Sam Maggs

A book with tips, playthroughs, and cheat codes, including how to make nerdy friends, rock awesome cosplay, write fanfic with feels, defeat Internet trolls, and attend your first con

A Handbook for Girl Geeks

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy

Kritika Narula

This book humors me, loves me, hugs me, befriends me and empowers me.

THis book reveres the devotion of fangirls. True to its title, it is an essential handbook fot fangirls the world over. It celebrates geek personas of all types, and serves as a sort of induction into the fangirl community. We obsess over things, in mortifying magnitude. It could be a sitcom, a book, a video game, etc etc

The book is divided into five parts. And the best way to talk about it is by reviewing each part.

1. One of us
Think if it as the ultimate fandom welcome. With all her nerdness and geekiness and all the coolness of this nerdness, Maggs throws a biggg welcome. I'm already excited.

2. It's good to be geek.
Let the celebrations begin. To be a geek is awesome. All of us who have been there know the feeling. After the initial hiccups of our journey, the feeling od being a nerd is so empowering, exhilarating and liberating. I don't have words for it. Sam does, so you'd do a better job reading this book. 
Still, I'll go ahead with a customary review: one part of this section covers the kinds of fandoms we have. Potterheads, GOT fans obviously, it is an inclusive and not exhaustive list which mentions YA book nerds, Star Warriors, Batgirls and so on. 
Then, the icing on the cake is the fangirl lingo. You have no idea how handy that is. When in your transition phase, you are left dumbfounded by the fandom jargons. Consider this. They are my OTP. *squeeeees* Too many feels. I ship them. 
The struggle to finally figure these and much more is real, and this section just solves it for you. Isn't that comforting? 
Another amusing section guides you on the process of converting friends into fangirls. I have some experience in this field too and I can say the writer has nailed it.

3. Fandom intensifies: Geek girls online
Don't you just love that you can read my blog. Or scroll through my instafeed. Or like my facebook page and have a surge of feels whenever I post quotes and fanart from our favourite novels/TV shows/series? 
Don't you just love that you can read stories on fanfic communities and be beta readers to a future bestselling author? 
Or the way we can connect to authors, tag them, tweet to them, maybe even have a retweet. 
The only downside is the grumpy trolls. Maggs got your back there too, buddy.

4. How to survive fandom conventions
Now I don't have much to say here. I'm in India and bacl here the only convention is ComicCon. I'll survive it anyway. 
With fandom merchandise. Posters. Mugs. Tees. Stationery. Bookmarks. Bookclubs.

5. Aim to misbehave: Geek Girl Feminism

This be my favourite part. It was such a welcome surprise and so refreshing to read. 
The best of both worlds. Fun and some serious thoughts. Looooved it. 

Another thing to watch out for: Interviews. The author has interviewed fandom-my personalities. And asked them three questions abojt the meaning of fangirl and their own experiences in this domain.

This book serves its purpose best for tthe uninitiated and for those pros who love to read about themselves.

Nessa Luna

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way.

I have to be honest, when I first heard of the title - I thought it was a fictional story based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, about a fangirl traveling through space or something. I was so wrong. This book is an actual guide for actual fangirls, and I have to say I liked reading it very very much!

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy is meant for beginner fangirls. It explains all about how to become the ultimate fangirl, how to make fangirl friends, how to survive conventions, how to deal with annoying trolls on the internet and so forth. It has pictures, handy tips, links to awesome fangirl websites and lots more in it. As a person who has been a fangirl for a long time already, even I found this book interesting - I even learned a couple of things from this book, something I hadn't really expected.

The book has only about five or so chapters, but they are filled with information about each subject and just very nice to read. Between the chapters are interviews with awesome ladies; authors, actors, artists (like Beth Revis, Erin Morgenstern and Victoria Schwab). There is also an entire chapter about Feminism which I enjoyed reading. But I think the chapter I enjoyed reading the most was the one about conventions. (Because I just love conventions, and I love reading about other people's experiences!).

Personally, I agreed with most of the things that were described in this book. There was only one thing that annoyed me a bit, and that is the whole 'Superwholock' thing. Because it will probably make new fangirls think that that's the only option. That you are supposed to like all three shows in order to be 'it'. But that is not true. Yes, a lot of people are fans of all three shows (myself included), but it's okay to like just one or two of the shows. SWL is a thing made up by Tumblr and it's just really really annoying in my opinion. (FYI, Superwholock is Supernatural, Doctor Who and BBC's Sherlock; three completely different shows, which each a completely different fandom).

But hey, I just decided to ignore it, even though it annoyed me, and I still enjoyed the book!

The writing was easy to read, and also easy to understand. There were pages that explained the words often used by fangirls (such as 'feels', 'gpoy', 'canon/headcanon', 'otp' and so forth). I flew through the book at high speed and was kind of sad when I realised it was over already. Unfortunately, because this is an ebook (and an uncorrected proof at that), the awesome images were all cut into pieces and on different pages, which made it impossible to see the full images. (There were also some tiny mistakes in the writing, especially involving the letter 'f', but like I said - ebook + uncorrected proof). I am actually planning on buying a physical copy of the book as soon as it's out, because it's a really handy book for fangirls!

So if you are a (beginner) fangirl, and you want to read more about the fangirl world, you should definitely check out The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy!

