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Not a Book Review: The Fandom by Anna Day
Jul. 17th, 2018 10:23 pmI have a weakness for books about fandom. This one had some great ideas but problematic execution. Basically a bunch of not!HungerGames fans find themselves transported to the world of the not!HungerGames and the only way home, maybe, is for the heroine to live out the story, including the obligatory romantic triangle and the tragic death of the main character/her. Hijinks ensue.
Now, this is all hella formulaic for 350 pages, and then the last thirty throws in a wrench, because it's basically about how the collective power of fandom can rewrite texts. Not!PresidentSnow is aware of this and 1) was aware of the ickier parts of fandom that romanticized the baddies, so he was trying to push that aspect of fandom to basically become canon, and this somehow made 2) the actual author kill herself, so the death of the author (!) ended up empowering all the fan authors. Basically the last chapters take on fan theory and toxic fandom and I dig it, and wish that had been way more of the book.
Now, this is all hella formulaic for 350 pages, and then the last thirty throws in a wrench, because it's basically about how the collective power of fandom can rewrite texts. Not!PresidentSnow is aware of this and 1) was aware of the ickier parts of fandom that romanticized the baddies, so he was trying to push that aspect of fandom to basically become canon, and this somehow made 2) the actual author kill herself, so the death of the author (!) ended up empowering all the fan authors. Basically the last chapters take on fan theory and toxic fandom and I dig it, and wish that had been way more of the book.
