Thursday, June 27, 2019

Ship It by Britta Lundin

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!

If you have been part of a fandom, if you have ever read and/or written fanfic, if you have ever shipped, if you have ever longed to see someone who looked like and/or was like you as a character in the the thing you love, if you know what it is to love a thing even when others don't get it or think you are nuts (midnight Harry Potter book release parties anyone?), this book is for and about you!!!!


Claire is an amazing young person. She is so many people I know from my own fandom experience and it was lovely on the page. She is a fanfic writer and her fandom of choice is a show called Demon Heart. She ships the two main characters Smokey (Forest) and Heart (Rico). She, like many fans of the show, ship the guys and that's what she writes in her stories. She lives in a small town in Idaho and is lonely. It's a very small town and she is the only one who is obsessed with this show and writes about. She has no friends other than one girl she talks to on the bus to and from school. She had a very bad experience with a young man from her school the year before our story (she wasn't raped but he was very disrespectful of her body and touched her in unwelcome ways). Oh, and Claire isn't sure if she is Queer, she is trying to figure it out because she meets a girl names Tess who she starts have all kinds of feels for.

When Claire goes to a local Comic-Con and overcomes her fear and asks a question about the upcoming Demon Heart finale and if the fans hope that their shipping of Smokey and Heart will become cannon Forest handles it in what becomes a PR nightmare. To fix the problem the shows fixer type person sets it up so Claire comes on the rest of their Con tour (Portland and Seattle) with them.

She gets to spend time with Tess, Forest, and Rico. She learns about herself and how to see past herself. She also gets an inside view of some of the nastiness of show business.

This book is a love letter to fans, fandoms, and those who even in these close knit groups still feel marginalized, it says you are seen, you have a voice and you should use it because you are worth seeing and hearing.

There is also a lesson/reminder about respecting others and apologizing, making amends, when you screw up and hurt someone, and making sure you are looking beyond your own nose. Oh and a very strong message that if you are a fangirl or boy, if you ship characters, write/read stories about them, plaster your room with posters, go to Cons, do Cosplay, don't do Cosplay, YOU ARE NOT A FREAK!! Well maybe you are but you are, we all are a little bit, but IT IS OK TO BE A FREAK!!! "Normal" is overrated and boring!! Imagine how drab and awful a world with out Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Bilbo, Gandalf, Frodo, Samwise, Luke, Leia, Han, Jon, Arya, Sam, Dean, Castiel, (fill in your favorite) would be....



(Finished June 26, 2019)

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