Fandom is a delicious mix of different genres with clichés packaged in an original way, and a healthy dose of (self) mockery when it comes to dystopian stories.

Violet’s in her element. Cosplay at the ready, she can’t wait to feel part of her favorite fandom: The Gallows Dance, a mega book and movie franchise that she and her friends know EVERY WORD of (canon and fanfic included).

But at Comic Con, a freak accident transports Violet and her friends into the story for real. And in just the first five minutes, they cause the death of the heroine, and get taken prisoner by the rebel group she was supposed to lead to victory.

It’s up to Violet to take her place, and play out the plot the way it was written. But stories have a life of their own, and when you change the script in one place, the rest gets revised too…

Fascinating from the first page

Anna Day has a creative, but smooth writing style that reads nicely. I remember being able to read the first chapter for free on Sweek and I was immediately sucked into the story. At the time I was very busy, but there was always a voice in the back of my mind saying, “Someday I’m going to buy this book.” And I don’t regret it.

Interesting world, but less interesting heroine

The main character (Violet) is unfortunately not very interesting as a person, and she says that regularly. Despite the fact that there are fun, dynamic characters that I would have liked to read more about, they were not always featured. And it’s a shame that one of her friends, Alice, was portrayed by default as stupid and shallow just because she’s beautiful, tall, and blonde. That aside, Anna has described an interesting dystopian world, with all the colors and colors (!) That go with it.

Because there is always a reference in the book to what should happen ‘originally’ in the ‘film’, a certain tension is built up, which makes you think: ‘How will this scene go differently from the “original” ?’

Hilarious (self) ridicule

Despite some shortcomings of the characters (which could have been worked out better), I thought it was a really entertaining book. I have regularly found myself laughing at certain references to, for example, Hunger Games or Divergent.