Publishing Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: Quirk Books
Pages: 208 pages
Social & Cultural Studies
The Premise: Written by the associate editor of The Mary Sue, comes a guide book for all components of the geek culture, celebration of fandoms and more for the female geek. There are a wide range of topics from tv shows to gaming to how to survive conventions. The book includes chapters such as: "It's Good to Be a Geek", "Fandom Intensifies: Geek Girls Online", "Geronimo! How to Survive Conventions", and "Aim to Misbehave: Geek Girl Feminism." In between all of the chapters there are also interviews with various fangirls who offer some advice and thoughts on the geek culture and they offer to the reader what the believe is a fangirl. Some of these awesome interviews are from Erin Morgenstern, Victoria Schwab and more!
My overall thoughts and review: Never has there ever been a book that speaks to the centre of my soul like this one. This book encompasses everything that I believe I am and even more. When I first heard about this book, I was over the moon ecstatic because there was a few Doctor Who references. If you don't know btw, I am a massive whovian. I am a whovian first, human after. I was incredibly excited about the concept about a book on fan culture and more so, a guide! Although it may seem easier to interact and socialize online and find people with common interests, in real life, it is a lot harder. I have found many awesome friends through the internet and those were mainly through fandoms. I also started going to conventions more often in the past few years. I've also braved wearing a DW dress while at grad school and I'm slowly showing my fangirl side outwardly more often, and reading this book I just had a permanent smile on my face the entire time. I loved this book and so many moments in the book, I just kept saying to myself: "Sam Maggs gets me. She knows." and it was such an awesome feeling.
My favorite section of the book definitely has to be the Geek Girl feminism section and where she speaks about online interactions and how to behave at conventions. She goes over the struggles that geek girls face when it comes to fandoms and geek culture and furthermore, she offers tips on how to cope/handle those situations and trolls. Literally, she has a chapter naming all the different kinds of trolls on the internet. It's amazing. She lists reasons of why being a feminist is a good thing which should definitely be more of a topic of discussion. She also gives so many awesome examples of heroines in tv, anime, movies and more.
Lastly, I LOVED the author interviews. I was so excited when I first saw that Erin Morgenstern was listed, but then I was "I lost the ability to can" when I saw that one of my all-time favorite authors Victoria Schwab was featured!! *SQUEEEEEE* The interviews are a nice touch because you get different perspectives of what it means to be a fangirl, and also you are introduced to really awesome people, you might not already know. That goes with a lot of the stuff in the book because Sam Maggs basically introduces you to a bunch of amazing things and it really feels as if a good friend has come over and told you about all of her latest interests in films, tv shows, anime and offers a big list of recommendations. Also, before I go on *squeeing* even more, I want to say that the artwork in this book is just stunning. I love how the hardback looks especially with the cartoons of the tardis, sherlock's hat, a laptop and more. It is BEAUTIFUL! I think this is a great book and a must-have for every fangirl's library. It is truly wonderful and it will not disappoint. There are so many great tips and suggestions and also, for those already familiar with some of the content (like fandoms and how to host a marathon party), it is always fun and awesome to find out that there is someone out there that enjoys the same things like you do. So well done, Sam Maggs! What a wonderful and fun read. This book is literally bigger on the inside (pun intended).
My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮✮ (5/5 stars)
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Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Quirk Books for consideration/review. All opinions are my own.
I felt the same way about the book as you do. Sam Maggs just gets us :D.
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