Bookish and the Beast Is a Lovely Fairy Tale Retelling for Geeks

After two years of it sitting on my overflowing bookshelf, I finally picked up Ashley Poston’s fandom fairy tale Geekerella—and spent at least a full day wondering why I hadn’t done so sooner. The tale of Cinderella retold as a love letter to geek culture is creative and sweet, and protagonist Elle’s emotional journey had me crying a couple of times. Follow-up novel The Princess and the Fangirl, a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, was just as delightful a read, incorporating characters and references from the first book while telling a new story set in the same universe. So naturally, when I learned that a third installment was planned that retold Beauty and the Beast, I was incredibly excited . . . and I realized I clearly have a penchant for reviewing adaptations of this fairy tale in particular.

Quirk Books

Bookish and the Beast is told in dual perspectives: Vance Reigns, the arrogant playboy who first appeared in The Princess and the Fangirl; and Rosie Thorne, a new character who, like the other heroines in this series, adores Starfield, a Star Trek–esque TV series that has recently received a reboot film and a planned sequel to follow. Vance, who plays the villain in the second film, has been banished by his stepfather to a castle-like mansion in Rosie’s small town after one too many embarrassing run-ins with the paparazzi, only free to leave after he turns eighteen. While Rosie isn’t impressed with his attitude, she’s more than thrilled to help organize the library of priceless Starfield expanded-universe novels that belong to the mansion’s owner, since they remind her of her late mother. But as is the norm with this tale as old as time, there may be something there that wasn’t there before.

What Poston has always done best, in my opinion, is capture what it’s like to be a geek, and this book is no exception. Her passion and excitement about fandom shine through in her writing, but she doesn’t sugarcoat the problems and toxicity that exist; it’s a mostly positive depiction, but it’s authentic, as well. Poston has also included plenty of diversity in these books, with most of the main couples being interracial and a handful of main characters identifying as LGBTQ+. This book includes the series’ first nonbinary character: Quinn, one of Rosie’s best friends, whose identity is treated respectfully and who has fantastic comedic chemistry with Rosie’s other friend, Annie. Rosie’s father is revealed to be bisexual, and while Vance was previously hinted to be bisexual as a joke—he’s straight with the exception of Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec—this book confirms that his preference does include men without making it a big deal.

Compared to the previous Once Upon a Con books, Bookish and the Beast has a quieter plot and Excelsicon isn’t as prominent of a setting, only appearing in the first chapter in a flashback. Because of this, the focus is mainly on Rosie and Vance’s internal struggles, something that takes some getting used to, especially with Vance. His role in The Princess and the Fangirl was small, but the impression he left on me was not a good one, and those feelings carried over to this book, making it initially difficult to warm up to him as a deuteragonist. Rosie, unsurprisingly, was easier for me to relate to, given her love of reading and incapacitating self-doubt about her college admissions essay. The two have sweet moments together—my favorite being Vance asking Rosie to read one of the Starfield novels out loud to him—and, despite myself, I ended up rooting for the two to work things out.

With Rosie’s obvious infatuation with Vance’s character, General Sond, Poston is able to address the ongoing fandom debate about how fans treat villains and antagonists in their favorite stories. I’ve always firmly believed that villains must atone for the things that they’ve done if they want a redemption arc, but Rosie’s view is a little less severe. Sond is attractive and charismatic, but his role as a villain makes him so much more interesting than Starfield’s protagonist Prince Carmindor, who is often described as the quintessential perfect man. Poston goes further with this when Rosie faces harassment from Garrett, the most popular boy at school, who’s hell-bent on taking her to homecoming, despite her continuous protests. Garrett bemoans that nice guys are not given their due, and his entitlement once again brings the topic of toxic masculinity to the forefront. When comparing Garrett and Vance, it’s important to note that the two start off much the same in terms of how they ignore what Rosie wants and how she feels. The difference is that Vance, who to the outside world may come across as a bad boy, learns to appreciate Rosie for who she is and respect her boundaries, something that “good guy” Garrett never fully grasps or learns to do.

Bookish and the Beast fits in nicely with the other Once Upon a Con books in that it continues the story while being its own contained narrative. There may not be as many cameo appearances by characters from previous books, but the ones introduced here are just as memorable and complex. (Fans of Imogen Lovelace and Ethan Tanaka from The Princess and the Fangirl will be treated to a few fun moments with them, which was a pleasant surprise for me.) I hope that this series continues to evolve and expand on the Starfield fan world in future installments, because I have a feeling there are many more fandom fairy tales to be told.

Bookish and the Beast hits shelves August 4, 2020.