by Anna Breslaw
Meet Scarlett Epstein, BNF (Big Name Fan) in her online community of fanfiction writers, world-class nobody at Melville High. Her best (read: only) IRL friends are Avery, a painfully shy and annoyingly attractive bookworm, and Ruth, her weed-smoking, possibly insane seventy-three-year-old neighbor.
When Scarlett’s beloved TV show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects aren’t the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series—they’re the real-life kids from her high school. And if they ever find out what Scarlett truly thinks about them, she’ll be thrust into a situation far more dramatic than anything she’s ever seen on TV…
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I thought this book was well written and very now. The story focuses on a girl who has found it hard to fit in so she creates fan-fiction of her favorite TV show. After the show is cancelled, she writes some fan-fiction about the people in her life .... and it accidentally gets read by some of those people, complicating her life. But the accidental public outing of her writing is also allowing her to see a different side - not only of them - but of herself, too. Basically, she shed her fan-fiction persona in favor of living her actual life. There is a very good eulogy in the story, one I wish to commit to memory for how well written it is and how it touches on all of the most important parts of a life well lived. Favorite quotes: “I have a memory-flash of something Dawn said in a family-therapy session, right before my dad spilt – He's calm but wrong, and I'm loud but right, but since he's calm, it always seems like he's right.” “The best parts of life aren’t clear-cut or obvious—they don’t have neat endings. I know it’s your inclination to skip to the end, but you can’t just focus on how it’s all gonna turn out.”
Heidi Y.