Review: Complete fangirl implosion
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 16, 2012
Oh, this was an absolutely brilliant piece of geeky funny happy OMG-y goodness. This second book by Ms Lawson had me cracking up and cackling like a crone, the geeky teenage fangirling is described so well, it is plain uncanny. Much like the author's first book, Wraith, I got pulled in and the story would not let go.I won't talk about the storyline, you can read the book. Or its blurb. But I WILL talk about the execution of the telling. That is where this author is coming along brilliantly. After only a few pages you are thrown into the action, then jarred out of it by annotations that make you jump back and forth in the text. At first this is irritating, but really soon it becomes giggle-snort-worthy, as the author kind of breaks the fourth wall here, and pulls you in. Brilliant take, and one I've never seen before. Well done.Then we have all the action of running a fansite (Z.net for the comics called Zocopalypse) and tweeting about it and trying to get juicy deets up on the web before the competition, and here is where Ms Lawson just cracks me up and has me screaming for mercy. My god, the tweets are hilarious, and the names of the tweeter people are in a class of their own. Anyone who's been a fandomgirl/boy these last 2-3 years will appreciate the twitter-feeds, and the very fact that there's always ONE tweeter who comes in blind from the left field asking if we could please see The Man naked. Or in chaps. If you read this, do not miss the actual names of the people in the feed. Or the fact that when celebs break up, there's always some diehards who will tweet "name+name #forever". That had me rolling on the floor. Seriously. This is SO summer of 2012 it's almost ridiculous. (@andrewspants is a keeper. *nods*)(This book is like a snapshot of my online feed these last couple of years).Then the action takes off into an online fight between two fansites for Zocopalypse, and it becomes a w@nk. Or, a ZW@nk, as it were. There is no time lost before it becomes a ZW@nkhard, and all you fandom girls out there know what that was.Lines from the book? I don't want to ruin it for you, so I'll choose some of the cool, but not the coolest ones...Here:"At least now we know what happens to you under pressure." "A total mind melt. Stupidity. Complete fangirl implosion.""Good plan. Bacon, then hacking."Interestingly enough, I reached page 257 (of 294!) before I realized that this story is in first person present tense. And I hate first person present. How about that.An extra plus? This book was edited to a T, at least as far as I could see, and that is such a bonus these days. Thank you, Ms Lawson, for taking the extra moment and going over your text that one last time to make it pretty for the reader. It is much appreciated.Another extra plus? The cover! Not only is it super cool, it is also different, beautiful and so in line with the comics setting. AND on my Kindle I can easily find it, (even when I have sixty-eleven titles all in a jumble) because it is so special. It kind of stands out.See? There you go: a full five star rating. Thank you, Ms Lawson, for the dedication at the end "...and for all the fangirls who understand."Yes. I do understand. The brilliance.****This was a free read from Amazon Kindle - a one-day offer. I would have bought it for money, though, but  I can never say no to a freebie.