The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks

by Sam Maggs

This fun and feminist girl-power guide to the geek galaxy gives lady nerds the lowdown on everything from fanfic to cosplay to attending your first con. Fanfic, cosplay, cons, books, memes, podcasts, vlogs, OTPs and RPGs and MMOs and more-it's never been a better time to be a girl geek. The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy is the ultimate handbook for ladies living the nerdy life, a fun and feminist take on the often male-dominated world of geekdom. Author Sam Maggs brings some serious geek cred to guide readers through the in(ternets) and outs of geek culture, with tips, play-throughs, and cheat codes for everything from starting an online fan community to planning a convention visit to supporting fellow female geeks in the wild. With useful sidebars and never-before-seen interviews with geek girl icons like Felicia Day and Tamora Pierce, this book is loaded with interesting, unexpected and hard-to-find facts, all in the common language of nerdery. Best of all, the author takes a stand for geek girl empowerment, urging girls to let their freak flags fly and stand up for themselves when haters gonna hate, with chapters like Support ALL the Ladies!
Why Feminism in the Nerd World is Key and The Fake Geek Girl is Here to Destroy Everything You Love-LOL JK She Doesn't Exist. The Fangirl's Handbook is, at its heart, a celebration-of obsessing over fictional characters, finding the tribe that shares your ships and feels, rooting on other ladies to kick butt and take names, and doing it all with pride.

• ISBN10: 159474789X
• ISBN13: 9781594747892
• Publish Date: 12 May 2015
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quirk Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781594747892

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

I sort of low-balled the rating on this one but not because it's not a good read - it is.  It's more a reflection of my not being exactly the demographic the book is aimed at.  Yes, I am female, and yes, I am a fan of things, but I am not at the fangirl level of anything that isn't a cute furry/feathered animal or that doesn't look like Chris Hemsworth playing Thor.  Because of this, there's a large section of this book that pertains to cons, cosplay and fanfic that does not apply to me or resonate with me.   

However!  There's a lot of good stuff here and I learned a lot.  I also kept thinking that if I had a daughter (or son, actually) that was just getting old enough to pry the wi-fi password out of me, I'd make them read this book first.  The information that Maggs shares is good for everyone, but for someone new to the internet, there are vital lessons to be learned here painlessly and with humour, instead of in real life in a way that they won't soon live down.

[inlibrisveritas]

So I’ve seen some vitriol aimed towards this book, which was a bit disconcerting, and I did go into this expecting someone to be telling me what I should do and how to do it…and it to be very demanding and not what is advertised. That’s not the case guys, not at all. Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy is a all access pass to the world we love, and none of the things mentioned in here (other than the do’s and don’ts of a convention) are written in such away that they truly tell you to do anything. It’s a guide, not a rule book. So sit back and enjoy it, and get excited about your fandoms all over again.

Fangirl’s Guide goes over so much that I’m surprised they fit it all in one book. There are sections about fandoms, fanfiction, cosplay, conventions, events, and internet communities; along with little interviews with well known and well respected geeky women. It doesn’t go into to extreme detail about each fandom or tell you which fanfiction to read, but it does give you a nice bit of information to use and go on when exploring the geek universe. Never been to a convention? There is a section for that, it tells you what sort of things to expect and the basic decorum expected of you. It even includes a list of the major conventions for most geek types. Never cosplayed before? No problem, there is a section to help you feel at home with the idea and give you a few resources in the back for some great sites. Want help opening up and finding people in the real world who share your passion? There is some help with that too, including how you can host events and even gently push your passion on your non-fandom friends without being overbearing. This book is also unapologetically feminist. Now before some of your run away, it’s not the feminism that’s been generalized as militant and it doesn’t call for the head of every man ever. This is about being you and never taking less than you deserve, no matter who you are or what your gender is.

In the back of the book it even gives you some great links and references for sites to check out from news to geeky clothing. And to top it off some fantastic recommendations for amazing women in media like Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager or my personal favorite Lina Inverse from the anime Slayers!

In short this book is about acceptance and loving who you are. Shout your geekiness from the rooftops and never ever let someone tell you that you’re not a geek. Never allow them to quiz you like you don’t belong. So if you’re a geek girl who has been stifling her passions, let it out, and if you’re a geek girl who is proud and loud of what she loves keep being awesome.

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

I would definitely consider myself a fangirl. There are so many fandoms I’m a part of, whether they are books, films, television shows or video games. Therefore, a book that discussed all the wonderful parts of being a fangirl seemed pretty damn perfect to me. And according to The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, I am a Potterhead, a Whovian, a Tolkienite, a Bookwalker, a True Believer, a YA Book Nerd, a Whedonite and Girl Who Games – and I am PROUD to be all of those.

