Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London hasn’t been on the TBR for that long (October 2024), but it seemed a perfect fit for this theme! I love seeing fandom and fanfiction appear in other genre fiction, especially when there is meta-exploration of the fandom aspect. In the world of Fang Fiction, supernatural beings including vampires are real, as is inter-dimensional travel, but very few know this. Instead, the lives of vampires, trapped in a shadowy version of Manhattan Island, are known to the mundane world through the trilogy of soapy “Blood Feud” novels written by the reclusive August Lirio.
Though about fandom, this book is also about survival after a past sexual assault, so please be warned if that is a trigger for you. Tess Rosenbloom is a graduate student in English at Columbia University, where she met her best friend and roommate Joni Chaudhari. However, after being date-raped by her crush at a party, Tess flees her friends and school where her rapist is a fellow student. She ends up as night manager of a queer hotel, unable to sleep or talk about her trauma, and estranged from Joni who doesn’t know what happened. Instead she submerges herself in Blood Feud fandom, even writing a popular article for Buzzfeed on the many theories that the vampires are real.
Then one of the vampires from the books appears in New York City, and because of that article, seeks out Tess for help. Tess can’t rely on the series canon to figure out what’s happening, plus her PTSD leaves it almost impossible for her to trust anyone, especially not vampires who could kill her. However, she can’t resist the pull of knowing more.
There were a lot of plot threads: Joni and Tess’ reconciliation, Tess’ recovery and new romance, Joni’s secondary romance, the warring vampire clans, and the mystery of August Lirio. I think all the different threads slowed the pace, and I wished there had been more fandom and less romance (that’s a me thing, not the book’s fault), but I was satisfied with the ending.
