Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse by Maya Phillips

Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse Reviews

• 
  Renata

  I kept seeing this book on our new nonfiction display and side-eying the cover, which I think is pretty bad tbh. It has vibes of those "In this house we believe..." signs. So I was like, no thanks, nerd.
  
  And then my friend Jessica specifically recommended it to me, and I was like, this one??? And she was like, yeah it's great, and I was like, OK fine I'll stop judging it by the cover. (oh also I was specifically side-eying the use of Harry Potter Font but do not worry, she addresses JKR's disappointing TERFdom!)
  
  And I really liked it! I'm a fan of essay collections in general and I liked the blend here of personal memoir and media analysis. Also I wasn't familiar with Maya Phillips before, so I didn't know that she's a Black woman and I particularly appreciated her POV on nerd culture which can be pretty white/racist at times.
  
  Also it helped me understand more about anime! I enjoyed her thoughts on shows/movies/books I hadn't seen/read as much as stuff I was more familiar with. Fun and insightful! I like to read things written by people who are approximately as Online as I am (very).
• 
  Bon

  Happy release day!
  
  What an insightful and eloquent, if at times a little lengthy, selection of essays examining what it means to be a fan, from buying packs of cards to watching Saturday morning cartoons to confronting the darker sides of media messaging.
  
  If you're interested in a wide array of fandoms, spanning genres and formats, from Digimon to Firefly and even old classic westerns, there's something for you here in Maya Phillips' Nerd, coming out October 11th. Thank you, Netgalley and Atria books for a copy to review.
  
  I think the author and I are of an age, so the references to Pokemon after school and Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim at night were big "omg yes" moments of relatability. I recognized probably 80% of the shows and movies mentioned here, so the book was a good fit. Readers certainly must be open to criticism of their faves.
  
  I've also not read such detailed examination of bulwarks of my childhood nostalgia anywhere else, save perhaps Twitter threads. I was very impressed by a solid Sailor Moon analysis through the lens of gender and sexuality. And it was refreshing to read someone hit spot-on the things I have found increasingly uncomfortably in anime: hypersexualization of female characters (who are often underage) with a male gaze in mind.
  
  I appreciated a lot of the insights unique to Phillips' identity, too. The section on how to tackle cosplay as a Black fan felt so timely, and the addressing of cultural appropriation and problematic racial depictions in anime were fascinating. Her place in the white nostalgia fandoms of Jane Austen and other period romances was a sobering few paragraphs, Austen super-fan that I am myself.
  
  Parts did start to feel over-long, especially in fandoms I wasn't very 'fluent' in. The Harry Potter section I completely skipped, I'll admit. I am not interested in any analysis of that stuff anymore. If you're not a fan of spoilers I would definitely recommend skipping passages that mention a title of potential interest - most are examined in depth and you will be spoiled, perhaps even put off of a show or movie.
  
  But otherwise this was an enlightening, entertaining and savvy look at some of my favorite fandoms.
• 
  ♥♣Mary♦♠ If She So Pleases

  
  Out of all the books I signed up to win, I was really hoping to win this one. I even mentioned how cool it seemed to family members that were close by. I won this book for an honest review. Although I enjoyed many of the productions mentioned here: Harry Potter, Sailor Moon, Batman, Death Note, Legion, and many other productions...I'm not a fan of Maya Phillips' essays. It's not all bad, but mostly bad. The book has an incredible amount of spoilers so if you haven't watched productions like The Magicians, you may want to hold off.
• 
  Daniel Kukwa

  It's a pretty solid rumination on different types of geek fandom, although it's far too anime heavy for my taste...and it also comes with some tiresome elements (such as the shots a Jodie Whittaker's era of Doctor Who) and an overly 90s focus that rubs against my GenX 80s background. Good stuff, but I was hoping for something more.
• 
  Mishma

  Really enjoyed some chapters, but I think I was not nerd enough for some of them (especially the anime ones). A great work of culture criticism though!
• 
  Kressel Housman

  I probably would have gotten more out of this book if I shared more of the author's fandoms, but she gave a good analysis of fan/nerd culture in general, including some incisive observations about racism and sexism.
• 
  Trevor Seigler

