Today is my stop on the Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe Book tour! Thanks TBR and Beyond Tours for letting me be a part of this tour. If you are looking for a diverse story with themes of found family and geek culture that also tackles important topics like mental illness, then I think you would enjoy this book. For my stop on the Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe Book Tour, I will be talking about the top five reasons you should read Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe and my favorite quotes. Hope you enjoy!
Bounced between foster homes since the age of seven, Jessica knows better than to set down roots. Most of the kids at her new Michigan high school think she’s a witch anyway (because, you know, goth). The only one who gives her the time of day is geeky Oscar, who wants to recruit her fashion skills for his amateur cosplay group. But Jess is fine showing off her looks to her Insta fans—until a woman claiming to be her biological mother barges into her DMs.Jess was claimed by the state when her bio mom’s mental illness made her unstable. While their relationship is far from traditional, blood ties are hard to break. There’s only one problem: Jess can’t reunite with her mom in New York City without a bunch of paperwork and she worries her social worker will never approve the trip. That’s when she remembers Oscar’s cosplay group, which is aiming for that big convention in New York . . .So, Jess joins Oscar’s team—with every intention of using them to get to her mom. But her plan gets complicated when she discovers that, actually, cosplay is pretty great, and so is having friends. And Oscar, who Jess thought was just a shy nerd, can be as gallant and charming as the heroes he pretends to be. As the big convention draws near, Jess will have to decide whether or not chasing a dream of “family” is worth risking the family she’s built for herself.
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1. Jess, My New Favorite Goth Queen
Jess is definitely now one of my favorite MC POV in a YA contemporary. I really loved her character voice/POV and seeing how she thinks and views the world. Jess is more than just her seemingly confident “scary goth girl” exterior. This tough exterior is there like armor to hide all her pain/trauma inside and protect her from everyone since she’s used to feeling like an outcast for always being the “weird new girl” in school. This is definitely a character trope I have a soft spot for and can’t help but root for her.
I always love when characters are morally complex individuals who make mistakes and/or make selfish choices. Though Jess definitely frustrated me at times with her mistakes, she was written in a way that made me able to deeply sympathize with her and understand why she made those decisions. But she also had to face the consequences and learn from her mistakes which I always appreciate seeing in contemporary stories especially YA.
I think Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe and Jess as a character wouldn’t have been as entertaining if it wasn’t written in first person POV because her internal thoughts and dialogue were an important part in why I liked her so much as a character.
2. The Fashion Design and Makeup
There were A LOT of detailed descriptions of the characters outfits and makeup in Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe. Which is something I usually don’t like when it’s overdone cause then I have the tendency to skim through those parts but I think it was well done in this book. The main character loves expressing herself through her passion for makeup and fashion design, which she’s super talented at. So having all those descriptions of outfits and makeup from her POV made sense cause that’s what someone like her would observe and be interested in. If the main character wasn’t as interested in fashion then all the detailed descriptions would have felt unnecessary.
3. The Main Theme/Message
The overall theme in Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe was found family and finding yourself. This is a story about a foster kid learning that family is more than just blood and that it’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s about finding a group of people that love you for who you are and become your family. Seeing Jess open up her “cold, dark heart” and find that family with friends and her foster mom was emotional but satisfying.
4. The Diversity
All the diverse representation made me very happy!!! Every character had a unique background and distinguished personality. There is a plus size MC (body positive rep), bipoc characters, a LGBTQA+ character, and neurodivergent characters. There was also foster kid rep that was own-voices! With all the diversity came lots of open discussions about important topics such as:
- the effects of being a kid in the foster care system
- struggling with mental illness
- body-shaming
- the lack of diversity in the cosplay fandom
- how horror movies contribute to the stigma of mental illness
5. The Geek Culture References/Quotes
The overall plot was about a team of cosplayers so there was plenty of geeky references in this book! There was a wide range of geek culture showcased in this book like the film/tv show geeks, the book nerds (aka ME and probably all the book lovers who visit my blog), the gamers, and the computer coders. There was also Live Action Role Play (LARP) scene that I fangirled over cause it’s something I would LOVE to do one day! There was lots of pop culture references that I think would appeal to everyone’s geeky side.
At the beginning of every chapter, whether fictional or not, there was a quote from different books, poetry, and movies that were relevant to the story. I liked how each quote kinda gave a hint or theme to the chapter ahead and I thought that was a nice touch. I was even more excited or nervous, depending on what the quote was, to continue reading. I definitely fangirled over a lot of the quotes.
Favorite Quotes
Lindsay S. Zrull is a former foster teen and current book nerd. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science and earned a second Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Harvard Extension. Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe is her first novel. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @LSZrull.
Check out Zrull’s Author Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
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So that was my post for my stop on the Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe Book tour! If you have read this book, what were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!
