Every time she’d find a minute That’s the time that they begin it Geekerelly, Geekerelly

I love a good retelling, for example I really enjoyed Alex, Approximately early this year, but Geekerella felt trapped by its fairy tale template.

Danielle “Elle” Wittimer’s mother died when she was a toddler and her father, who remarried when she was a child, passed away while she was a teenager. Elle and her father were very close; in particular they bonded over an old Sci-Fi TV show called Starfield which is now undergoing a movie reboot. Her step mother is evil (a little too evil to be remotely realistic), she has twin step sisters and she works in a food truck called the Magic Pumpkin.

Darien Freeman is the soap actor taking over the lead role in the Starfield reboot, a choice Elle despises, whose father micromanages his career. The Darien POV chapters are much stronger than Elle’s, perhaps because Poston isn’t hampered by an established Prince Charming backstory. My biggest issue- who films a big budget Sci-Fi movie in less than a month???

Darien and Elle “meet” through a wrong number text message and begin talking, bonding over their love for Starfield but not oversharing personal details.

“-Elle, we might not know much about each other, and I might not be there, and you might not be here, but I’m glad I share this sky with you.
-Maybe we should start looking up together, ah’blena”

Elle’s father co-founded a Comic-Con-like event and Darien, promoting the movie, is tapped to judge a cosplay contest with the prize being tickets to a cosplay ball. Elle decides to enter the contest in part because it connects her to her father but also because she knows her text message beau is attending the con. You can figure out the rest.

I think I would have liked the movie version of this more than the book. But also, my cold dead heart struggles with YA more and more.