Review: The Fandom Rising

The Fandom Rising by Anna Day
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Fandom was Anna Day's love letter to dystopian fiction and the fervour of the fans. The Fandom Rising is, rather more specifically, about fanfiction and the wars they can engender. Rising picks up a year after the end of Fandom. In the interim, Alice and Violet have published the official sequel to Gallows' Dance. However, Nate is still trapped in his coma and the girls have forgotten their adventures. Violet's been dreaming, though, and things are moving in the Gallows fandom. A new fanfic writer is turning everything on its head, and if the girls don't stop him they'll lose any chance of bringing Nate back...

I'm going to start with the only problem I had with this novel, and it's the same problem I have with almost all series; it's been more than a year since the first one was published, and there's no recap or memory jogger beyond a few bits of dialogue and exposition. I am honestly not too sure who a couple of the characters were and what the relationships were in the first novel. But almost all series have this, and I realise that putting in a recap at the start can affect the flow.

This is my only problem. Other than that, the story is brilliant. Shifting POVs mean that we're aware of what's happening on both sides of the divide, and a certain character reveal took me by surprise. Another I was expecting didn't materialise, which is good because it would have been upsetting. The settings were great and the action didn't stop at any point.

This sits beautifully as a duology, but I'll be watching out for whatever Anna does next. I'm sure it'll be great.



I need to contact this Fanboy and convince him to stop posting. And I'm Alice Childs, author of The Gallows Song. That must mean something. And if it doesn't, if he won't stop, well, I'll hunt him down and grind his bloody keyboard to dust with my Jimmy Choos.

I go straight to the Fandalism site on my phone. The barbed wire motif suddenly seems all the more jagged, all the more dangerous. I scroll with urgent fingers. There isn't a contact page. I do a bit more snooping, but he isn't on social media or the internet more generally. The guy's a cyber ghost. How on earth did he get so popular?

This complicates things.

Deep breaths. New plan.

I need someone to help me. I'm hopeless with computers. Which sounds daft coming from a girl who spends most of her spare time glued to one. But that's different, that's writing. I know diddly about how to track down another user.

What I need is an IT nerd.

I open Facebook and follow a friends of friends trail until I find the perfect geek. A nerd who I really owe a drink and who, historically, owes me a favour.

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