Review Down With This Ship Depicted By Katie Kingman Accessible As EPub

sad to see in other reviews, readers describing the way ayearold girl behaves as immature, It makes me feel a certain way about who is actually the target audience for a book that is very explicitly YA, Spoiler if you think a teenager worrying about what her friends will think of her, agonising over whether a boy likes her, or having anxiety about not living up to her parents expectations is immature youre not the intended audience for this book.


Yes, there were moments when I thought “Oh, honey, you should have just done this” but Ive seennearly three times now, When I was, Id have made exactly the same mistakes as Kole, I DID make some of the same mistakes, including caving to bullies because I thought they had the power to affect me, Like Kole, though, I discovered I had people in my corner, and that shining light on cockroaches makes them scuttle for cover, Thats the real story in this book, Kole hitting the end of her rope and finding a well of strength inside herself, Being pushed into a corner and coming out swinging at one point, literally and realising that doing so is taking back her own power,

The end might be a bit wishfulfilment, but you know what Seanan McGuire got her start writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic, so Koles dreams coming true arent all that farfetched.


Katie Kingman has obviously spent plenty

of time in fandom, Shes also put in the work to create a proper fake fandom for this book it was one of my pet peeves about Spoiler Alert, another recent book with a fanficauthor heroine, that the fandom hadnt had the serial numbers filed off thoroughly enough.
Kingmans done the job well enough that I, who also spend a lot of time in fandom, really dont know what ship the main couple was based on though I can make an educated guess, considering only a few ships have really attracted antifandoms.
The fandom isnt the important part about this book, though, Its the message to the intended readers, the teenagers who love fandom and want to dream big, Dont let the haters get you down, If youre pushed into a corner, come out swinging and let the truth set you free, And there will always be someone on your side, Find your fellow shippers and youre gonna be just fine,

Five for a read I thoroughly enjoyed even though Im probably three decades too old for the intended audience,

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley,
My inner fangirl really enjoyed Down with This Ship, I mean I loved looking up fanfiction for some of my favorite shows a few years ago before I got really back into reading again, It's fun reading what other people think up for the characters you've come to love, And sometimes take twists you would've liked more than what actually happen,

Kole is one of these characters that took her favorite TV show into her own hands and created the ships she wanted to see, Her blog has become incredibly popular and it brings in the bad with the good, No one knows at first that she's behind this popular blog/story, When Kole wins an important competition her story becomes even more popular,

Her story Spacer becoming so popular doesn't work out well for Kole when fellow students in her creative writing class figure out that she writes the story.
They use it against her and make her do things for them she doesn't want to do, This situation was hard to read and there is not other word to use for them except bullies, It was heartbreaking reading about how much anxiety Kole felt about her identity being revealed, Her relationship with her mother doesn't make this any easier, but I will say I loved how this ended up playing out, The growth of how they interact was a really good thing,

It was interesting to see Kole battle with not wanting to give up her identity, but also being very proud of her story, I loved how she became more and more confident and decided it was her story and she was going to tell it as she saw fit, I think that's so important, because when it comes to fandoms we all have our own ideas on how things should play out, All are valid.

I loved the little pieces of the fanfiction weaved into this story and even though it's not something real it was interesting to read, Kole's best friend is also really awesome and made me laugh, Down with This Ship deals with some more serious issues, but is also lighthearted and fun, The last thing I want to mention is the romance, I do like how it ended, but the drama throughout the book wasn't something I really enjoyed, The whole live triangle and dating that came out of the blackmail just didn't work for me,

All in all, Down with This Ship was a fast and fun read, Some things didn't work for me, but other things did, The end of the story did leave a smile on my face and I hope this author gives us more books that involve fanfiction and fandoms, Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Down With This Ship,

This book tries so hard to be relatable that it sucks out any semblance of realism, Our protagonist, Kole, goes to a school full of super villains, Note that I don't call them mean kids or bullies because that's not what they are, They're comic book arcetypes stuffed into the high school setting, Since she's quirky and passionate about fanfiction and writing, this means she only has one friend my personal theory has a lot more to do with her self centered personality but that could have just been me but obviously also has multiple guys falling all over me.


I don't like how fast we as a culture are to call things targeted at teens cringy, but that's what this was, Not because it's pandering to teens or girls or anything, but because it goes so hard on all of its archetypes that you're left cringing at every other thing the protagonist does or says.
Kingman isn't a bad writer, She has the YA contemporary romcom style down to a tea but this book just didn't work,

This last bit is a spoiler,

So from the get go it's very clear who Kole is going to end up with which is fine, but I really don't like how everyone else was swiftly vilified or made to look bad so we didn't have to pity them when Kole doesn't end up with them.
For a book about ship wars, this was really bad at making realistic ships, Kole even has a few weird double standards that she uses as an excuse to not be with her first love interest but sees as romantic when Colin does it i.
e. she calls out Nate for asking her out publicly and putting her on the spot but when Colin does the same thing with a much bigger audience it's her happily every after Thank you to Netgalley and Flux Books for the arc of this book.
All opinions are my own!

Holy wow! This book was so freaking cute! I can't get over it, This book is the book I wish I had as a teen who was obsessively in the Twilight and Buffy fandom, The validation this makes me feel as someone who has written fan fiction and read fan fiction, . I can't get over it, This made my heart flutter, made my heart hurt and made my heart burst with pride,

Kole and Collin are literally the two most adorable beings on this planet, I love how instead of feeling ashamed or embarrassed by their nerdiness or geekiness, they embrace it, They live and breath it, It's such a breath of fresh air to see people who love being smart or love "geeky" things genuinely enjoying them with no remorse, Kole as a main character is such a lovely person, Her ability to take embarrassment, rejection, and pain in stride in high school is admirable, She really grows and finds herself throughout the book and it's a great journey, Collin is one of my favorite love interests I've read recently, He's patient, kind, and intelligent and unapologetic for it, His ability to write the way he does and to show his true self, especially to Kole warmed my heart,

The voice used in this book helps it flow, be relatable and gives you the feelings the main characters are feeling as you read, I think the plot was well done and fleshed out, The pacing was great and realistic in the context and setting of high school and I thought the character development and arcs were incredible well done, this novel is so well put together and I absolutely adored it,

If you've ever been in a fandom, love enemies/rivals to lovers, been the "smart kid" or love YA contemporary, this is absolutely for you! This is one you won't want to miss!.