Geekerella

Content warnings: toxic family

Elle's cult favorite TV show is being rebooted with a detestable actor.

Danielle "Elle" Wittimer lives with her stepmother and twin stepsisters. All of the steps prioritize keeping up with the Joneses -- they have to have the right outfit, the right makeup, the right car, and the twins must have summer tennis lessons to be varsity stars during their upcoming senior year. Elle on the other hand has a cell phone that may be older than she is and owns the house they all live in (but her stepmother handles it until she turns 18). Elle works in the food truck The Magic Pumpkin to squirrel away money for her future.

Elle's father died before the story begins, but he fostered in her the love of cult classic sci-fi TV program Starfield. Heartthrob actor Darian Freeman has been cast in the lead for a Starfield movie reboot, and Elle is horrified by this hunk ruining her favorite show. But Darian is a secret Starfield fanboy...

Elle writes a scathing blog post about Darian's casting and it goes viral. Darian harbors a lot of animosity for this blogger who won't even give him a chance before dismissing him. In a desperate effort to get out of appearing at a convention, Darian texts the creator (Elle's deceased father) and gets Elle instead. They begin texting and feelings develop between them. Elle experiences her share of Cinderella-esque magic and pitfalls before literally losing a glass slipper. It's up to Darian to decide if he should return it.

As a Charlestonian, I tend to be harder on books written about my city. First off, no teenager in Charleston has a Southern accent. The narrators give Elle and the twins accents, but only their great-grandparents would've had accents and those would be distinctly Charleston and not generic Southern. Some of the places in the book don't exist (the country club, the corner of Mulberry & Cypress) which is understandable in the case of the club but unforgivable in the street names. The author should have at least used Google Maps to find an actual intersection instead of making one up.

Eileen Stevens' narration of Elle outshines Tristan Morris' performance as Darian. Both of them have pronunciation issues (she can't pronounce Charlestonian, he can't pronounce Dalek or crooked) that could have been fixed if they'd been given instruction early on or researched the roles.

Recommended for fans of fairy tale retellings and geek culture.

Ashley Poston works in publishing in addition to being an author. She lives in South Carolina.

Series: Once Upon a Con, #1

Publisher: Quirk Books (print); Blackstone Audio

Narrators: Eileen Stevens & Tristan Morris

Running Time: 10 hours, 32 minutes

Length: 320 pages

Release Date: April 4, 2017

Representation: twins, orphan, BIPOC, lesbian