Geekerella (Once Upon a Con #1)

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars Geekerella is a modern-day Cinderella fairytale featuring Danielle, or Ella, who resides with her \”stepmonster\” and evil twin step-sisters. This book has everything from teen heart throbs, bloggers, CONS, witchy evil characters who are mean, and moments that touch the reader\’s heart. The great thing about this book is the total geekiness/fandom the story provides. First, it is a retelling of Cinderella. Ella does everything in the house, while trying to retain memories of her deceased parents. Ella tries to actively keep their memory alive, while the Stepmonster tries desperately to squash it out of Ella like some fly buzzing around a summer cake. Second, it has a mysterious budding friendship between Ella and THE Darien Freeman, who in this story, is kind of a big deal. Ella cannot stand that Mr. Heartthrob with insured abs is cast as the lead character in Starfield, Carmindor. She rants and raves about it on her blog…needless to say…Darien actually texts Ella thinking she is her father and the two have a budding friendship, with developing feelings. And the kicker… he has no clue she is THE Reblegunner blogger squashing his name in this role, and she has no clue he is Darien Freeman. Of course, there are twists, and turns, and Ella goes to the ball, and then is grounded until death. But the adventures are fun and it turns into being a cute story that leaves the reader with feelings of joy and delight. This story is an easy read, the whole book flew by pretty quickly. I like when books are just easy. Having said that, I wish there were a bit more challenges for Ella to overcome. Sure, glass slippers, and hopelessly devoted Carmindors are searching the States for Ella to confess their young love to, but I wish some of the interactions between \”Stepmonster\”, Catherine, and Ella were more indicative of the crap relationship enslaving Ella. Sure, Catherine is a witch with a capital B, but Ella was a spitfire and sometimes talked back. So I wanted MORE to go down between the two of them. Also, the last chapter or two, just breezed by eight months later…and I wish that was also a bit more dramatic than what it is lead to believe. The book follows the POV of Darien and Ella, and sometimes it focused too much on the little things, so when the drama did happen, it fizzled pretty quickly and didn\’t pack quite the punch it could have. BUT. It was still a cute story, and I am still giving a decent rating. It was still entertaining, and one part in particular really had me teary. And when a book makes me cry, it gets a higher rating. We all need an ugly cry from time to time. Finally, I loved what the book means for nerd girls. Ella was this nerdy girl who really thought she was a nobody throughout the ENTIRE story. It took all of her challenges she did go through like befriending a moody coworker, helping create a cosplay costume, dealing with stepmonster and the evil twins, introducing others to the glory of Starfield, and making unconventional friends from the stars. In Darien\’s case, he sometimes came off whiney and I am not sure why it took him so long to take a stand. I felt that the drama between him and Brian could have been better written because it read weird. But I liked Darien. Closet geek. Those are the best. And remember, look to the stars. Aim. Ignite.

This is now my favorite Cinderella retelling of all time. The dress, the slipper, even the pumpkin — all the classic elements are there, effortlessly woven into the world of texting, blogs, and celebrity culture. Even the \”wicked stepmother\” and \”evil stepsisters\” make modern sense. Elle and Darien are both sympathetic protagonists with great narrative voice. Without that, I would not have stayed long enough to appreciate the true magic of \”Geekerella.\” But that true and unique magic is how enthusiastically the story embraces the very-real-if-abstract importance of various TV and Movie-Verses to fan culture. We get enough details about \”Starfield\” to understand the world that brought Elle\’s parents together (buttressing the importance of the show to this orphan) and that is now bringing Elle and Darien together, but not so much that its world overwhelms the \”real\” one in which the protagonists are making their way and finding themselves. Instead, the SF world of \”Starfield\” is just… part of them, and sometimes the best part. Just as magically, through their fandom and Darien\’s acting job, they are part of \”Starfield\” as well. And isn\’t that every fan\’s dream? Most important, this is in the end a happy story about mostly good people, and it made me happy to read it (which I did in a day). 5 stars.

As is clear from the title, this book is a reimagining of Cinderella themed around geek culture. The two leads are almost TOO geeky, speaking and thinking in sci-fi references to the point where it almost – almost – feels overdone. However, this is much more noticeable in the early part of the novel, and once the story gets going it doesn\’t stick out as much. Also, as a geek who speaks and thinks in sci-fi references in real life, I can\’t say it doesn\’t ring true… While the story of Cinderella is a familiar one, Geekerella does enough things different that it doesn\’t feel \”been there, done that.\” For one thing, we hear quite a bit from Darien, the Handsome Prince type, which goes a long way toward fleshing him out as a character rather than a two-dimensional cardboard cutout who exists mainly to look good and have the girl fall for him. In fact, I would say the characters are what this book does best – both Darien and Danielle feel fully realized, and it\’s easy to get a sense of their emotions, their personalities, and their very human flaws. Danielle\’s coworker Sage steps into the shoes of the Fairy Godmother, and, as a snarky, green-haired lesbian, is certainly a little something different in that role. She, the Evil Stepmother, the Stepsisters, and a few other secondary players also feel like actual people rather than stereotypes, even if one stepsister in particular is almost cartoonishly evil and doesn\’t get nearly enough comeuppance. I knocked off one star because there were more than a few grammatical errors throughout the work. It wasn\’t enough to really detract from my enjoyment of the story, but it was enough that I couldn\’t ignore it. This probably could\’ve used one more trip to the editor before publication. Still, that\’s about the biggest criticism I have of the book, and I had a hard time putting it down, so it was clearly doing most everything else right. I\’d recommend this, and I liked it enough that I\’m probably going to check out Poston\’s sequel novel \”The Princess and the Fangirl\” at some point.

I enjoyed this Cinderella inspired story but I\’m afraid it was a little too similar to my all time fave book Cinder and Ella by Kelly Oram for me to really love it. Perhaps if I\’d read this first I would have enjoyed it more but while I did enjoy the way it looks at the negative side of fandoms it just felt like a rehash of something I\’d already read.

Any animosity I had towards this book when I first discovered that it was another adaptation of Cinderella was Blasted away by a brilliant premise and glorious writing. Elle is by far a much more relatable heroine for me than her counterpart in the original tale for a myriad of reasons but mainly because of her passion and strength (and her love for her fandom!). Darien is the best version of Prince Charming there has ever been. He is a fully fleshed out character with his own dilemmas and issues. The way the original tale was used, as a base and built upon in such a way that apart for a ball, the loss of a shoe and the names Geekerella and Carmindor you would never figure out Cinderella inspired this fantastic work of art, is amazing! I adore the way fandoms were incorporated, I fell for Starfield and the characters involved and wish I could watch the series for myself (if it does actually exist, which I doubt Highly, would someone let me know, please! If not, someone needs get to work on making it a reality!) Geekerella has redeemed Cinderella for me, I will reread it many times over in my lifetime I can assure you and hopefully it endures just the way the original fairytale has for millennia……Thank you Ashley for turning Cinderella into a fairytale I can finally love just as deeply as the rest!

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