My opinion on this book in one gif:

Gillian Rose

While it is now a bit dated (lots of JKR and Whedon worship, eek), it's still a great rundown for the dos and don'ts of fandom that should be read by every fangirl for a harmonious experience!

Cindy McKee

I first became aware of Sam Maggs when her feminist fangirl statement popped up on my Facebook feed. Imagine my surprise to find out it was part of this charming book. If you are a passionate fan of anything, if you are a woman, and if you want to to feel a little joy in your girlpower, this book is for you. 
She basically nails down all facets of being a fan, lays out how to make your nerdiness work in everyday life, and how to embrace and enjoy all things geeky! The most important thing is her call to support other geek girls, and to never let anyone tell you you're not a true nerd because, gasp, you're a girl.
She gives you a guide to attending a Con, lays out when and where to find your fandoms, and fun things to do to make your fandoms work for you. This IS the book every fangirl needs! Hell, it's the book you deserve!

Haylie

Hmm. I'm torn. I bought this book about a year or so after its release to support the author, but I feel for me personally the timing was too late.

If this was released circa 2012-2013 I probably would've been ALL OVER IT as I'd been part of some of the fandoms listed and was writing and researching fandoms in college myself. This time period was also peak fandom because Avengers had just been released and Doctor Who and Sherlock were at the top of the world. But in 2015, that all seemed to fade at that point. It wasn't as groundbreaking or revolutionary by the point of publishing.

I also think this would've been much better as a blog than an actual book. Most of it was filler. Lists upon lists with blurb interviews here and there and some illustrations (which are hella cute btw). I also couldn't help but think this was meant to be on a blog because the voice was verbatim what you would find a stereotypical Tumblr blog and the nostalgia started to wear off a bit and turn into secondhand embarrassment any time I read highlighted key words outside of the listicles (ex: squee). I was a little disheartened because I'm not 100% sure the audience this book is intended for? Much of the voice in this book seems as though it's geared toward preteens or fresh teenagers, but the part about fanfiction seemed to shift gears to a much older crowd. So that caused a bit of confusion and was awkward. 

I wish this was geared more towards research on women in geek life fan movements and not a newbie guide on cosplay, making friends, and (very shallow) intros to some of the fandoms themselves (most who seemed to have read this book know them already).

Personal beef I have with this book is the giant bias for Joss Whedon who has been problematic and is really fawned over quite a bit in this "guide". That did not age well. For a feminist guide it seemed to choose to overlook some of the problematic writing in his TV shows just because he did Avengers tbh.

I know the author's other works are more about women in history so I may check those out as they're not how-to guides. I think I'll have better luck there.

Annie

"I embrace the word "fangirl" with open arms." - @sammaggs, Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy

5/5⭐️ Read #83 this year.

Fabulous. Inspiring. Book. I love that this little book has exploded and found its way into thousands of girl's hands. I hope it awakens us as a population to end hate and start spreading the feminism and the empowerment that is behind us fangirls. I love that it has ways to meet new people in our own fandoms, and how to go to conventions while being safe and prepared. All the added interviews, and the encouraging words I believe this book is a wonderful statement.

Fiona Coffey

I picked this book up on sale at Powell's in Portland a couple of months ago because of the cute cover and I finally got around to reading the whole thing. 

I absolutely loved this book. As a self-proclaimed professional fangirl, I already knew a lot of the information given in this book, like introductions to different fandoms (most of which I am in), but I still loved reading the lists, and a lot of the information (on cosplay and cons) was still very helpful to me. Even if I already knew some of it, it was super fun to read. 

This book also has a great section on feminism, (although the whole thing is pretty feminist) probably one of the best I've read in a book that wasn't entirely devoted to that topic. 

I think it's great that there's a book out there meant for inspiring geeky girls to be their true selves, and debunking the negative connotation behind the word "fangirl!" I am proud to call myself a fangirl and I always will be! 

I recommend this book to everyone! It's adorable, a quick read, inspiring and just totally badass and awesome!

Khloe Grotting

*4.5 
 This book was so fun! It answered some of my questions and was also extremely funny! It was a great read. 😁😁

Yoomi

Some great advice but a little confusing. Who is the intended audience? Some of the suggestions (like getting a tattoo to show your hardcore geek) is not appropriate for a middle school girl. But then some of the language seems immature for a college age fan girl. I could be wrong.

Jess Houston

My gushy review is here:

https://reisareads.wordpress.com/2015...

 Bruna Acioly Leão

This book was really great. Empowering and a must-read for fangirls everywhere - no matter what fandom you might be into!
I must confess I did skim-read through some parts that didn't necessarily apply to me - like anime/games and going to conventions. 
But the chapter on feminism and the ideas and value it gives to fanfiction writing were my favorite parts!

I can already tell that this is a book I'll cherish and keep as a handy guide for when I need some geeky inspiration or when I want to feel validated for liking the things I like.

Caitlin Berger

This was a really fun and instructive book! I loved the writing style and layout of the chapters. I think the author’s explanation of feminism is a bit too simplistic and watered down, but I still appreciate how she mentions gender and intersectionality and other concepts that are integral to social justice work. 
Great book for fangirls and geeks everywhere!

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy A Handbook for Girl Geeks

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