  I wanted to like this book more than I ended up doing; after all, cultural criticism is one of my favorite genres of non-fiction writing, especially when talking about pop culture from the last sixty years or so. These essays should be in my sweet spot, but for the most part they seem to run on far longer than they should, and the ones focused on anime in its many forms do nothing for me as a non-fan. That's not saying that the author, Maya Phillips, is a bad writer; her passion for her fandoms shines through with each paragraph, and the most compelling cultural writing can make you care for something that you'd never thought about, so while I'm not moved much by the in-depth discussion of certain anime titles I know that someone else will find them compelling. Phillips is a great writer, and I will seek out anything else that she has written or will write in the future, but this debut collection is not quite as satisfying as I hoped it would be. She's a new voice in cultural critique to watch, though, and I recommend this book to anyone seeking new voices (especially from underrepresented communities like Black women) to tackle some of the pop-culture discussions that have raged online for the last decade or so.
• 
  Shayna

  Pros:
  - unique perspectives from a black woman and new yorker
  - essays well organized by topics
  - Good for someone who wants plots of shows/movies outlined or who wants to hear someone talk about fandoms.
  
  Cons:
  - This book is much more autobiography and show/movie synopsis than it is critique. While critical analysis does occur, there were very few times where I felt fresh and new perspectives were being shared. It's also all completely opinion, without mentioning any other published debates to compare to.
• 
  Aubrie

  I listened to this as an audiobook.
  
  Content warnings: racism and sexism as described and experienced by the author. Some plot spoiling for certain fandoms.
  
  I already read Black Nerd Problems by William Evans and Omar Holman, which I loved, and I was hoping this would be similar. I wasn't disappointed. I do think that this book has less ups and downs, Black Nerd Problems would be laugh out loud funny and then get really somber really quick. In Nerd, there were very serious moments, but for the most part I felt like I was talking to a best friend about all the things that we grew up on like Sailor Moon and Batman and more, but with a more critical eye now that we've grown up and learned more about the world. This book also adds a little bit more about the sexism in geek culture that I felt Black Nerd Problems didn't really touch too much on.
  
  Do I recommend? Yes, especially for all the nerds out there!
• 
  Alicia

  Don't be fooled by the cheesy cover! Maya's recollections and analysis of everything nerdy, from comics to cartoons to books to conventions, make for a fantastic read. Told from her perspective as a millennial who grew up during the era of Saturday Morning cartoons, she examines and critiques pop culture fandoms (including superheros, 90s cartoons, anime, teen dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Lord of the Rings) and addresses how social structures such as power, gender, sexuality, and religion tie into these stories. Her point of view as a Black woman provides an refreshing and insightful look at properties that are overwhelming white, and I loved the chapter on Black characters and tropes. This was nostalgic and relatable and I recommend it, especially for millennial nerds like myself.
  
  Note: this does contain spoilers for a number of fandoms, so reader beware.
• 
  Ashley

  I very rarely read nonfiction, but when I saw this book at B&N I had to pick it up, if only for the clearly nerdy references in the fonts on the cover. Phillips discusses so much of what I think of every day as a fan (and fellow number 4 in the enneagram) and even more! Right from the eleventh doctor quote at the beginning to the very end, she tells a compelling story of growing up with fandom
• 
  Shayla Scott

  3.75 rating. I liked the book overall however be forewarned that it is very anime heavy, which I only look at sparingly. There were some things that I was in agreement with while some others I had a different opinion. It's a solid read!
• 
  Erin Regan

  3.5 ⭐️ The good and the bad of fandoms. A really interesting critique and appreciation for the things us nerds love! For me personally, it was a little heavy on anime, so while I didn’t understand some parts very well, she did intrigue me to expand my interests.
• 
  *:･ﾟaddis ✧*

  i just know the author and I would be very good friends
• 
  Jordyn

  This book was exactly what I wanted. A thorough analysis of pop culture and what it means to be a fan. It also tackled topics such as representation and religion. This author is a great journalist.
• 
  Chloë Womble Barr

  mfw i read a book of essays and commentary written by a critic and she’s critical: :0
  
