Ship It
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4.2 • 20 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
CLAIRE is a sixteen-year-old fangirl obsessed with the show Demon Heart. FOREST is an actor on Demon Heart who dreams of bigger roles. When the two meet at a local Comic-Con panel, it's a dream come true for Claire. Until the Q&A, that is, when Forest laughs off Claire's assertion that his character is gay. Claire is devastated. After all, every last word of her super-popular fanfic revolves around the romance between Forest's character and his male frenemy. She can't believe her hero turned out to be a closed-minded jerk. Forest is mostly confused that anyone would think his character is gay. Because he's not. Definitely not. Unfortunately for Demon Heart, when the video of the disastrous Q&A goes viral, the producers have a PR nightmare on their hands. In order to help bolster their image within the LGBTQ+ community—as well as with their fans—they hire Claire to join the cast for the rest of their publicity tour. What ensues is a series of colorful Comic-Con clashes between the fans and the show that lead Forest to question his assumptions about sexuality and help Claire come out of her shell. But how far will Claire go to make her ship canon? To what lengths will Forest go to stop her and protect his career? And will Claire ever get the guts to make a move on Tess, the very cute, extremely cool fanartist she keeps running into? Ship It is a funny, tender, and honest look at all the feels that come with being a fan.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Claire Strupke, a high school junior from Pine Bluff, Idaho, spends her time writing fanfiction reimagining the relationship of the male leads of her favorite television show, Demon Heart. Claire "ships" Smokey (played by an actor named Forest) and Heart. Already famous within the fan community, Claire's platform increases when she and Forest get into an argument at the Boise Comic-Con over whether or not the Smokey-Heart ship is part of the canon (i.e., the official version) of the show. Concerned over a possible backlash from the LGBTQ community, and recognizing the power that Claire has among fans, the show's PR executives create a contest for Claire to win; her prize is to join the cast for the rest of their tour. While Claire hopes to show the cast what she sees in the program and change the canon, she ultimately learns about the people behind her favorite characters. Through the alternating perspectives of Claire and Forest, debut novelist Lundin, a television writer, gives readers a peek into what it's like to be a fan and to have fans, while underlining what the two characters have in common. Though at times a bit inside-baseball, the story explores fandom while weaving in themes of first love, sexual identity, and acceptance. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
Omg!!!🤘
I just read the book today after it being suggested to me by one of my fav booktubers and I have to say my heart exploded. I loved this book and how it kept on switching from fanfic to actual text and the dynamic between Forest, Claire, and Rico was unbelievably heartfelt. 👌😭❤️❤️
Pandering and Unrealistic
I have read this book, and the entire time, nothing is written well, or done well. And given the subject of the book and the history of the author, one would think that she would have a bit more tact.
The three biggest issue of this book is the fact that main character does not AT ALL actually learn from her actions or grow. She gets what she wants in the end, with absolutely no consequences, despite some of her actions even being ILLEGAL and INVASIVE to human privacy, she never once faces the consequences. She hacks into Twitter accounts, takes over and disrespects a q&a panel, and even writes about someone’s private life and publishes it for the world to read. In fact, she even talks to one of the actors of the show, trying to tell him that both his character AND he are gay - when in fact, he is proven throughout the book to not be gay whatsoever and he is comfortable in his sexuality. He sees the issue, but he asks his fans to separate him from his character and is sorry that he cannot represent them properly. Yet, she screams at him that he is homophobic. She is entitled and yet, I am supposed to feel sorry for her because she is struggling with her sexuality? No. Absolutely not.
In fact, the story has a brilliant moment, a glimmer of brilliance for a moment between the main character and her love interest, where they talk about fans wanting more homosexual representation - but she never advocates for other modes of representation like race, ethnicity, gender, and so on. She just wants her ship and that’s it. She paints it so that her love interest is in the wrong, embarrasses her in front of others, and leaves to pout about no one understanding her.
This book panders to readers who are fans, yes, but immature, entitled fans who only look at fandom that gives them everything they want and miss the point of fandom altogether.
Captures Fandom Perfectly
One of my favorite things about this is just how well it captures what fandom is all about: community. There will always be divides between what is canon and what is not, but the reason people/fans stick around in the world of fandom is because of all the wonderful people we have the opportunity to meet in it. People like us. People who won’t think we’re weird for loving what we love. Even people who will challenge our preconceived notions of the world.
Wonderful book.