Review - The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston

Cover by Amy DeVoogd and Andie Reed

The Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con, 2)
Ashley Poston
Quirk Books, 2 April
PB, 316pp

I'm grateful to Quirk Books and the incomparable Jamie Lee Nardone for an advance copy of The Princess and the Fangirl.

Taking place in the same continuity as Geekerella (as we're in Geekland, I'll speak the language) and indeed making references to it (Elle Wittimer makes a brief appearance) The Princess and the Fangirl is a take on The Prince and the Pauper, with the role-swapping being between Starfield actor Jessica Stone - whose character Princess Amara was killed off in the last film - and fangirl Imogen Weatherby, who's the driving force behind the #SaveAmara campaign (50,000 signatures and counting).

When the two get mistaken for one another at ExcelsiCon, trouble is bound to ensue as Imogen ("Mo", "Monster") accidentally ends up on one of Jess's panels. But when Jess runs into trouble, and needs to go below the radar, a switch with Imogen seems the obvious answer...

I really enjoyed Geekerella, and was delighted to see another story in the same world. And I think The Prince and the Pauper (gender swapped of course) is a natural fit for a con - a setting where every second person is cosplaying as someone or something else, where exploring identities and affiliations (joining in fandoms and factions) is the whole point. The alternating points of view let us see things from both Jess's and Imogen's perspectives and to understand why they might both be willing to swap (despite pretty much loathing one another).

Poston can't, of course, give us all that at once and for the first two thirds or so of this story we get, I think, greater insight into Jess than Imogen. Geekerella had already told us a bit about her, and we also saw there how trapped Darien, her leading man in Starfield, felt, so it's a natural development to see how a young woman who had achieved some critical success might resent a "popcorn" role and the fandom and hoopla that comes with it. There is a real edge, though, to the depictions of trolling, mysogyny, and fan entitlement - which of course in a sense Imogen represents because Jess doesn't, desperately doesn't, want to #SaveAmara.

In contrast, for a fair bit of this book, Imogen felt slightly flat. In a sense her motives are simpler - she thinks she's been given and opportunity to further her campaign - but in another they're less clear - why has she thrown herself so much, heart and should, into that campaign to begin with? Poston, rightly, only unravels that slowly and in a sense it's something both Imogen and Jess discover together over the three days of the con. So I won't blurt out the reasons now!

Poston depicts fan culture warts and all, I've mentioned the trolling and misogyny but even beyond that there are some pretty cynical, scheming creeps here to be taken on and exposed. That, too requires trust and friendship, as well as the ability to think quickly and bend the rules where necessary.

It is in the end a very satisfying study of the two women, their (eventual) solidarity and mutual support founded on living each others' lives (albeit, in the outhouse atmosphere of the con). That makes for a satisfying and, for me, more natural ending to this book than Geekerella. After all, Geekerella had to parallel the magic of Cinderella with something con-related: here the con is more of a setting than a player, the resolution coming very much from Jess and Imogen and founded, in the end, on their trust in one another and in their friends - some of them very new friends.

I'd recommend. If you loved Geekerella you will I think enjoy this, perhaps even more, but you don't need to have read the earlier book first (though I think you'll want to read both).