Book Review: Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff

Book: Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff 
Genre: YA contemporary
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆  ☆

Books about fandom have been intriguing me lately so when this one came to my attention, I immediately found it at the library and dove in.

It's about a girl who has loved a boy band for years, and even when it went out of style with her friends as they grew up, she continued to secretly love them. Even to the point of having a Tumblr blog that was extremely popular and followed by thousands.

But it was a secret from everyone in her real life.

So one day when the band comes to her city (LA? Yes, I think they are in LA... all bands come to LA) she is pondering "stalking" them at their hotel, though she really thinks it's probably not a good idea. Instead, that evening, she goes for a walk and runs into a dude, all alone, sitting there smoking by a car... just a few blocks from her house.

When he turns around and looks at her, she about dies when she realizes he is one of the dudes from the band. So they talk... but the paparazzi find them after only after a few minutes and it ends in chaos and confusion.

But, it's enough to get her noticed by this band and before you know it, she has this guy's number and he texting her and inviting her to things.

So I thought it was going to be about a relationship between her a band dude that she has loved her whole life.

But I felt like this was sort of a bait and switch story, because it actually seemed like it was more about her obsession with a couple of the OTHER guys in the band, the guys who she wrote about on her blog for years, speculating about how she thinks that they are together in a romantic relationship. She had written very detailed things about why she thought this. And so when she got up close and personal with the band, she was more invested in discovering their secret (because of course they weren't out and it was all speculation) then she was about getting close to the other guy.

Anyway. After awhile things completely fall apart as these things tend to do, and then it's about her trying to deal.

So did I like it? I have to say... ish. There was some interesting observations about fandom that I loved seeing thought up and said in words. (Mostly this feeling is hard to describe, you know?)  Like describing the feeling of being with people who love the same thing you do. It's pretty amazing. And it creates an energy that I feed on.

But in the end, I was a little disappointed by it. The relationship fell flat and the whole obsession over the other boys was just sad. Though,  I did relate because in my fandom, people do this very same thing. It's crazy. Some of the stuff that was said about this band could have totally been about BTS, but the author actually had One Direction in mind when she wrote it.

I'm glad I found and read it. But it's still not the perfect/best book to describe that overwhelming feeling of being in a crazy fandom.