Reviews

I'm not hiding this under a spoiler review because frankly there's nothing worth spoiling here.

I'd like to preface this with the fact that no, I do not own a physical copy of this. I picked this up in the store and read a few chapters to see if the premise was as bad as I was thinking it would be.

It wasn't. It was worse.

This book is, verbatim, that incident that happened back in 2013 at a Supernatural panel where a girl asked about Destiel (for those who don't know what that is, it's a ship between the main lead and one of his allies) and was rebuffed by Jensen Ackles. Google it, I'm sure you'll find articles and callout posts for it everywhere online, all sympathetic to the fan in question, who left the panel crying. This books takes THAT particular incident and flips it on its head, and not in a good way. Apologies if my details are dodgy, because I dnf'd this very early on, mainly because the main character is fucking INSUFFERABLE. But we'll touch on that towards the end, because it's the subject matter in this book and the way it's handled that just pisses me off the most.

I distinctly noted, on this book's page, a lack of #ownvoices reviews, which is odd to me, because the people who should be discussing this are at the forefront MLM (man loving man/men loving men). For full disclosure reasons: I am a bisexual, latinx nonbinary person. Keeping that in mind, here's why this book made me as angry as it did:

This book normalizes fetishization of gay and bi men. And it is utterly shameful that I even have to say that.

What you'd THINK would be a great look at fandom identity in juxtaposition to being LGBT is bogged down by fetishism, thinly veiled racism, and a victim complex. Our "heroine" is named Claire, some 16 year old girl who fashions herself as a social outcast because she, get this, writes gay fanfiction of Demon Heart, this world's Supernatural. Why does this make her a social outcast? Because she's actually, ACTUALLY, a fucking freak about it. She's an obsessive, possessive fan. Her fanfiction is literally only ever about the two dudes (Heart and... Smokey? Yeah, the writing isn't great either.) fucking each other, but apparently she's "invested" in their relationship. So much so she asks one of the men who plays this character about her ship at a panel because OBVIOUSLY it has to be canon, and is upset when she is rebuffed. Don't get me wrong, the actor man (Forrest? Forest? We'll go with Forest. Fuck if I can remember.) is kind of a dickhead about it, not unlike the incident it was based on, but then the showrunners decide to bring on this RANDOM, WEIRD ASS TEENAGER as a.... social media influencer?

Yeah. This book isn't well written at all. There's suspension of belief and then there's flat out nonsensical bullshit.

Anyways, I don't care to talk about the plot too much because it actually makes me want to claw my fucking eyes out, but you get the gist of it. Claire's fetishization of two men in love (or rather, two men having sex because she thinks it's hot) doesn't make her a champion for representation. In fact, she's pretty flagrantly homophobic in that regard. "But Reina," you start. "She's LGBT herself!" Yeah, she is. Because surprisingly just because you're LGBT doesn't give you a free pass on fetishism and homophobia. She is purely interested in the IDEA of men having sex. She falls for Tess, her love interest, who is black and homoromantic pansexual, but quickly decides that her relationship with Tess gets in the way of the REAL important things, like assuring her two fave men will fuck in the show. That's not being an ally, and that's certainly not being a proactive, productive, healthy member of the LGBT community. That is being a fucking fujoshi.

And that's all Claire is. She is a fujoshi, and this is portrayed as a POSITIVE thing. I want to fucking scream just thinking about it.

To give you a quick summary of what a fujoshi is, a fujoshi is a woman who fetishizes two men having sex, thinks it's the hottest thing ever, can't get enough of it, but when it comes to ACTUAL mlm, two men being in a loving relationship that's normal? They couldn't give a fuck less. That's what Claire is. She is so up her own ass about how she thinks she's championing for LGBT rep in this show that she doesn't even REALIZE. At one point she LITERALLY WRITES FANFICTION OF THE TWO LEAD ACTORS FUCKING. Not their characters, the ACTORS THEMSELVES. WITH DETAILS ONE ACTOR GAVE ABOUT HIS PERSONAL LIFE IN THE FUCKING FIC. It's DISGUSTING.

I'm not even gonna TOUCH on how Tess is treated, because through my skimming I can see that she basically has two major functions: To explain what being a POC is like to a white girl, and to be admonished and shown up by said white girl. Wow, cute romance. They're so in love. Please, spare me the fucking vapidity of it all. It's bare minimum.

This is not a book written for the LGBT community. This is a book written for obsessive, toxic fans and fujoshi who feel "beaten down" by fandoms because they refuse to change their shitty behaviour.

It is not worth a read. It is not worth a buy.

0/5 stars

EDIT: Adjusted the rating and updated my review.

karrama's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I stayed up all night reading this one. It's a good thing. That said, there are actions taken by the main character for motivations that I would not have made those choices. Very interesting.

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