Por Júlia Abrahão

“Just know from the start that it wasn’t supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near them. That’s why we got a room in the hotel where they were staying. We were not planning to kidnap one of them. Especially not the most useless one. But we had him—his room key, his cell phone, and his secrets. We were not planning on what happened next. 

We swear.” 

Moldavsky, Kill the Boy Band 

Today, we will be comparing two different pieces of work that portrait the same topic. Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky was published in February of 2016 by Point, and follows the story of a group of fangirls that manage to book a room in the same hotel of their favorite boy band. Geekrella by Ashley Poston was published in April 2017 by Quirk Books, following the story of a fangirl desperately trying to win a cosplay contest in order to receive the chance to meet the actor who will play the main character in her favorite series reboot. 

These books take very unique takes of the modern fandom experience. To bring the books to the 21rst century history of fangirls, think of The Ruperts as a retelling of One Direction, and Starfield as a retelling of, well, Star Trek, but with Twilight vibes. Before analyzing the portrait of fangirls in the books, it’s important to recognize the reality from which these stories are trying to mirror. 

“Fans,” he sighed. A bad word when he said it. “Fans,” I repeated, serious. “You girls …” Are never taken seriously. “… should find a nice hobby.”  

Moldavsky, Kill the Boyband

The general world view of the fangirl is simple: hysterical, hormonal irrational teen girls. It’s a sexist unrealistic view. Ever since The Beatles, young women and teens are considered incapable of rational thinking once presented with something they have passion for. They become senseless followers of the content in question, becoming crazy, obsessed and protective of their favorites. The subject of their love is immediately discredited of them quality and hard work, since any act or content that have a young female-based fandom couldn’t possibly be good, after all, girls are incapable of recognizing high caliber and talent, despite decades later, lots of those acts becoming incredibly critically and publicly acclaimed. This way of thinking is very detrimental to the mental health of the female sex, and further prevents the progress of humanity towards an equal and just society. In case there’s still doubt about the sexism character of such attitude, I’ll remind the reader that men do not face the same discrimination in regards to sport clubs. Women are also scientifically confirmed to mature earlier than men. I won’t go too much into that in this article, but I urge my readers to watch xCelest’s “Difference Between Sports Fans and Boy Band Fans” on YouTube. In the light of this gruesome reality, we can now dive into the books interpretations. 

“Maybe it was obsession, but it was also happiness; an escape from the suckiness of everyday life. And when you find something that makes you happy and giddy and excited every day, us fangirls know a truth that everyone else seems to have forgotten: you hold on to that joy tenaciously, for as long as you can.”

Moldavsky, Kill the Boy Band

When looking at reviews, it’s common to see Kill the Boy Band being described as one of the weirdest reads you can possibly experience. Moldavsky creates an uncomfortable atmosphere, constantly making the reader question the sanity of the characters. It’s also incredibly cringy. Very, very cringy. However, that’s the whole point of the book. The story perfectly depicts the image crafted by society of the fangirl. The core group of characters are young teens consumed by their obsession with a boyband, willing to go to extreme efforts to meet them, including kidnapping. Even the main character, who seems to be the only one with some form of rational thinking, is still questionable. The boy band is mostly mean and indifferent to their fans, even going as far as mistreating them (this is where I leave a trigger warning: this book contains implied non/reluctant consented sex), feeding into the idea previously stated that women don’t idolize good people. The objective of the book is to show how incredibly insane and unrealistic this image of the fangirl is. While people like the characters in Moldavsky’s work do exist, they are a minority, and remember, a minority of a big fandom is still a minority. A group of people should not be judged by their exceptions. Realistically, the most common stupid behavior seen in fans is a lack of respect for the artist’s privacy in public settings when asking for photos. Or perhaps waiting days in line for a show or ticket sell.

“We might all be different – we may ship different things or be in different fandoms – but if I learned anything from twenty-three days in a too-blue uniform playing a character I thought I could never be, it’s that when we become those characters, pieces of ourselves light up like glow sticks in the night. They shine. We shine. Together. And even when some of us fall to different universes, those lights never go out.”

Poston, Geekrella

If kill the boy band represents the prejudiced view of the fangirl, Geekrella represents a more realistic and common version of the fangirl. It does a good job at humanizing the young teen girl, giving her depth and emotional intelligence. The passion portrayed in by Poston is much more human and relatable, utilizing the stereotypes to her favor. While both books portrait an unrealistic one in a million chance of encounter with your favorite artist, Geekrella makes it believable, shying away from the cringe shown in Kill the Boy Band. By all means, neither of the books is actually realistic, they merely string up stories from fragments of the fangirl experience. I recommend both books for different reasons. Kill the Boy Band, while uncomfortable and cringy as hell, is an experience that every reader should go through. It’s weird and quirky, and makes you contemplate not only on society’s bashing of the young teen girl, but also the meaning of true obsession. Geekrella is honestly just a fun, enjoyable romantic comedy. An easy read for when you just want to relax and enjoy a simple but meaningful Cinderella retelling. Furthermore, I urge my readers to read these books back-to-back, and experience the point of views of two different authors of the same social community: the fandom. As always, I leave you with my fanart and my favorite quotes.

“The joy you find as a teen, however frivolous and dumb, is pure and meaningful.”

Moldavsky, Kill the Boy Band

“It’s also awkward to be so short you can see all the way up into someone’s cerebral cortex, but welcome to my life.” 

Poston, Geekrella