Grace and the Fever

February 15, 2017
A fangirl finds herself entangled in the real lives of the boy band she loves.White teen Grace Thomas lives in a suburb of LA, working as a barista over the summer before college. She leads a double life: one with her best friends, who've grown distant, the other online as "Gigi," a member of the Fever Dream fandom. Grace keeps her time on Tumblr secret from her friends and never shares photos or her real name online. So when she runs into Jes Holloway, the bad boy, mixed-race (Indian and white) heartthrob from Fever Dream, hanging out on her very street, it's as if two parts of herself collide. She plays it cool, but then a paparazzo shows up--and Grace is suddenly the mystery girl all over the internet photographed with Jes. As she enters the private world of Fever Dream, she struggles to separate her identity as a fan from the person she wants Jes to see. Soon she learns that everything she's imagined about her favorite band isn't real--and she's lying to everyone around her. Tumblr posts from the fandom and Grace's ruminations on the community anchor the dreamlike scenario, related in a closely focused third-person present tense. Her growth coupled with the drama of a burgeoning celebrity scandal make for an immersive, touching read. A thrilling romp through a fangirl fantasy in which everything crashes and burns and the heroine emerges stronger. (Fiction. 12-17)

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April 1, 2017
Gr 8 Up-A light premise executed with a sophisticated touch. Grace is a wholesome recent grad looking forward to college in the fall and navigating changing relationships with her mom and childhood friends. She is also a huge follower of a popular boy band, Fever Dream-not the kind of devotee who listens to albums and hangs a poster but the type who blogs obsessively and is part of an online community of uber-fans carefully tracking and speculating about the band's activities. Out for a run one night, Grace happens to bump into the group's lead singer and gets swept up in a dizzying world of publicists and paparazzi. But this is no wish fulfillment fantasy. The band members deal with real issues, such as substance abuse, romantic relationships, sexuality, faith, and microaggressions, under the glare of the public eye. Each of these is handled sensitively and realistically, keeping this work from -problem novel- territory. Grace is forced to let go of preconceived notions as she examines what she loves about Fever Dream and what was never real. In the process, the teen learns about herself and the world. Pacing and voice are consistent, and the characters are likable. VERDICT Recommended for boy band fans and readers interested in a tender and mature coming-of-age story. A good choice for most YA shelves.-Amelia Jenkins, Juneau Public Library, AK

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* The minute obsessive fandom bleeds into real life, there's bound to be trouble. Grace Thomas is a self-proclaimed ordinary person, but as music blogger Gigi, she's an integral part of boy band Fever Dream's fandom. One night during the summer after graduation, Grace finds herself face-to-face with the band's heartthrob, Jes. When a paparazzo takes their picture and it goes viral, Grace/Gigi finds herself straddling the worlds of the band, fandom, and real life, forcing her to face complicated truths about herself. This is a realistically told tale of a fan and star falling into a relationship that is messier and thornier than anticipated. It explores how the comfort of an online community can absorb one's life to the point of blurring boundaries, and how falsehoods and fabrications become easier the more they're employed. Genuine dialogue, texts, e-mails, online postsalbeit filled with an excess of the word like in, like, every other sentencebring to life this edgy and layered look at the glitz and secrets of stardom from ordinary eyes. Romanoff's (A Song to Take the World Apart, 2016) novel will resonate with teens who have favorite bands, but it will hit home with those who think about those bands a little too much.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Grace is the consummate fangirl, living to follow the boy band that she posts about incessantly. But when an encounter with singer Jes results in a paparazzo photo and endless online speculation about her identity, Grace is drawn into the band's real-life orbit and discovers the illusion of their public persona. Music-loving readers will likely relate strongly to Grace's fandom, and her eventual maturity is hard-won.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)