humor — Book Stuff — Teeny Tiny Library

Isabel, Apple, Erin and our unnamed narrator are the biggest Strepurs around. No, not strippers, STREPURS - fans of the eponynously named boy band the Ruperts (yes all of the band members are named Rupert and not ironically). The girls find out that the Ruperts are going to be staying at the Rondack Hotel while they're in New York and use Apple's parents' money and devotion to get a room there in the hopes that they might catch a glimpse of the band. What they actually catch is one of the Ruperts in the flesh...and then they take him back to their room...and tie him up...What follows is a hilarious exploration of fandom, girl friendships, and just being a teen.

I liked this book. Just like. I know many have professed their undying love for it, but, while it was entertaining and humorous, it was also problematic. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW: The characters were diverse, which was nice, but the fat shaming of Apple was completely unnecessary and grossly cliched, also the fact that she didn't grow or really learn anything from the whole experience was sad. I did feel like the book was overall dismissive of fandom. I'm not really part of any fandom myself, but I know that fandom and fanfic and everything that goes along with that can be really important and identity forming for many teens and to make fun of it doesn't really do much to add to the conversation about that topic. Yes, we do need to talk about crazy fans ("stans"), but it's reductive to dismiss all of fandom as ridiculous or stupid. I also didn't love the whole "Am I crazy?" subplot at the end. Yes, please, let's play on centuries old hysterical female tropes. All of that being said, I think that the black black humor is cutting and brilliant and I'd like to read other stuff that Goldy Moldavsky writes. (Also this would be a hilarious movie)