Queens of Geek

YouTube sensation Charlie recently starred in a movie that has seen more success than anyone thought. After a public breakup with her costar Reese, she’s determined to show the world she’s moved on. The perfect place to do this is at SupaCon – a convention where she’ll be a guest meeting fans, but also where she can escape the real world for a while. Shortly after arriving, she meets Alyssa, a fellow YouTube star, who she might have a crush on…it seems the crush may not be one sided either.Charlie’s best friends Taylor and Jamie also accompany her on the trip to SupaCon. Taylor is very anxious, and is on the Autism spectrum, and is both excited to attend SupaCon and meet her celebrity icon, Skylar who stars as her all time favorite literary hero, and Jamie is excited to be spending time with Taylor. They might be best friends, but he has feelings for her, and thinks they might be reciprocated.Told in alternation point of views between Charlie and Taylor, we see a trio of best friends enjoying their time at an event that will change their lives more than they ever expected.Queens of Geek was such a delight of a book! I read it in two sittings, and flew through it. It was a very light, fun, read with minimal drama and conflict. While there are some speed bumps in the road, the story primarily focuses on friendship, confidence, self worth, and being true to yourself. I loved the friendship aspect of the book – in so many of the books I read, the friendships aren’t super healthy ones (or don’t exist at all), and this was a fantastic change of pace. I’d kill to have friends like Charlie, Taylor, and Jamie!On that note, there were some moments in the book that felt a little too good to be true, if that makes sense. There were eloquently worded monologues, celebrities acting like they were best friends with strangers and inviting them to movie premiers after just meeting them, and women who didn’t get offended or upset when they overhear someone calling them fat behind their backs. While I’m sure those things can happen sometimes I feel like it would be incredibly rare for all of those things to occur, so I occasionally found myself having to suspend my disbelief in that regard. That said, if you enjoy the story for what it is and ignore the impracticality of some of the things that are said or that happen, the book is still adorable.I really loved the representation of Taylor’s anxiety. As someone who suffers from anxiety, it’s not always easy to find books that accurately represent what it feels like to have an anxiety disorder, and I really related to Taylor feeling completely overwhelmed and having sensory overloads being in such a crowded place. I loved that her anxiety and Autism played into the story and weren’t treated as something shameful.I also loved that these characters were diverse! The book had characters who were asian, overweight, bisexual, had shaved heads, weren’t traditionally “perfect” looking (as is the case in many YA books), and I loved that. There were a ton of references to fandoms (even some that I’m a part of, which was so fun to read!), and I loved that the “nerd culture” of attending cons and conventions was celebrated in this book.Overall, I completely loved the book and could not put it down! It was a perfect light summer read, and was a 5 star read for me! I can’t wait to see what else Jen Wilde comes out with!

I have never read a book that I have connected with one of the main characters so deeply as I did with Queens of Geek. In Queens of Geek we follow three friends. Charlie, who is a break out actress with a blossoming Youtube channel, Jamie, who is in love with pretty much all things comics, and Taylor, who's one life goal is to meet the author of her all time favorite book series. I'm sure it's pretty easy to pick out who I connected with most considering, hello, I love to read. But I feel like Taylor was so similar to myself in so many more different ways that I just had to keep reading.Seeing Taylor have to work through not only panic attacks but also her social anxiety was kind of tough to get through because I know how those things feel. But being able to see, that with some support, she was able to get through everything that her anxiety threw at her, is a really hopeful thing to see. I know all to well how depression and anxiety works and I think Jen did a really great job at describing and expressing exactly what it feels like in those moments of an attack and what you think is going on in the world even though most of it is made up in your head.If you're a fellow nerd, like myself, then you will have the most fun reading this book. There are so many nerdy references all through it! The way that things were mentioned made me really feel that these three kids were the ultimate nerds just like I am, and kind of made me proud to be such a nerd too. Seeing what they liked and how excited they were for a con and cosplaying made me just love them as smol little beans.Now of course we know we have two love stories in this book. I did like one more than the other but I think that's because I connected with Taylor more. That's not to say that I did not love seeing Charlie's relationship too. I felt so proud for Charlie once she decided that Reese wasn't worth any more of her time. Also seeing Reese all throughout this book just made me angry for Charlie and I wasn't able to pretend to ever be a Chase stan. So when she see's Alyssa and you learn of Charlie's crush the whole time I just felt myself cheering her on. To watch what unfolds between the two and how it happens just made my heart so happy.But then you have Taylor and Jamie. Oh such precious little creatures. These two have been friends for years and are essentially the same people. They both love Queen Firestone, Jamie supports Taylor through her tough mental breakdowns, and Taylor geeks out at all the things that Jamie loves. Seeing the two of them blossom and realize "Hey I'm not the only one crushing here" was just so, ugh, perfect. I also loved the fact that Charlie was rooting them on the whole time too.To be completely honest I see myself having to reread this somewhere here in the near future. I have never read through a book that has made me want to highlight and tab specific things as much as this book had, just so I could go back and relive certain moments or certain things that were mentioned. I would suggest this book to absolutely everyone that has ever slightly considered themself a nerd. To be honest, you probably don't even need to be a nerd to appreciate these characters and their time at SupaCon. So needless to say, if you haven't read this book yet, go do it!

