Review: Fangirl

Fangirl
by Ken Baker

Synopsis

While staring you straight in the eye, far above the tips of her Toms, Josie Brant would swear that she does not like Peter Maxx, the teen sensation who causes every girl within a 100-foot radius to scream at ear-shattering decibels. Even if Josie may completely, totally, and unequivocally be his biggest fan.

So when Josie finds out her best friend has won a contest to meet Peter by stealing one of Josie’s songs, Josie is overwhelmingly shocked and upset—some of which flies out the window when Ashley introduces Josie to Peter as well. And suddenly, in a whirlwind of Tweets, IMs, texts, and phone calls, Josie finds herself in the middle of a flirtatious friendship that has the potential for complete harmony. But just when everything seems pitch-perfect, the paparazzi flashbulbs explode, along with any notion of a fairy-tale romance.

Author Ken Baker, E! Channel’s Chief News Correspondent, uses his inside knowledge to craft a novel authentic to the teen pop idol experience with sincere heart and humor.

Review

Okay - let's get it out of the way. The cover is horrible. It just is. My husband told me so. What can I say, this was a total impulse buy. My book buys usually work totally in my favor. I do a good job of choosing books, even ones I've never heard of, that I come to enjoy. 

That was not the case in this situation. 

Fangirl had a good premise. Fantastical as it was, I was looking forward to reading any fangirl's dream come true - meeting your star crush and *gasp* they happen to like you too! That is, in fact, what happens in the case with Josie crushing on Peter and Peter realizing, hey, this fangirl is not so bad! However, that's where my interest pretty much dropped off in this story. All the characters are oh so shallow in their character development. There was potential for a deeper story (yes, there was), but characters were just sort of...plopped on the page. I didn't come to care for anyone of them. I think I might have cared more for D, who was a supporting character. In fact, she had more character development in one paragraph than any of the main characters in the whole book. 

Verdict

You can skip this book and live your life comfortably. It was like a piece of Halloween candy - it was kinda sweet, but gone in a fast second. And it kinda gave you a tummy ache.