This week's novel is Geekerella, by Ashley Poston. I heard about it because, this was a nominee for Goodread's Choice Awards in young adult fiction for 2017.
Ella lives with her evil step-mother and evil step-sisters, she has a summer job in a vegan food truck called the Magic Pumpkin, and the only light in her life is Starfield, a twenty-year-old, cult sci-fi show. The show is getting a movie reboot, and Ella is devastated to discover that for her hero, Prince Carmindor, they've cast Darien Freeman, hunky teen heart-throb from a soap opera that her step-sisters like. Those girls aren't real fans! Desperate to get away from her step-mom, she decides to go to a Starfield convention (the con her dad founded and where her parents met, and which she hasn't been able to go back to since his death), enter the cos-play contest, win the cos-play contest, and win the tickets to LA to see the movie premier, where she just won't get a return ticket. Meanwhile, Darien has to deal with hordes of screaming girls, and having to protect his image by pretending he's not a huge Starfield geek.
I had insomnia the other night, and I read this entire thing in one sitting. It's a fast read and an enjoyable read, even though I knew all the plot beats well ahead of time. She works in a food truck called the magic pumpkin? Okay, I know how she's getting to the con. She's going to wear her dad's cosplay, but her mom's big, fancy dress cosplay is also kicking around? Okay, so I know both how the climactic clash with her step family is going to go down and what she's wearing to the contest. But even though I knew the beats, it was the way the story was filled in that kept me reading. I liked the characters (especially Darien) and I liked seeing how they ended up where I knew they were going. And there was a kind of parallel: I knew how it was going to end, but wanted to see it happen, while Ella knows how the movie's going to go, and she'll still watch it to see it happen.
I liked all the different sides of Darien and watching how he had to present himself differently in different situations. My favorite part in the whole book is a moment when he says that Prince Carmindor meant so much to him because he was in command of a spaceship and also looked like him. He's Indian (I think, it was never stated). And now he's playing Carmindor and it's a dream come true but he's not allowed to go on TV and talk about how much it means to him, and meanwhile the old fans hate him and his co-workers think the movie is stupid. It was a gut punch.
There's some kind of painful fake-geek stuff going on. Ella is really unhappy that a bunch of screaming girls are entering her space because they like Darien's abs and not because they love the show, but her part in this seems realistic and the narrative doesn't go out of its way to condemn or approve of her covetousness. Darien is upset that he's not allowed to let his geek flag fly, so he gets accused of not being a real fan, and he's really hurt by that, because he is a fan! He is a geek! He just also has abs! So it seems like it's going to be a story about the two worlds colliding and figuring out how to share and learn from each other. And honestly, that would have been really easy if Darien had just started from the beginning, going on the media circuit saying, "This show means so much to me, and I'm thrilled to be playing this character." That would have pulled some of the screamy-fan girls into checking out the show and seeing it wasn't just a geek thing, and it would have pacified the old fans. But no. The book has this firm idea that you live and breathe the show or you despise the show because it's a nerd thing and there's nothing in between. Which is crazy, since Darien is clearly both a nerd and a heart-throb. Instead, at the end, all the characters that are shown in a positive light are "true fans" and the people who suck are only in it for the money or the abs.
So what if girls who wear makeup want to see a movie with an actor they like? So. What. Oh my God. It's upsetting.
But it wasn't upsetting as I read it, only in retrospect. And it honestly was a fun read.
It got me thinking about Cinderella stories and how the evil step-mom is portrayed. It's in the fabric of the story that she sucks, so that's to be expected, but sometimes she's evil into the realm of caricature. I stop reading a bunch of Cinderella retellings because I'm just rolling my eyes through the first chapter. The step-family is soooooo meaaaaan for nooooo reeeeeeason, and Cinderella is soooooo opreeeeeeesed. It often makes me hate Cinderella right off the bat. And part of this is just that that's how the Cinderella story starts. And part of it is that your step-mom is not your mom. It's hard to tell where you stand with them and they do things differently from how your saintly, loving mother did them. So they get a lot of resentment thrown at them. And then part of it is that teenagers feel like their parents are completely unfair. So introducing a character in that situation is a challenge.
It got me thinking about if I've read or watched any retellings where I liked the evil step-mom or where she was shown in a positive light even while making Cinderella do chores and want to get away. I can't think of any, but I liked Angelica Huston in Ever After because Angelica Huston is a goddess, especially when she's evil. There's also a scene at the beginning where she holds her dying husband and cries, "Don't leave me here!" so I kind of got why she's so bitter. Mostly, I want to see a retelling where Cinderella is a grumpy teen who hates her step-mom and her step-mom is a reasonable lady who is trying her damnedest to hold it all together with three kids (one of whom is new to her and hates her) and no help. I've been thinking about that part in Labrynth where Sarah comes home and fights with her step-mom about the wet dog and her step-mom being unfair, and the step-mom says, "She treats me like the wicked stepmother in a fairy story no matter what I say."
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