Raineedayze Reads: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

It is only the beginning of January and I think I have found one of my favorite reads of the year.

Seriously.

Geekerella by Ashley Poston is a Cinderella-meets-Star Trek novel, published in 2017. When the book came out, so many people were in love with it and made a ton of positive reviews for it. I put it on my TBR and forgot about it. 

It luckily had no wait list this year and I managed to borrow a copy from my library, and boy that was the best thing to happen to me.

Geekerella follows a girl named Danielle, or Elle for short, who lives with her evil stepmother and two bratty stepsisters. She works in a food truck called the Magic Pumpkin (get it?) and is OBSESSED with a Star Trek-like show called Starfield. Elle runs a pretty small blog dedicated to the show and when she hears they will finally announce the man playing Carmindor (the main captain-like character), Elle is insanely excited. Only to find out teen hearthrob Darien Freeman is playing the lead role. 

Elle is NOT happy (imagine if Justin Bieber was playing Kirk?) but decides to enter the cosplay contest at ExelsiCon because of her love of the show and what it means to her.

Darien, on the other hand, is a secret Starfield nerd who is playing the role of a lifetime. However, when he is ambushed by fans who accuse him of being a "fake geek" and is roped into doing the convention, he needs to figure out how to deal with feeling like a fraud and come to terms with his life.

This book was fantastic! I am a huge Star Trek nerd myself and I saw myself in these pages so much. The author captured the feelings of being a fangirl so perfectly. This book deals with using these fandoms and other worlds as your home, your sanctuary to feel like there is something bigger than you in this universe, and it does it so wonderfully.

I loved the characters, loved the familiar feelings of excitement and passion from being a fangirl, and I also totally need Starfield to be a real show. The descriptions of the episodes were fantastic and I would bingewatch the crap out of that.

There is one thing I want to mention but it is a pretty big spoiler so, if you have not read this book, avert your eyes for the paragraph between the lines!

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Can we just talk about how when the cosplayers all helped Elle and mentioned how much the convention meant to them? That entire section of cosplayers helping a fellow fan out, while talking about how the show and the convention gave them a home and a community and a place to be themselves?? I sobbed so hard. That feeling of community hit so close to home for me. I love being a fan of things and to see the community come together, it was amazing.
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I gave Geekerella 5/5 stars because it was just that fantastic. I plan on picking up a physical copy soon enough because I definitely will be re-reading this when I need that fandom hug.


Always, Raineedayze