  - she definitely opens some discourse in ways i hadn’t thought of before around fandom / nerd culture. that is not to say i enjoyed it.
  - about half the book is her recounting various plots, characters, etc of entire series of media, and at some points it just feels like she’s talking at you? but for the amount of references to nerd media this book makes, it feels like it should be for people who KNOW—it would flow better. but instead she tried to write it for people who KNOW, and also people who DO NOT KNOW, and it just ends up feeling like a book report. i just started neon genesis evangelion and i had to skip the part where she discussed it because she spoiled pretty much everything else she brought up.
  - with these kinds of books i guess what i struggle with is like, miss maya, what do you want? ie, the black representation chapter: even positive black media has something to criticize for her. and like i don’t really get it? like, do you want a series that has a normal character who happens to be black? or does it have to be this huge deal where the character or series has to encapsulate the entirety of the black experience (which, i would argue, is most likely different for the author who grew up well off enough to go to a private school, than it would be for a black kid growing up in a title 1 school)? there’s always something in every media she mentions that she finds a problem with. and i get that dialogue is good and representation in media is important, but, like…what do you want??? it will never be enough.
  - she harps on the fact that in doctor who, black characters going back in time isn’t addressed (bill can’t just dress up in a nice dress and act like she belongs because it’s the 1700s and she’s black so it just doesn’t work)—but it also feels like (though she doesn’t mention it) miss maya would love the diverse casting of hamilton, which, although it is fiction, is EXPLICITLY set in history (???)
  - glad to see her mention kindred tho!!! i enjoyed that book. and also black leopard, red wolf because i’ve been looking forward to reading that.
  - tbh i don’t think you can rightly look at firefly, a show where the main cast is constantly on the run from the government for opposing its ideals and also stealing and some general smuggling, and say “The show supported the notion that they had some more righteous sense of ownership to the universe.” the crew makes do, but i feel like a lot of the point is that the sky is the only thing they have left—and living in the air is not really any way to live.
  
  ultimately this book was not for me. it was super political and i do not like when my silly little escapist worlds are connected to the real one. when i engage in fandom / nerd culture / reading my silly little scifi-fantasy novels, it is for 1000% ESCAPISM. and yes, while dialogue and criticism of media is important—my favorite interests should not be immune to the same scrutiny i would give a literary work—it brings me pain and makes me very uncomfortable to hear the author express such displeasure for the things i love. i NEVER read to find myself in characters or worlds—although (like janner in the wingfeather saga) it hits a lot harder when i do. i read to escape from my life and read about people who are not me, who are different than me, who have different personalities and problems. maya reads / watches to find herself, and is upset when she doesn’t see herself represented perfectly in the media she consumes. we are different people participating in the same outlets for different reasons.
  
  tldr this book was not for me.
• 
  Cari

  I knew I had to get this book as soon as I saw it (thank you, Edelweiss!) Phillips is ten years younger than me, so I appreciated her insight about fandoms I've never been a part of. I got to geek out with her over Batman: The Animated Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel, and Doctor Who. I really liked Phillips' critique of anime, specifically, because I've never watched it. There's a lot going on there, especially in Sailor Moon. I also appreciated the intersectionality of the book as well and Phillips' views on how Black culture has been misrepresented and marginalized in these universes. Queer culture, too, has been marred by J.K. Rowling's current nonsense. I gained many new perspectives and insights from this book--highly recommended for those steeped in any fandom.
• 
  Sean Goh

  I thought it would be the nerdy, comics and anime focused version of
  another book I read recently , and it was, in a way. A travel through various fandom kingdoms such as cartoons, comics, anime/manga, TV shows and films, this book gives one a slice of the various pop culture fandoms swirling around out there, and rounds off with a meta-critique of what fandoms x internet (esp for fanfiction and forums) x conventions means for pop culture's evolution. The last two chapters were more thought-provoking for me that the actual genre chapters. - key thought - the authors of a body of work (e.g. Rowling) may have started something, but now they aren't the only arbiters of what is canon (and can even get cancelled, in Rowling's case).
  
  Naturally in such a book looking at overall plotlines, spoilers for the various series it touches on are to be found.
  ____
  What makes Joker so terrifying and troublesome - it locks the audience within the perspective of a white man with the power to incite a mass movement without reckoning how this vision - even one born of injustice and marginalisation - obscures other, actually marginalised people.
  
  The pastiche approach to humor and style is what really characterised animated kids' shows in the 90's - B horror movies from the 50s, comic books from the 60s, the aesthetic style of the 70s.
  
  The marks left on us by the people in our lives are much more indelible. When compared to the depths and imagination of human cruelty, monsters can seem totally harmless.
  
