Audiobook Review: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I’m a big fan of retellings and I love Cinderella ones in particular so when this popped up on Audible it seemed like a no-brainer. I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would, which was very unfortunate. It’s nothing to do with the story, I enjoyed that, more the narration.

For the most part, the narration was ok, but I did have to listen at double speed as they were so slow. I kept losing focus and then had no idea what was going on.

The worse part for me was the narrators not knowing how to pronounce some words, especially ones to do with the nerdy stuff that this book is based on. Eileen Stevens, who voiced Elle’s chapters was pretty decent. The only part of hers I really didn’t like was when she had to do a crying section. It made me physically cringe, the whole part was too forced and just sounded entirely fake. But other than that she was pretty.

Tristan Morris on the other hand, I can’t say I’m a fan. I thought his performance was pretty good, until he mispronounced Dalek multiple times and gave characters accents they didn’t have. Eileen Stevens didn’t give Sage a southern accent but Tristan did. It was quite confusing.

The story was a very fun idea and I love the whole ‘we’ve been talking to each other anonymously online without knowing’ trope. It’s always funny knowing from the very beginning and having them angst over who it could be.

I love books about fandom that actually praise and love them, which I think is the whole point of this series.

If I’m being brutally honest, Geekerella was far too long. I’m not sure how many pages it equates to but a 10 and half hour audiobook felt too long. The story dragged a little at times and I know for sure I could have read it faster as an Ebook.

The Cinderella side of the story was done quite well, but I wasn’t huge on the fact that it was exactly like the original tale where she leaves behind a ‘glass slipper’. I love it when it’s a different object like in the film Another Cinderella Story where she leaves her mp3 player. It’s a fun modern twist and I like that.

Overall Geekerella was a fun retelling of Cinderella and it’s one I would recommend, but not as an audiobook. I feel like this would read a lot better in written form. I am going to check out the rest of the series on Audible though as they are free with my subscription.