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Hope Nicholson, ND Stevenson: The secret loves of geek girls (2016) 4 stars

"The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is a non-fiction anthology mixing prose, comics, and illustrated …

Review of 'The secret loves of geek girls' on Goodreads

4 stars

Halfway through reading this, a friend asked what I thought of it. I told her I liked it because it gave me a POV on realities I've never experienced. I appreciated the stories from a female/geek/lesbian/coloured/ethnic minority/social outcast perspective. Various combinations of these traits gave me a lot to think about what I felt was by definition "different" than me. The stories themselves are all sorts of funny, touching and consistently interesting. The same holds true for the comics included.

As I went on, I realised that while the specific nature of these differences were objectively alien to me, the idea and the feeling of "different" was not. I too have felt non-fitting at various points in my life, only across other vectors than those described by the authors. Progressing through the stories I felt a meta-connection with aspects of the stories: I too have been painfully rejected and I've clumsily rejected others. I too have felt a deep connection based on understanding and communication. I too have felt dumbfounded with social norms my peers have felt as being only natural. I too have found relief and deep, deep interest in pastimes others thought of as too esoteric or distant or geeky (reading, writing, "strange" music, Lego, etc). And I too have found online communities with similarly minded people around those interests.

I'm so glad I backed this project on Kickstarter. The title might put you off, seeming way too different to your liking. I'd say it's precisely because of this that it'll be really worth your time to read these stories.