I really wanted to like this book, I really did.As someone who goes to Comic Con at least once a year, the synopsis was an instant hook. The premise was something I hadn’t seen in a novel before and I had high hopes for it.I was very disappointed by the majority of the book. The characters felt flat, like people who had stepped out of a very basic teenage fanfiction. I found it hard to care about them in anyway at all. There appeared to be no depth in most of the characters except for Taylor.The worst example of this is Reese, whose sole purpose is to be a douche to Charlie. He’s there for the sake of being there and his actions just seem generic for his role. We don’t see any thought process behind the things he does, even when he starts a fight with Jamie. It seemed the purpose of the fight scene was to prove Taylor could stand up for her friends and that Jamie had strong feelings for Taylor. It was very transparent and boring.Also, the conversations in this are not realistic at all. Constantly everyone was spewing their insecurities and secrets within two seconds of meeting someone else. I understand that the author had a very limited time frame to work within (a weekend) but it seemed forced.A lot of scenes in this book including the fight scene, the wrong both scene etc seem forced and I just felt that so much more could have been with the novel instead of the author falling back on these nonsense tropes.Jen Wilde tackles some very real issues in terms of anxiety, autism and bi-sexuality and aspects of that really shine through in the writing. Those are topics you can tell are close to her heart but the moments in which they resonate are overshadowed by the lack of depth in the characters.I really found the relationship between Alyssa and Charlie ridiculous. We were constantly being told by Charlie that there was an attraction, a connection but we don’t see it. At one-point Charlie questions if Alyssa is flirting with her and up until that point, we saw no actual actions that depicted that, it wasn’t until Charlie tells us that we aware of it and even then, it’s sparse. A couple of lines later they are suddenly holding hands, it seems to be completely out of nowhere.Parts of this novel were brilliant for showing how people find their refuge in the fandom and these were the aspects of the book I could identify with. I really appreciated the understated way that the issue of consent and women supporting women was brought up.The end of this novel was so disappointing. Everything from Charlie barely reacting to being told the wrong video had been uploaded to Taylor meeting her hero Skyler was just painful. Charlie’s whole focus was Alyssa and making some huge, grand gesture for a woman she has barely spent any time with. Taylor eventually met Skyler and was instantly invited to the premier of the new Firestone movie before Skylar literally takes her hand and pulls her onto the dance floor as if they’ve been best friends for years.The best part about this book for me was the Q & A with Jen Wilde at the end. She seems like a such an interesting person and I felt I could identify with her a lot, which made me wish I could like this book more.

My heart has bursted several times and I am in love with this book! Wow! It's exactly what I needed to read.I don't know how to review this - and tbh I feel like this every time - but when a book has a special place in your heart because of how much you connected to it, it makes it that much more difficult.I love that this was set at a convention. It made me geekish heart explode! I related to Taylor on so many levels! Her anxiety, her constant fear of going into the unknown. To see her inner dialogue, and try and battle it was a beautiful journey to follow. I shed tears for sure! (Not as many as I wanted, because I was reading at a cafe and seeing someone cry just ain't cute in public! But the overwhelming urge was there.) Her being comfortable in her own skin was another great addition to her character. Insecure, but secure and the page that called spoke out on fat-shaming... *slow claps*I need these characters in my life. I need the Jamie to my Taylor. Charlie and Alyssa. Josie and Brianna. Wonderfully, diverse (which had me gushing!) set of characters with their own uniqueness. All of the characters were distinct and well-rounded.Gosh, I wish there were many more pages! I cannot wait to reread this again!

Queens of Geek is the perfect book for that person who never quite fits in. Sounds a bit dramatic but it is genuinely the vibe that you get from Jen Wilde’s book.It is the story of three friends who have travelled across the globe to attend a comic book convention. There is romance, hi-jinx and costume competitions. Wilde has kept her cast of characters diverse and helps dispel the myth of what is “normal” in society – and what better setting than a comic book convention? Wilde’s characters are dealing with failed romance and blossoming new romance, celebrity fandom, autism, LGBT, and social anxiety. It really is a lot to read about in a relatively small novel. Throw in a dollop of movie quotes and you have something pretty special.It is a wonderful story though, one of personal triumph, self discovery and essentially growing up. If it doesn’t help your inner geek rise to the surface then it is questionable if you even have one. It is a story that I will be recommending to many of the young adults that I work with.Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde is available now.

Aw this book is honestly so sweet. It was one of the books I was super excited for this year and it did not let me down.It surrounds a convention for all the youtubers and geeky types like us lot where a group of friends travel from Australia to LA for the weekend of their dreams.The book is pretty short and whilst I really liked my time with the book I felt like there isn't much for me to say.This could've easily been a 5 star read for me as the style was so easy to read and the representation was on point. There was Asian Rep, aspie rep, anxiety Rep, chubby Rep, bisexual Rep, lesbian Rep. However I felt like there was just something a little lacking and it's not something I could ever pin point but it just wasn't quite in the favourites position for meThe book follows 2 blossoming relationships and it was honestly just really sweet to read. There was little miscommunications and classic tropes from YA romance that just makes you squeal with delight.Even though my review is a bit thin on the ground I do hope you read this book because it just made me really happy when I read it and I can't wait to read the next Jen Wilde book because I feel like it's going to be a 5 star.

I adored this book. It's such a wonderful contemporary about friendship, falling in love, fandom, and finding courage to be yourself. It's wonderful, sweet, lovely, and just amazing. I also loved that one of the two main characters wears glasses!!! I want more books like this.