Super Stories for Super Fans:
6 YA Novels for Fangirls and Fanboys
by Tom Burns
Fan-culture couldn’t be more popular with tweens and teens at the moment. Events like San Diego Comic-Con have become enormous cultural landmarks, and young authors frequently go online to write original stories about their favorite fan-properties — “Doctor Who,” Minecraft, or whatever captures their fancy.
But what exactly is a fangirl or a fanboy? In her new book The Fangirl Life: A Guide to All the Feels and Learning How to Deal, author Kathleen Smith defines these uber-fans as people who “like a show, book, band, etc. enough to seek out a community of people who enjoy the same. Their enthusiasm is wonderful, creative, and contagious. They don’t want to experience something passively. They feel the urge to participate in a story as writers, artists, critics, advocates, and so forth.”
That level of devoted passion can make for hugely engaged fans and some really amazing stories. If your teenager loves fan-culture, here are six YA novels that do a marvelous job of showing how young people are finding love, understanding, and acceptance (and more than a little bit of drama) through modern fan-communities.
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Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here
Introverted high schooler Scarlett loves the TV show “Lycanthrope High” and becomes one of its most popular online fan-fiction authors. But when the show is canceled, Scarlett doesn’t know what to do with herself. So, she starts writing “new” “Lycanthrope High” stories, based on the drama going on at her high school. But when her classmates start finding out about her familiar-sounding fictions, things start spiraling out of control.
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Fangirl
Shy Cath is struggling to adjust to her first year at college (unlike her extroverted twin sister Wren), so she finds herself retreating (once again) into the popular Simon Snow fantasy series (an obvious analog for the Harry Potter books). Cath writes a popular Simon Snow fan-fiction epic, which has thousands of readers, but her online fantasy life can’t protect her from the IRL (in real life) impact of heartbreak, divorce, and anxiety. Rowell’s wonderful knack with original characters makes this a must-read.
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Kill the Boy Band
If your teenaged fangirl or fanboy enjoys black comedy — really darkly amusing subject matter — this might be right up their alley. A group of teenaged fangirls head to New York, hoping to get a glimpse of The Ruperts, their favorite British boy band. However, after a series of strange events ends with the girls knocking out one of the band members and tying him up in their hotel room, the narrator starts wondering about whether or not her fellow fangirls are devoted fans or fanatical psychopaths. Dark, funny, and perceptive.
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Gena/Finn
In this stirring, emotional romance with strong LGBTQIA themes, Gena and Finn are two lonely souls, each obsessed with a TV police drama called “Up Below”. Finn is a recent college grad, Gena is just finishing up high school — but they meet in the online “Up Below” fandom community and make a connection. The story is largely told through texts, blog posts, fan-art, and other communications between the two young women, painting a vivid picture of the awkward, intimate ways people fall in love in the digital age.
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The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
Fifteen-year-old Fanboy isn’t having a great time in high school. When he’s not being completely ignored, he’s being violently bullied, and his only outlet is working on his comic book, Schemata, at night. But, when he suddenly starts getting sympathetic texts from Goth Girl, another high school outsider, Fanboy begins to realize that he might not be as alone as he once thought. A compelling, funny look at how teenaged fear and rage can be dealt with through empathy and self-empowerment.
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All the Feels: All Is Fair in Love and Fandom
College freshman Liv Walden is an uber-fan of the “Starveil” sci-fi movies, but she can’t believe it when her favorite character Spartan is killed off at the end of the fifth film. Refusing to accept Spartan’s fate, Liv (and her best friend Xander) start an online campaign, posting fan-fiction, videos, and Photoshopped images that refuse to acknowledge the character’s death. Liv’s refusal to let Spartan go also parallels her inability to fully deal with her new reality in college and her confused feelings about Xander.
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What books, TV shows, and movies are you obsessed with? What reads would you recommend to super fans?