  There is a cultural fascination with adolescence; entertainment media loves to romanticise high school, as do many people.
  Adolescence includes the freedom and liveliness and daring of childhood without the burdens of responsibility that come with adulthood - at least in the ideal fantasy often depicted in teen shows. Teen dramas capture the bubble that is privileged adolescent life, full of superficial concerns and conflicts.
  
  The use of fan service in shonen manga assumes the worst of both sexes. Even when women occupy positions of power, they cannot do so without baring their cleavage or butts. But even the male viewers, at whom the fan service is targeted, are underestimated, because the assumption is that the show won't be able to hold their attention without frequent eye candy.
  
  Captain America and many other heroes in the MCU are glorified law enforcement until they are glorified vigilantes. They are either the institution itself or free to act outside it. This is the power a white male hero - or any powerful white man in America, actually - wields.
  
  African sci-fi and fantasy imagines the continent as a place where mythology and whimsy can thrive. This repositions Africa as a home for imagination and epic adventure, and frees the continent of some of the racist and political associations it bears from a white Western perspective.
  African fantasy then functions as an alternate take on Black Zionism, the idea that Black Americans of the diaspora would need to return to Africa to reconnect with their ancestry and free themselves of the aftereffects of white colonialism, including systemic inequality.
  
  *on her mother's desire to live in Regency-era England* - "I was meant to be born back then"
  "no, because then you'd be a slave."
  ..."oh, yeah."
  
  Time traveling stories have one prominent flaw in the genre - the racial privilege baked into these stories, aka the dangers of time-travelling while black. They don't have any dangerous time periods to avoid.
  from the Fox comedy Making History "I am Black. There is literally no place in American history that will be awesome for me".
  
  In Woke, Keef's Black roommate tells him that once he becomes woke, he can't go back to being blind. Once you see it all, you can't unsee it. There's no rewinding - your identity is always there, and the world will always react to it.
  
  Fans love to connect to their fandoms in a way that says they are actually part of the world. When they claim a house or tribe, they claim a whole community of characters and a whole culture and history.
  
  The 'chosen one' narrative often espoused by popular stories (e.g. Harry Potter) is at worst a troubling brand of narcissism, to think that one is elevated on a higher plane than others.
  
  No wonder the Old Testament was full of grim stories about punishment and fear. We love creating myths to fill the space where our deepest existential fears live. Perhaps fear of God is preferable to the fear of total nothingness, of evil, of the absence of order.
  
  (reflecting on loophole plot resolutions in Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special and the conclusion of Avatar: the Last Airbender) The creators of shows want their stories to have believable stakes but don't want to sustain those stakes at the expense of their characters' moral superiority. But in a world full of cruelty and injustice and imperfections, there cannot be any perfect heroes, and any stories that try to say so are doing their fans a disservice.
  
  Even in times when industries and conventions are halted or threatened, fandoms will always continue to thrive and even drive the culture.
  Fandoms give pop culture a longer, more complex life that is self-sustaining, long past the last season of GoT or the last Avengers film.
  We're in the age of fans, we make the culture.
• 
  Garry Walton

  Three things inspired my high hopes for this book: hearing my two sons talk for decades about their favorite comics and the tv/film treatments thereof; reading the BookPage review of Nerd in Nov 2022 (
  https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/nerd...) ; and finding some of author Maya Phillips's incisive commentary about blind spots of gender, race and class in current US entertainment culture (e.g.,
  https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/...).
  
  Though originating in many of her occasional "comics-culture" reflections over the past few years, published in Slate, New Yorker, Mashable, Polygon, New York Times, the nine expanded essays in this volume can be disappointing to a reader expecting her trademark insights and critiques. For one thing, these chapters often show their seams of having been stitched together from previous shorter pieces on a particular film or series. More annoying to some readers will be the descriptions of the works discussed, which are too anime-heavy for many readers and often let slip spoilers of plot. Least interesting in my eyes is Phillips's tendency to recast her previously published pithy insights into a longer memoir of her fascination since childhood with fantasy worlds in print and on screen. As she recounts sitting in the dark in front of the tv in her parents' bedroom on Saturday mornings, or in front of her computer screen in her college dorm room, or decked out for cos-play at a Comic Con, we get a good feel for her as a young fan but much less of a sense of her more mature perspectives on the cultural icons that so fascinated her younger, less perceptive self. She rightly objects that it is not her sole responsibility as a young female fan of color to address each of the manifold shortcomings of her beloved fandom, but unfortunately she is uniquely qualified by race and gender and education and perceptivity to serve as a valued guide in this overwhelmingly white male world. I look forward to her assumption of her mantle.
• 
  Martin Maenza

  Nerd comes out on October 11, 2022; Atria Books provided me an early galley to review.
  
