How to break a year long hiatus with a book review (Week ??)

            So... Contrary to popular belief I did not die, I was merely taking a break to reorient myself.

    What better way to remind the whole zero people that read this blog still that I am still here than to break a year-long hiatus out of nowhere with a genuine review of a book. I figured a grand return to mediocrity and my normal weekly routine needed something special, and I would still like to keep teasing about sampling my own stories on here a bit longer. You'll get them eventually, maybe after another year-long hiatus. So you get a book review instead. I thought writing this during my morning class to show the students that I help what an okay example of what you could do would be a good idea, but now I'm writing this while being forced to listen to the soundtrack to Heathers and rambling lore about The SCP foundation/Backrooms. Anyways, I chose the book, Queens of Geek, by Jen Wilde as the book I wanted to review. So here is a spoiler-free review of the book and whether I recommend it or not. 

    To start off, the book is about the fictional equivalent of our Comic-Con, "Supa Con" and the events our main characters go through surrounding it. We have two major characters in the story, actress Charlie and long-time nerd Taylor. Charlie loves the spotlight and fuels that with her career as a vlogger and actress. On the other hand, Taylor is much shyer and, as the book says, "Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change." This gives the book some disability representation with Taylor being written as a person that happens to be neurodivergent or autistic. Both have their own reasons to go to Supa Con with Charlie going for work and Taylor going to have fun and use the con as the much-needed push for her to start thinking big and rethink playing everything safe. Both stories use the convention itself as the platform to build a well-written narrative that uses diverse characters to tell a story of fandom, fun, and some LGBTQ+ romance. 

    The way I was looking at this book is based on a checklist with certain criteria on it. It helps better explain where a book is succeeding in certain demographic representations or if it lacks well-written attempts. Now, the list is not the only basis for the review, I am also looking at whether I enjoyed the book and whether I would recommend it on enjoyment of the story alone. The two viewpoints of reviewing together just better help formulate an honest opinion. Now, did I actually enjoy the book and story? Yes, I genuinely enjoyed the story and actually would give it a solid recommendation to at least check it out due to the enjoyment factor alone. However, I did say I had a checklist, and it does change my opinion somewhat. The checklist had criteria like the use of person first language, LGBTQ+ characters that are well written, and whether a character with a disability had their story revolve around them as a person instead of focusing solely on the fact that they are disabled. The book hit every positive mark on the checklist easily. Because of this and the fact that I liked the book, my opinion on the book changes from simply checking it out if you get the chance. I think you should buy this book as soon as possible, even if you don't have the time to read it, just buy it for your personal collection and read it when you get the chance. I'm even planning on getting an extra copy or two for my library that I'll keep in my classroom for the students to read if they want. If I were to give this a star rating I would give it five stars.