a story comes in! This is Scarlett's fanfiction--a thinly fictionalized version of her high school (plus sex robots!)--that is absolutely perfect! The fanfiction sections are just awkward enough that we can believe in them (the sex robot bits in particular are incredibly uncomfortable), but they're still fun to read! It's a pretty great performance. There's a hesitance there in the writing of the fanfiction sections that feels very believable, but it doesn't at all impair the quality of the work.

And THEN, even more than the fanfiction itself, you have the meta-commentary wherein Scarlett's online friends discuss her fanfiction and its various strengths and weaknesses.

Its through the fanfiction that you see Scarlett's worldview, and the way it contains far too much black and white. And it's through the meta-commentary that the shades of gray start to seep in.

Thus, long before Scarlett's real-world life starts to get complicated, we have hints that more is going on here. Her antagonist, her love interest, her best friend--all of these people are far more complicated than Scarlett wants to make them.

I don't know, perhaps I'm not doing justice to the book. It's really good though! Definitely worth reading in, like, six months or whenever it's coming out.

Full Disclosure: I got an Advance Reader Copy of this book directly from the author (who I know peripherally through Twitter, but have never met), and she also read and reviewed my book, so it's entirely possible that you will discount this review entirely, but you really shouldn't because I'm a pretty judgmental reader and oftentimes don't write good reviews even of books that are people who I am close with.
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I spent a very, very long time anticipating this debut. From the first second I heard its concept, I was signed up and ready to read it. I even had a nightmare where I showed up to the bookstore and they were constantly out of copies, preventing me from ever actually reading it. I know that's weird but, like I said, I was really anticipating this debut. While the book wasn't what I originally thought it would be, it was still a nice read!

Scarlett holds a very funny outlook on the world around her. However, she can occasionally be too judge-y or cynical while branding herself as genuine. I think that's the one major problem I had with the book: looking genuine but not feeling genuine. The attitude and behavior of teens in both the actual story and Scarlett's fanfiction was just plain wrong. No one in my high school acted like this, and I'd remember as I just graduated. I felt like I was being lied to. One of the reasons I was really anticipating this book was because of its connection to fandom culture, but even that did not feel authentic. For one thing, I at least know the name of my online friends but Scarlett and her online friends call each other by their screen names and seem to know nothing about one another...? I don't know how much research the author did on fanfiction, but as someone who knows plenty, I feel like they didn't know very much. The portrayal of fangirls/fanboys was pretty stereotypical and disappointing for someone who thought it would finally be properly represented.

I really believe the strongest aspect of this book was Scarlett's relationships with Ruth and Ashley. I absolutely adored Ruth and the stories she shared with Scarlett really made the book for me. She was such a lovely, refreshing character and her connection to Scarlett was something very special. I also really enjoyed seeing Scarlett and Ashley's relationship develop through their misunderstandings of one another. I really would've liked to see a better conclusion for the nature of their relationship near the end, but I also understand why it would've ended the way it did.

Overall, a good read! ( )