You Should Read Lumberjanes (If You Can Find It)

I have a confession to make: although I was excited to hear that the wonderful Noelle Stevenson (Tumblr’s gingerhaze) was going to be writing a comic about a bunch of girls at summer camp getting into paranormal mischief, for some reason I made a conscious decision not to preorder it. I think at the time I had just dropped Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Pretty Deadly (I found the concept cool but the comic itself incomprehensible) and I was anxious about picking up another lady-created book solely on the merits of its lady-createdness. Anyway, Lumberjanes finally hit shelves a few weeks ago, and when I went into my comics store early Wednesday afternoon, I discovered that there was only one copy left. On a whim, I grabbed it. No harm in giving the first issue a try, right?

Well, let me tell you what: it was awesome. I didn’t realize I was missing a comic that encapsulated the concept “Girl Scouts meets Gravity Falls” from my life until I had that very book in my hands.

Fangirling Over Fangirl

Do you know what I’m tired of?

Well, there are a lot of things, but one of the things I’ve gotten particularly tired of is the demonization of both fanfiction and the shipping fangirl as perverted, evil, plaigiaristic, or just plain wrong.

Exhibit A: Becky from Supernatural.

That’s where Rainbow Rowell’s new novel Fangirl comes in. Fangirl’s main character is a dedicated slash fangirl named Cather with an online following of thousands. Cather is just starting college, and while her twin sister Wren seems to have put aside her ‘childish’ obsession with the Harry Potter-esque Simon Snow series now that she’s at school, Cather remains devoted to her stories.

In a world where family, classes, boys, and roommates are hopelessly confusing and stressful, Cath finds comfort in writing stories about Simon falling in love with his rival and roommate Baz.

Vague spoilers below the cut.