Review: Fan the Fame

Fan the Fame by Anna Priemaza
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Told from three points of view, this novel tackles misogyny and bullying in the world of video game streaming.


If it weren't for Sam's storyline, this would be a lower rating for me. I didn't like the two girls; they seemed amoral and willing to be cruel to get what they wanted. And after the whole buildup of the story, the fallout was briefly dealt with in the epilogue.

However, this made slightly more sense when I read the author's note and realised that Sam's storyline was the whole point of the novel. I loved the friends he made at the con, who accepted him as he was and made an effort to make sure he knew it.

So it's good, but sadly not great for me.


Legs pushes the door open for both of us, and we step into the convention center. It feels more chaotic than last night, somehow, even though there probably aren’t as many people here yet as there were then. Legs and I both step to the side to take it in.

We’re in a wide hallway, wide enough that there are short faux-leather chairs clustered into seating areas along the right wall behind a row of enormous cream pillars, and there’s still plenty of room for the growing crowd of Legends of the Stone enthusiasts to walk through or mill about or stare up at the huge posters on the wall—including one big one of my brother. I don’t know how I missed seeing that last night. Ick. No one needs to see Cody’s face blown up as big as the sun.

The thing I didn’t realize about geek conventions before is that some of the stereotypes about geeks are actually true. I mean, not across the board, but amid the brilliant cosplay and geek chic, there are the clusters of guys in sweatpants and oversize shirts, with questionable hygiene. Part of me wants to yell at them for giving nerds a bad name, but another part of me wishes I could wear sweatpants and an oversize shirt and not care if people thought I looked sloppy.

Except, don’t actually be sloppy about the hygiene part, folks. Can we all agree right here right now that good hygiene is a vital cornerstone of the society we live in?

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