Stevie‘s review of Down with this Ship by Katie Kingman
Young Adult Fiction published by North Star Editions 07 Jun 21
I honed a lot of my editing, reading, and reviewing skills in the world of fanzines and online fanfiction around TV SF fandoms especially, so I was very taken with the premise of this book. The fictional show this story revolves around feels very close to my favourite fandom, Blakes 7, with a bit of a nod also to Andromeda, which I loved for its first season and a half. There are also mentions within the book of some of my other fandoms, which makes the reading experience that bit more immersive. The characters are even of a similar age to that at which I started swapping stories with a classmate, although their fiction feels more polished than mine was at that point.
Kole Miller is in the top class for creative writing at her high-performing school, but she’s always nervous about sharing her work by reading it aloud to her fellows. This is not so true of her fanfiction for the popular show, The Space Game, which she shares in nightly instalments with thousands of readers on a popular blogging site. When Kole’s fic wins a major award, her readership suddenly shoots up. However, a lot of these new commenters are highly critical of her writing style and the relationship she favours in the show and her fic. Some of them are even local to her. No one at Kole’s school knows she is an author, but that may be about to change, because the school newspaper runs an article about the fic’s award and the fact that its writer is not only a local, but also one of the students.
Meanwhile, Kole has new neighbours: Noah, a slightly older boy, who soon befriends Kole and also her sporty big brother, along with Noah’s father, and Noah’s much younger twin sisters. Kole also gains increased attention from two other boys, the star pupil in most of her classes, with whom she fell out some years before after he critiqued her work a little too harshly, and one of the team writing for the school newspaper, who threatens to out Kole as the author of the award-winning fic, if she doesn’t fulfil a series of challenges set by him and his friend – a girl that Kole fell out with some years earlier due to their differing opinions on The Space Game.
Things come to a head, when Kole has to accompany the boy blackmailer to a school dance, and then has to allow the girl blackmailer to pass off one of Kole’s poems as her own for a school competition. Kole soon realises that not only is she compromising her integrity, but she will never get to attend the fan convention to which she has been invited or achieve her dream of becoming a screenwriter, if she can’t own her work. But admitting her misdeeds may mean she is barred from attending the convention anyway.
I enjoyed this book, although there were some aspects of the US high school experience that felt very alien to me as a Brit. Kole is an engaging character, and her friends and rivals have their own distinct personalities. I liked that Kole worked out which boy was genuinely interested in her with minimal angst, and enjoyed her easy friendship with one of the other girls. Also, she’s a bit of a klutz with relatable fears and anxieties. All in all, an author I want to read more from in the future.
Grade:
Summary:
Kole Miller is the best writer at the prestigious Crystal Lake High. But no one knows it—not her creative writing classmates, or even her academic arch nemesis Colin (aka Mr. Valedictorian). That’s because Kole’s best work is a secret fanfic based on The Space Game, her favorite show.
When Kole’s fanfic wins a major contest, her readership skyrockets. Suddenly, Kole finds herself stuck in the heated ship wars, as her new readers pair characters from the show together as romantic couples. Worse yet, Kole’s classmates discover that she’s the fanfic’s author. Now it isn’t just The Space Game everyone is arguing about: they start shipping Kole with her classmates.
With her romantic life in shambles and her anxiety through the roof, Kole must face both her inner demons and the ones at her school. She has one chance to reclaim her fanfic—and the guy that Kole now realizes she’s shipped herself with since episode one of the school year.
Read an excerpt.
