REVIEW : Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz

Gena/Finn - Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson

Published by Chronicle Books (May 17th 2016)

Genres : Young Adult, Contemporary

Pages : 287

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Gena and Finn would have never met but for their mutual love for the popular show Up Below. Regardless of their differences—Gena is a recent high school graduate whose social life largely takes place online, while Finn is in her early twenties, job hunting and contemplating marriage with her longtime boyfriend—the two girls realize that the bond between them transcends fanfiction. When disaster strikes and Gena's world turns upside down, only Finn can save her, and that, too, comes with a price. Told through emails, text messages, journal entries, and blog posts, Gena/Finn is a story of friendship and love in the digital age.

I came across Gena/Finn by accident. The online relationship and the original format attracted me.The potential was there, and yet I felt frustrated after reading it.

I admire authors who take risks and do things outside the box. The idea was strong: I wasn't bothered by the unconventional format, on the contrary, I found it interactive. There's something intimate about reading other people's (even fictionnal) text messages. However, even though it had the potential to be amazing the author neglected the depth of the characters.

By picking it up, I expected a beautiful female friendship starting from scratch and evolving step by step through the pages. If you go into it expecting the same thing, that's not what you'll get. Their friendship happened very - too - quickly and their relationship isn't clearly defined.

I couldn't relate to neither of them and I didn't particularly like them nor care about their problems.

Also the random posts about the TV Show were unecessary since we have no idea what it's about. Too bad since the foundation of their relationship was the show but the fandom part was realistic (obviously since the author has been part of one)

When I read a book, I'm all for the "show, don't tell". However, some important aspects are talked about without being showed. You can't drop a bomb about a character and then mention it a few times in the whole book like it's nothing.

At some point, I had no idea where the story was going because the plot was just too plain. There's something that has to be resolved at the end of a book and I just didn't get where the author wanted to go.

An other thing that bothered me was the lack of emotions. It's hard to convey emotions through this format and yet I felt like they were vainly forced on me.