Summary
Edan’s favorite fandom is Team Tomorrow, a comic book property she discovered through an animated show when she was a kid. Her favorite character is Gargantua, who has a complicated backstory. The choices of her superhero team leave Gargantua without a home or a history. So she turns on her team and becomes a villain.
Edan takes her cues from Gargantua as her own life takes an epic hit. Her dad is sequestered while he is under investigation for hinky financial practices. She watches her mother wither under the strain. Her grandmother tries to strong arm both Edan and her mom to engage in life again.
Edan finds the perfect distractions in her new boyfriend and a cosplay club. She learns to develop her own costumes, making due with thrift store finds and her own beginner sewing skills. She’s going to channel Gargantua as much as she can to walk through the challenges she faces. But a Gargantua-approach may not be enough.
Review
This was fantastic! I loved the Team Tomorrow pieces. There were many news-ish interludes between chapters that covered the story of the comic creators as well as different things that happened to the characters over the run of the comic. When Edan uses the comic to describe her feelings or her choices, it all comes together perfectly.
The relationships in the story are fairly typical for YA books. Edan is keeping a secret from her best friend which will cause issues later. There’s the boyfriend and then the other guy who the reader knows is a better fit. But through the boyfriend piece I thought the author did an excellent job of showing what “gatekeeping” looks like – when fans (often men) question another geek’s fan credentials by asking testing questions to “prove” true fan status. While it was infuriating as I read it, I loved how the author portrayed this behavior and how it left Edan feeling.
There is no tidy ending to this, but things are moving in the right direction for Edan by the end. I loved that things were left a little open. This was thoroughly delightful from start to finish!