Zan Romanoff

"Long ago, and oh, so far away / I fell in love with you before the second show. / Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear / But you're not really here, it's just the radio..." Grace Thomas has been leading a double life since she was 14. In person, she's Grace: a good student, shy, not much fun at parties. Online, she's Gigi from the Fever Dream fan boards, a superfan of the hottest boy band of the past four years. All of her friends were into Fever Dream as young teens, but Grace never grew out of it. Now, at 18, she protects her secret at all costs, because she's sure social ostracization would follow if she were outed. Not that she has much of a social life, since she can see on Instagram that her two best friends are out at a party without her. She goes for a moonlight stroll through her neighborhood, and stumbles upon a shockingly familiar face: Jes, one of the boys from Fever Dream, is sitting on his car and smoking in a quiet spot near her neighborhood park. They fall into conversation, her pretending that she doesn't know who he is, when a photographer shows up. That's the incident that launches her into a sort-of friendship with Jes and the other members of the band, and throws her summer into complete turmoil. As her relationship with Jes grows deeper, she starts to learn things about the band that she could never have guessed -- but what would happen if they learned about her superfan secret identity?

Despite my recent grumbling about YA, I picked this up because I wanted something different from what I've been reading lately, and I did enjoy it. Grace is, indeed, full of angst, but to be fair, she does find herself in a unique predicament. If you can buy the coincidence of their initial meeting (Jes is established as having been from the area originally), the plot does move organically, carrying Grace along. I occasionally got irritated at her for being a little passive, and whenever she did make a decision, it felt like a bad one -- but it all made sense for a teenager thrown suddenly into a completely different world, while still trying to function in her existing one. I like stories about fandom occasionally, and this was an interesting examination of it. Recommended for YA readers who are interested in the premise.… (mais)

I really enjoyed this book. I pulled it out thinking that it would be something kind of light and trashy to lose myself in for a day, and it ended up being something completely different. It is a keenly observed book. I can only describe it as a part-nostalgia part-relatable part-slow-burn-queer-romance coming-of-age creature... and I didn't want to put it down. Romanoff has an uncanny ability to describe the awkward, corporeal experiences of being a teenager - at least as I experienced it.

It's essentially about snapchat, which is something that I didn't grow up with and that (as a 31 year old) I don't use regularly, so in some ways it felt very interesting to imagine my own adolescent life with the influence of that kind of social media, since there were other aspects of the main character's story that felt very true to my own. I also always relish a good overtly feminist bent, and with complex friendship navigation plotlines. Would definitely recommend picking this up. It's so much more than it seems at first glance.


Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/01/06/how-i-learned-i-love-thrillers/… (mais)

Grades:9-12
Characterization: Very good
Literary Merit: Very good
Recommended
Lulu loved posting photos and videos of herself on Flash, a Snapchat-like social media network that is all the rage with her friends and the other the private school kids of Los Angeles. That is until she accidentally posted a video that led to a breakup with boyfriend Owen and strained relationships in her group of friends. Lulu still posts to Flash without really addressing the incident, not wanting to let her 5000 followers know that there might be trouble in paradise. Then Lulu meets Cass, an intriguing girl who doesn’t use social media and doesn’t appear to give much thought to her appearance. Cass takes Lulu to The Hotel, the passion project of her friend Ryan whose uber-wealthy family includes the creator of Flash. The Hotel feels like a sanctuary where Lulu can just be herself and not worry about maintaining her online persona, but eventually, The Hotel’s renovation is completed and the problems of the outside world intrude.

I liked this book a lot more than I expected to. At first, it seemed that Lulu would be the stereotypical spoiled, rich girl. While there are some aspects of Lulu’s personality that fit with that, Romanoff has created a three-dimensional character who is likable despite her flaws. I found myself rooting for her and wanting her to come into her own.

Romanoff addresses some well-trod themes dealing with the dangers of social media, but she does it in a way that felt fresh possibly because the “big mistake” happens months before the action of the book begins. Lulu is grappling with how to move on from that and who she wants to become while also figuring out how to define her sexuality.

Recommended for teen collections where contemporary YA is popular. Parents are largely absent and teen drinking and marijuana use occur throughout the novel.… (mais)