  Even though I am old enough to be her father, I could relate very much to the nine essays in Maya's book. That speaks very much to the commonality of the nerd culture, despite which generation we were born into. She talks about things that my friends and I would talk about all the time, especially when we'd get together for Comic-Con in San Diego for a week of nerd-festivities. And her passion is the same kind that we'd exhibit.
  
  I enjoyed her writing style a lot. It is relaxed, welcoming and relatable. She is the kind of person who wants to talk about her favorites yet also comes across as someone who'd listen as you talk about your favorites too. That's the sign of true nerd culture - respecting what others bring to the table too. Unlike other similar essay collections I've read, she chooses to create longer pieces that group various fandom properties together into overall thematic subjects. I think that provides for a more solid reading experience.
  
  As her work illustrates, the culture of nerd fandom has moved over the past few decades from a fringe thing to a multi-million-dollar pillar of the entertainment communities. Sci-fi and superheroes are not just for the social misfits of the world; these genres are the backdrops to telling amazing stories of emotion, growth and conflict. They have become staples just in the way that westerns and police/detective shows and movies did in the 1960's. Basically, the rest of the world has come to realize what we nerds have known for most of my lifetime: a good story is a good story.
  
  In the end, I learned about a few things for which I only knew previously by name recognition. That means I have some new (to me) things to check out in the future. Thank you, Maya.
• 
  Gillian Puma

  I give this more of a 3.7, but that’s because I’m slightly biased. This book piqued my interest not only from its rather interesting cover, but to also analyze it for slight inspiration for a nerd critical essay I’m writing for my own Wordpress blog.
  
  Maya Phillips writing and even talking style is very familiar as a fellow nerd, at times it felt like the intellectual conversations I have with my best friends (who are also nerds, you know I love y’all). She did her research and definitely adds some really good input on the politicization of modern superhero content as well as the representation of POC in franchises. I really appreciate her enthusiasm about anime particularly, as I feel that anime is definitely more of a niche branch of nerd culture. Her personal encounters and experiences feel real and I can tell that she truly wrote this book with a lot of passion.
  
  However, there are a few criticisms I would like to point out. Maya at times goes very deep into describing the plot of the work of art she’s about to criticize and at times, can come off more like a book summary with tons of spoilers. I think that this book should at least have had a few disclaimers of the series she’s covering before delving into paragraphs about them. I would not recommend starting this book unless you’re very up to date with modern nerd culture. I also found some of the superhero coverage to be repetitive, however they’re so prominent in today’s pop culture so I understand why there was so much Marvel information. Overall, this was a really sweet read and if you’re really into the evolution of fandom culture, this is the book for you.
• 
  Mirissa Sorensen

  Plot summaries are extensive. Everything is spoiled for you. Everything. It’s not a cohesive book but instead a series of essays covering different facets of nerd culture. For example, one covers the question of hero vs antihero vs vigilante by diving into the morals of Watchmen, The Joker, The Boys, etc. Another explores fandom culture by talking about conventions and canon. But to me it read less critique in a general sense and more like college essays where Phillips makes each chapter a memoir. In one she talks deeply about her anxiety, in another her concept of her own Blackness. All of these things are viewed through the lens of her nerdom but in a way that’s sort of othering to me. I didn’t want to read little personal biographies. I wanted to explore fandom writ large.
  
  Sure, there were things I related to. In particular, I empathized with the Marvel fatigue alluded to in the last chapter. I agreed with many of her criticisms and perspectives, but this book critiques the things I love and when things are critiqued—even by someone who also loves them—you can’t help but feel like the writer is kind of calling you out for enjoying something despite its shallowness or callbacks to the past. (This Star Wars fan loves her Easter eggs, OK!?) Also, it’s so incredibly anime heavy and I don’t particularly enjoy anime and therefore don’t partake, so all of that felt like it wasn’t for me.
  
