Gena/Finn by Kat Helgeson, Hannah Moskowitz

Gena/Finn

by Kat Helgeson and Hannah Moskowitz

Gena and Finn would have never met, but for their mutual love for the hit TV show, Up Below. Regardless of their differences—Gena is a recent high school graduate whose social interactions largely take place online, while Finn is in her early twenties, encountering the difficulties of job hunting in a poor economy and contemplating marriage with her longtime boyfriend—the two girls realise that the bond between them is more than fan fiction. But when disaster strikes and Gena's world turns upside down, only Finn can save her, and that, too, comes with a price. Told through e-mails, text messages, journal entries, and blog posts, Your Machine Anatomy is a story of friendship and love through social media in the digital age.

Reviewed by Leah on

5 of 5 stars

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My first thoughts on finishing this book? Wow. I've seen this book around the interwebs, featured on people's WoW posts, etc, and I've had it to read for a little while, but finally decided to jump in and what a freaking read. Epistolary novels are rare, and very hard to get right, but Gena/Finn is almost perfect in every way. It had it all. The fandom (which I suspect is based on Supernatural, not that Hannah would tell me when I asked), two AMAZING characters, and some pretty heart-wrenching scenes and secrets.

I'll get the not so good out the way first - the ending. Like 80% into the book there's this entire twist, something happens, and while it was horrifying and had me staring at my screen to see if it was correct, it also left me with tons of questions and a rather unexciting ending. This book was light & fun for sooooo long, and then it all of a sudden got very serious, and I would have just gone in a different direction, because I wasn't honestly sure what it was supposed to accomplish.

Now, the good stuff, and there's a lot of good stuff. I've genuinely got no idea if this was supposed to be a F/F romance with Gena & Finn, BUT that's what I was shipping. From when Gena and Finn first meet each other, they just click. And to be able to bring that across in blog posts/emails/text messages is something not many authors can pull off but the pairing of Moskowitz and Helgeson pull it off effortlessly. I was flipping the pages, desperate to read more, more, more. It was intoxicating, like being pulled into your favourite TV show. It's the kind of friendship I would love to have, to be able to talk about anything with somebody, any time of day, no matter what. Even better was when they DO meet IRL, it was so not weird, I've never genuinely read a book with two characters who just clicked like Gena and Finn.

Their relationship went from like 0 to 100 superfast, but it never felt forced. It just seemed natural, and sometimes it is so much easier to talk to someone behind a laptop than it is someone face to face. It's the kind of relationship you can't get enough of, and I never knew where it was going, but I wanted to be along for the whole ride. It's a book you literally devour, I carried it everywhere with me and read it in one sitting, because I just wanted more, more, more, more, more. It was so intense, so all-consuming. I can't WAIT to get a physical copy of this, to read it again, and see the artwork. See how it was supposed to be formatted all good and proper, because I am so buying myself a copy of this book. Maybe the ending let me down a little bit, but a lot of this book is amazing. This is a special book, and I loved it.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 6 February, 2016: Finished reading
  • 6 February, 2016: Reviewed