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Gellerella is the first book of the Once Upon a Con retelling series by Ashley Post.
Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.
Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.
Short review: Four stars. Loved this book way more than I expected to. Couldn’t stop listening. It is an adorable, geektastic retelling.
Okay, now for the longer review where I ramble more about what I just said! To show how much I enjoyed this, I mostly only listen to audiobooks while driving, and I would legit find reasons to be in the car longer, such as offering to help get things and taking longer routes, just to listen to this book more.
I have always loved plain character x famous character stories, and I think that’s part of why I’ve always adored Cinderella retellings. Especially modern ones where the famous person is a celebrity rather than a prince. On top of this, I’m a nerd, and I’m proud of it. So seeing Cinderella meets nerd culture... Yeah, I think you understand why I picked up this book.
It says in its blurb that it is a love letter to nerd culture, and I entirely agree. Whereas other books claim to be, they only have nerdy characters, but this book without a doubt is a true love letter to fandom culture.
The made-up fandom of Starfield interlaces every aspect of this story, showing the power of a fandom on not only an individual, but as a moving community force. There was this cheesy moment that kinda had me rolling my eyes, but it also gave me chills at how it showed the unity created by fandoms.
Elle and Darien did great in their parts of Cinderella and Prince Charming, while still being well rounded characters. Their interactions with each other were adorable, hilarious, and sometimes awkward do to some dramatic irony over their situations. I was also very glad to see some depth and issues given to our Prince Charming.
The characters really were great, but it’s just so hard to talk about them without wanting to gush about the nerdiness that just drove this tale, because these characters were extreme nerds, and I just want to gush about that. It was so nice. They were dorks. Very nerdy dorks. And so was so much of their lives. Elle’s mom and dad met at a con where they were cosplaying. Darien thrived upon seeing himself in the main character of Starfield and desiring to be that character one day himself, and so much of his growth centered around getting to play that character.
The side characters were also great and helped our characters along the way. Sage, our Fairy Godmother, was a perfect breath of fresh, sassy air for Elle. Darien’s assistant was adorakable and his body guard hilarious in such a dry way, and somehow these two very different characters made the perfect sort of parental backdrop for Darien.
Honestly, my main complaint is the one main complaint I have with all Cinderella retellings: the step-family. I understand that a core part of the retelling is having a horrid step-family, but it hits the point of annoying for me when they’re so over the top and so irredeemably that it makes zero sense why the oh-so-wonderful father ever would have married the woman. I’m not asking you to make her amazing, but at least don’t make her so 2D evil that her marriage to the father makes no sense.
The other complaint is more minor, and that is that the voices of the two characters could be a bit too similar. Like I’m 90% sure they both said “holy “crazy thing” Batman!” which became really noticeable. Sure, a nerdy thing, but both of them using it so often just felt more like the author’s voice than the characters.
Overall, if you like dorky romances and are a nerdy, fandom loving person, I highly recommend this book. Go read it. Read it right now! Heck, I’m not even a gxg fan, and I’m tempted to read the next book just because I don’t want to miss anything that influences this universe before picking up the first book. That’s how strongly I’m saying to go read it and enjoy the oozing nerdiness of it all.
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