Book Review: Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff

Media Type: Ebook
Title: Grace and the Fever
Author: Zan Romanoff
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: hardcover, 352
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Source: Author/Penguin Random House
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HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart

Recommended to: Readers who enjoy coming of age stories and have ever loved a boy band

Add it on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble 

Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl meets Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty in this contemporary YA about what it means to be a fan—and what it means to be a friend—when your whole world is in flux.
 
In middle school, everyone was a Fever Dream fan. Now, a few weeks after her high school graduation, Grace Thomas sometimes feels like the only one who never moved on. She can’t imagine what she’d do without the community of online fans that share her obsession. Or what her IRL friends would say if they ever found out about it.
 
Then, one summer night, the unthinkable happens: Grace meets her idol, Jes. What starts out as an elusive glimpse of Fever Dream’s world turns into an unlikely romance, and leads her to confront dark, complex truths about herself and the realities of stardom.
 
From the author of A Song to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever is a heart-clutching reminder of what it’s like to fall in love—whether it’s with a boy or a boy band—and how difficult it is to figure out who you are after you’ve fallen out of love again.

Where to start? I knew this would be a great read as soon as I started it. Grace is a pretty typical teenager who happens to be obsessed with a boy band. As someone who once had N’Sync and Backstreet Boys posters all over my wall, I immediately related to her interests. Unlike her friends, Grace never outgrew her love of Fever Dream and it caused her to grow apart from them.

This coming of age story really covered a lot of relationship issues that young adults deal with and I really enjoyed getting to know Grace through all of them. While the main focus was on Grace’s interactions with Jes and the band, reading about her navigation through her friendships was equally important. This book tackles some basic parenting/friendship issues but also goes through the online identity stress and of course, celebrity privacy issues. It sounds like a lot, but the story was well rounded and a very fun read.

There is so much going on with Grace as she meets her idols and subsequently gets pulled into their world, it was refreshing to feel the nervousness and trepidation she experienced. The author does a wonderful job of pulling you into the moment and running away with it. I didn’t want to put the book down.

The celebrity lifestyle comes with a lack of privacy and a lot of its own subculture. Jes’ character was realistic and full of surprises. His acknowledgement of his lack of “regular” experiences hit me right in the heart. Adolescence is such an important part of growing up and a rock start lifestyle definitely isn’t a normal youth experience. I imagine most young stars would relate to those feelings.

I would highly recommend this book to YA readers, especially those who really enjoy a story about coming into your own skin and learning from some hard life lessons.