As a girl who plays a lot of online games, I have sadly encountered a lot of casual (and sometimes not so casual) sexism. And also a lot of disbelief – I distinctly remember playing one particular online game, and just sitting around chatting to my guild. I always tend to play female characters (normally with red hair!), but I have plenty of male friends who do the same and guys playing as female characters is pretty prevalent in the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) world. So I was innocently sat around and this guy just came up to me and said ‘So you’re one of those types then’. I asked him what he meant, and he responded with something along the lines of ‘Why the hell would a guy want to play as a female character, it’s so weird’. He had just assumed I was a guy playing as a female character, and by that reasoning ALL girls in the game were actually guys, because A GIRL PLAYING AN ONLINE GAME, THAT CAN’T HAPPEN. I then told him I was actually female and why did it even matter (because it’s a GAME, you can be whoever you want), and he proceeded to try and flirt with me. Nope. No. Not happening. And this is why I was happy to see a chapter on online gaming and how sometimes gender can unnecessarily and sadly have a negative impact on your experience.

There were plenty of other great themes: explaining the whole ‘otaku’ image and why you should avoid certain convention habits like glomping (ugh), a chapter on feminism and awesome women from various fandoms as well as some wonderful references that appealed to my nerdy self. BUT, and this was really quite a major issue, I honestly felt as if the author was just trying too hard to appeal to her audience. Overuse of slang made me cringe regularly and, despite the intended audience probably being girls in their mid-teens to early twenties, a lot of the book felt incredibly childish.

In addition, about three quarters of the book was really basic, self explanatory stuff. You’re going to pick this book up if you’re a fangirl of some kind, therefore you’ve probably already done most of the stuff the author gives advice on: attending conventions, using social media (yeah… really) and other things, most of which were really very dull to read about.

Overall, the book was fun in parts, but really really made me feel embarrassed for fangirls worldwide in others. The last quarter of the book was definitely the strongest – it would kind of be wrong to write a book like this without a chapter on feminism. This was something I greatly approved of, something I honestly feel we need a little more of in our science fiction and fantasy. Also, I’d like to thank the book for providing me with the knowledge that a letter from Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, to her mother, written in 1782, is probably the first recorded use of ‘feels’. Just imagining a duchess flailing around, whining about ‘her feels’ provides me with a great mental image!

[Nessa Luna]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way.

I have to be honest, when I first heard of the title - I thought it was a fictional story based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, about a fangirl traveling through space or something. I was so wrong. This book is an actual guide for actual fangirls, and I have to say I liked reading it very very much!

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy is meant for beginner fangirls. It explains all about how to become the ultimate fangirl, how to make fangirl friends, how to survive conventions, how to deal with annoying trolls on the internet and so forth. It has pictures, handy tips, links to awesome fangirl websites and lots more in it. As a person who has been a fangirl for a long time already, even I found this book interesting - I even learned a couple of things from this book, something I hadn't really expected.

The book has only about five or so chapters, but they are filled with information about each subject and just very nice to read. Between the chapters are interviews with awesome ladies; authors, actors, artists (like Beth Revis, Erin Morgenstern and Victoria Schwab). There is also an entire chapter about Feminism which I enjoyed reading. But I think the chapter I enjoyed reading the most was the one about conventions. (Because I just love conventions, and I love reading about other people's experiences!).

Personally, I agreed with most of the things that were described in this book. There was only one thing that annoyed me a bit, and that is the whole 'Superwholock' thing. Because it will probably make new fangirls think that that's the only option. That you are supposed to like all three shows in order to be 'it'. But that is not true. Yes, a lot of people are fans of all three shows (myself included), but it's okay to like just one or two of the shows. SWL is a thing made up by Tumblr and it's just really really annoying in my opinion. (FYI, Superwholock is Supernatural, Doctor Who and BBC's Sherlock; three completely different shows, which each a completely different fandom).

But hey, I just decided to ignore it, even though it annoyed me, and I still enjoyed the book!

The writing was easy to read, and also easy to understand. There were pages that explained the words often used by fangirls (such as 'feels', 'gpoy', 'canon/headcanon', 'otp' and so forth). I flew through the book at high speed and was kind of sad when I realised it was over already. Unfortunately, because this is an ebook (and an uncorrected proof at that), the awesome images were all cut into pieces and on different pages, which made it impossible to see the full images. (There were also some tiny mistakes in the writing, especially involving the letter 'f', but like I said - ebook + uncorrected proof). I am actually planning on buying a physical copy of the book as soon as it's out, because it's a really handy book for fangirls!

So if you are a (beginner) fangirl, and you want to read more about the fangirl world, you should definitely check out The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy!

My opinion on this book in one gif: 

[lindsey]

(I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

This was a very quick read, but it was filled with information about navigating the sometimes murky waters of various fandoms. The author shared a lot of information about several of the more popular fandoms, as well as tips on entering new ones. She also included a ton of useful information about attending conventions, and I will definitely refer back to that section if I ever attend one. There is also a very informative resource guide at the end, with links to various geeky websites.

This book was well-written and informative, and the author's writing style is engaging and humorous.

While most of the information provided wasn't new to me, this would be an invaluable book for a girl new to the world of fandoms, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in joining a new fandom.