Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
I spotted this was on UK Netgalley and requested an eARC . Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
April Whittier is a geologist by day and fan-fic writer and cos-player in secret. She’s also fat. This is a major part of the her character (and her character arc). When she moves to a new job, she decides she’s not going to hide who she is anymore and posts a picture of herself in costume on Twitter. Predictably, the trolls come out to comment on her size rather than the costume. In response to someone being particularly mean and tagging him on the comment, Marcus Castor-Rupp – the actor who plays Anaeas in the hit TV show, asks April out. But what April doesn’t know is that best online best friend, who beta reads her fan fics, is none other than… Marcus Castor-Rupp.
Both April and Marcus are scarred and they’re both judged first by their outward appearance, and that’s not always favourable (especially for April). A lot of the conflict in the book comes from them trying to get past their instinctive or habitual responses to comments and learning to trust that they have each other’s back.
The characters feel like real people and the dialogue is delightful.
The fat rep in this book is excellent. There’s also a healthy amount of food description (I love a bit of foodieness in novels). It’s quite steamy – but that’s important to April’s insecurities. I loved the interstitial sections (especially the scripts from the really bad movies that Marcus had to do before he became famous). I also enjoyed the descriptions of fandoms and fanfic communities, especially the bit when April properly realised she’d found her tribe.
This is a great book. I had a blast reading it.
Rhoda Baxter 