Iris Thorne, 17, is on her way to Ireland, and she is miserable. She is accompanying her younger brother Ryder to the movie set for Elementia, the adaptation of her grandmother's famous high-fantasy series. While that would be a dream come true for most teens, it is a nightmare for Iris, in part because of a bad experience with a rabid fan who tried to kidnap Ryder. Her grandmother's success has cost Iris and her family a degree of freedom and privacy, and Iris resents it. But it's hard to dislike the cast and crew of the movie, and Iris can't deny how happy Ryder is. Her transformation from an adversary to a supporter is gradual and natural as she understands how much she has allowed other people to control how she thinks and feels, especially about herself. Her epiphany is joyful and authentic. With a vivid cast of unique characters, the story is engrossing, right down to the sometimes wryly self-referential, on-point chapter titles. By the triumphant ending, Iris is ready to tackle her future.

A film set in Ireland provides the backdrop for some real-life drama.Iris Thorne only met her grandmother M.E. Thorne once, but her shadow still looms large. The elder Thorne wrote the Elementia trilogy, a feminist take on J.R.R. Tolkien. Iris' father despises the books, and she's avoided them herself in part due to the fanatical superfans—dubbed "Thornians"—who have invaded the family's life. When Hollywood mounts a big-budget adaptation of the first novel, Iris and her younger brother visit the Ireland-based production. There, Iris warms to Eamon, the unknown hottie cast as the film's co-lead. McCarthy (You Were Here, 2016, etc.) smartly doles out the details of the plot of Elementia, but a major conflict between Iris and her father is more frustratingly teased out until things finally click into satisfying gear. As Iris navigates her feelings for her father, grandmother, and Eamon, she spars with Cate Collins, the film's director and the novel's highlight. Every scene with Cate crackles with intelligent feminist reasoning that could easily have slipped into sermonizing but instead stays true to character. The novel spirals outward and upward, developing tertiary characters and tying everything together via its central theme, resulting in a dense but satisfying reading experience. All major characters are assumed white, but two of the film's stars are part Filipino.A war cry and a love letter all at once. (song list, glossary, map) (Fiction. 12-16)