Ship It

Ship It's 16-year-old Claire is a fan of the television show Demon Heart, a Supernatural-like program with male leads Forest and Rico. Claire is also an extremely popular writer of online gay fanfic (fan-written fiction) about Forest and Rico's characters: demon hunter Smokey and demon Heart. To Claire and many fans of Demon Heart, there are clear on-screen displays of sexual tension between Smokey and Heart. But when Claire challenges Forest about this tension at a local fan convention, Forest adamantly denies it. This is a PR nightmare for the show and Claire is whisked away by the show's producers to travel with the team to other conventions with the hope that this will remedy the situation. Claire, however, sees this as an opportunity to sway the showrunners into making SmokeHeart canon. In one of her early conversations with Forest, Claire retorts, "You think all these people are here for you? They don't know you.... You're just a haircut with a battle ax."

On the road, Claire meets Tess, who has read Claire's fanfic and shares her love of Demon Heart. Claire grapples with her burgeoning feelings for Tess, worrying about defining her own sexuality, especially when she sees the confidence Tess exudes. As Claire stumbles into romance and works to make SmokeHeart a reality, alternating chapters give Forest's perspective (and some very sexy snippets of Claire's fic, too).

Britta Lundin, a staff writer on the television show Riverdale, creates a pitch-perfect teenage voice in Ship It, showing the importance of fandom communities and the emotional growth of fans and actors. Readers unfamiliar with the vernacular of fandom will have no trouble following along with the core of the story and any reader is sure to leave Lundin's work feeling buoyed and ready to take on their own battles. --Clarissa Hadge, assistant bookstore manager, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Boston, Mass.

Powered by: Xtenit