Dating a non-geek means they might want to normal-fy me. I am terrified of someone constantly telling me my shows or comics are dumb, wishing I’d “tone down my hair a bit,” or asking me to give up my job ...[p. 91]
Michael-Grace is thirty years old, goes by MG, designs extravagant costumes for her drag-queen friend Lawrence, a.k.a. Latifah, and holds down a job as a comic-book writer at Genius Comics, working on a reboot of a thirty-year-old superhero comic called 'The Hooded Falcon'. She's the only female writer in a moderately toxic male environment, and she's sworn off romance after her last boyfriend made secret YouTube videos of her. MG refuses to live down to her mother's expectations: instead, she's excited to discover that the final unfinished run of 'The Hooded Falcon' may not have been unfinished after all. But someone else has also made this discovery -- maybe the same person who's running around the city, cosplaying as the Golden Arrow -- and MG could hold the key to the mystery. Enter LAPD detective Matteo Kildare, who proposes a fake relationship so he can get to know her colleagues and make use of MG's trade and fandom connections.
It's a familiar trope, but nicely handled here as MG slowly realises that Matteo knows nothing about geek culture (he hasn't even seen Star Wars!) and that maybe her mistake has been her insistence on dating geeks... This doesn't stop her keeping secrets from Matteo, as she tries to weigh up conflicting loyalties and ambitions, and work out what she really wants.
This was a fun read, a mystery revolving around comics and fandom with some very real peril and a good exploration of the culture that brought us Gamergate. MG is a likeable heroine, a little over-confident in her ability to succeed where LAPD's finest have failed, and determined to solve the mystery even if it means breaking promises. Her friends and colleagues are generally good people and well-characterised, and there's a strong theme of found family and of the freedom to be oneself. Fascinating take on comics history, too, and the rivalries and motivations of creators.
This is the first in a series: I'd be happy to read more, once the TBR pile has shrunk a bit.
Fulfils the ‘Set in a workplace’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
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