The cover was the first thing that drew me in, which is a mistake, I know, but look! So pretty.
Also, it’s about going to a massive con. Which is cool. Surely.
Except that after the first few chapters I found myself getting less and less engaged and towards the end I was just skimming.
The best thing inside the book was Charlie. I thought she was great - really interesting and energetic and kind. I’m not into YouTube, but her channel sounded fun and I liked the build up to her romance sub-plot. And good bisexual representation as it stepped away from the Bisexual Equals Slutty/Evil trope, which I detest. Unfortunately, after the first kiss scene her plotline fizzled out and lost all tension whilst at the same time suffering from the worst case of instalove I’ve read about for quite some time.
So the story is told in alternating viewpoints and the second viewpoint was ... Taylor.
I literally do not have anything positive to say about Taylor. I’ve really tried, but I’m coming up blank.
So Taylor is mooted as a fangirl of a book series that sounds a bit like Throne of Glass. She also represents one half of the most tepid, tedious love story I've ever read and was supposed to have anxiety disorder and autistic spectrum disorder. Unfortunately this was the worst representation of mental health issues I think I’ve ever read. She sounded an awful lot like drama-llamas I’ve met in real life who have Google-diagnosed themselves with mental health problems and very much enjoy the attention they get when they literally go around telling every random stranger they meet about their ‘issues’. There was no authenticity here.
I think I’ve been spoilt recently with some excellent books that depict mental health in a really real way. Under Rose-Tainted Skies and Eliza and her Monsters had a much more authentic feel to them.
And the crying! God almightly. These characters couldn’t go a single scene without weeping over something or other. FML.
There wasn’t enough in the book about the con. After the descriptions in the first few chapters, the book mostly had a lot of navel-gazing by the two main characters, which was a shame.
If you want to read about introverts geeking the hell out about stuff they love, Fangirl or Eliza and her Monsters would be a much better bet. If you want to read about cons, The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak is a better read. And if you want to read romance, literally any other book in the world would be better than this.
2 stars