ALA Booklist (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)

Gena: 18, difficult past, heading to her dream college, obsessed with the TV show Up Below. Finn: 22, living with her longtime boyfriend, struggling to find work, also obsessed with Up Below. Gena/Finn: it seems all they have got in common is a serious yen for the same TV program, but when they meet online, they develop a bond that transcends fandom. But the more they get to know each other, the more complicated their relationship gets. In true millennial fashion, the format here is a digital epistolary, consisting of e-mails, text messages, blog posts, and snippets of Gena's fan fiction and Finn's art. Things take a dramatic turn when fandom and real life overlap, and while it feels somewhat at odds with the rest of the more grounded narrative, Gena and Finn have distinct, readable voices, and this portrayal of the fan world is spot-on. Comparisons to Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl (2013) are inevitable, though ultimately this is a different kind of story, focused firmly on the real, messy relationships that can form in the digital age.

Horn Book (Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gena, eighteen, and Finn, twenty-two, meet in a television show's online fandom and complicate each other's real lives. Told through texts and online communication, the story calls for some suspension of disbelief, but it explores and legitimizes relationships that are more recognizable to today's teens than to older generations. A traumatic event toward book's end creates a significant shift in tone.

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)

Gr 9 Up-Gena and Finn are strangers who are both on the verge of new beginnings. Finn is a recent college graduate desperately searching for a job in a hard economy and living with her long-term boyfriend, who wants more from her than she is able to give. Gena is finishing her final term at high school and is looking anxiously toward college. She is starting to question her past relationships and high school identity, while also stumbling trying to realize her future self. Both young women find an escape and solace from the pressures of the real world in their love of a television show, fan fiction and, eventually, each other. This is a love story told mostly through blog posts, texts, and other media of the digital age. The plotline starts strong and builds very well until about halfway through, where intentions and believability become a bit muddled. However, Moskowitz and Helgeson deliver the book soundly on its feet with an ending that allows readers to close the cover pondering all the different ways humans can love. VERDICT A unique work that will connect with teens who love fandoms. Ellen Fitzgerald, White Oak Library District, Lockport, IL

Voice of Youth Advocates

Gena, a senior at a posh boarding school, and Finn, newly graduated from college, are both members of the fandom for Up Below, a television show about two firefighters named Jake and Tyler. Gena (Genevieve) and Finn (Stephanie) are both "Jake girls" who have made names for themselves on the fan boards. Their emails, texts, fanfiction, and blog posts reveal information about their lives bit by bit. For each of them, the fandom is important, but not really integrated with their "real" lives, and they are drawn more and more to each other. Their relationship intensifies, and they both struggle to figure out what it means to "love" the person on the other side of the computer. Meanwhile, their real lives begin to get more complicated, as they meet in person, and as Gena's mental health issues and Finn's relationship with her boyfriend begin to intrude on Gena and Finn's fan-based rapport.This is a compelling and fast-paced story about two young women who are growing up and struggling to figure out who they are and what is important in their lives, and who learn that the answers are not necessarily easy or clear-cut.Sarah Flowers.