  On the other hand, it has some great lines. I’m going to carry this one away with me and peace out: “To think that dual suns rising in a sky isn’t a kind of poetry is absurd.”
• 
  Jenny

  Ever the critic, even then, I was nonplussed by the hype and decided the show wasn’t worth my eight-year-old attention. My mind remained unchanged until, one day at school, I walked up to a group of boys who were having a lively Pokemon debate. I stopped, curious, but suddenly one turned to me and declared, with a tone of gib self-satisfaction “You don't know about Pokemon. Girls don’t know about Pokemon.”
  
  Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse
  by Maya Philips
  
  Dorks & nerds unite! It’s a great time to be alive when so many of our interests are finally accepted & celebrated in popular culture. At least we have that! I spent many a year loving Star Wars, cartoons, video games, Jim Henson movies, and Lord of the Rings to name a few in secret. Not only were girls not allowed to like certain things, but even older adults (especially women) were not supposed to like such things. But here we are. In the middle of a burst of MCU, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.
  
  This is a memoir where Phillips guides through periods of her life that have shaped her through her fandoms. She shines a spotlight on the very obvious lack of race in so many fandoms & how it's still an issue in our modern world. We're not making big enough strides. We need full human experience to create full dynamic adventures.
  
  It’s one of those books that was just a delight to read. From a fan perspective, as a woman, & a human. Although, I’m not in every fandom that Phillips is a part of & vice versa, it’s a refreshing read to be a part of her world & the joy it brings to her. We, as fans, can relate.
  
• 
  Ryo

  I received a copy of this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.
  
  This is a collection of nine essays, exploring the author's personal history from childhood with cartoons and anime, and then later comic books, Marvel, conventions, and other "nerd" culture. While the essays were certainly well-written and researched, many of them, especially near the beginning, felt very long, and I also was unfamiliar with such a large percentage of the references that I was often reading very condensed summaries of these various shows and movies without actually absorbing them, as the author moves from one example to the next without spending too much time on any single work she references. There were times when I read a summary of a show or movie and thought that was interesting, but because it usually requires spoiling a lot of the plot to connect that property to the author's general point, it was sort of ruined for me. I did appreciate how the author connected these various "nerdy" things and explored them in a deeper way than I would have, examining sexism, racism, mental health, and many other things through these various forms of entertainment. I just wished that I knew more than just a small fraction of the many references thrown in, and that it wasn't just a rapid succession of one reference after another.
• 
  Rachel

  I was back and forth with this one. I did enjoy some of what Phillips has to say about nerd culture and I can see the points she was making. BUT, I feel like she would get so lost in her fandoms and explaining something that happens in one specific episode and then describes something that happened in another episode - and on and on - that I wasn't even following the point she was trying to make. I understand providing evidence to back up and argument, but she does so in a way that just lost me. You know how you needed to meet a word/page count in college for essays? And you just kept throwing in every little detail to make it longer? Yeah, that's how this felt. Not only that but behold, spoilers galore! Seriously, if you have any interest in something you haven't seen in nerd culture yet, don't pick this up. Luckily I'm at that point in my life where I've basically seen all the mainstream nerdy stuff that I'm interested in and don't care about the rest, but I am floored by the amount of spoilers Phillips gives in these essays. And again that goes back to my every little detail comment. While I enjoyed the nostalgia of my own childhood years of animation and was nodding along to things I agreed with, I lost interest more than I kept it.
• 
  Carmen Liffengren

  3.5 Stars
  
  I agree with Phillips that we are always looking for ourselves in our fandoms. Critic Maya Phillips deconstructs fandoms in terms of representation and politics and as a woman of color, she is always looking for connection. While I am no stranger to a comic con, the MCU, YA dystopian novels (The Hunger Games trilogy, etc), Netflix's Stranger Things, and the Harry Potter universe, I had a harder time understanding anime. Phillips spent a lot of her youth watching anime cartoons. I had to stop and look up series like Sailor Moon to fully understand her deconstruction of these more niche fandoms. When she wrote about the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), I could relate to the madness of the multiverse. I understood her joy at seeing herself in Black Panther and Wakanda. What I love about attending a comic con/Fan Expo, it's a place for people to find connections and to find their people who also share their passions. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting from Nerd, but I think I was expecting much more of a memoir.
• 
  Gerardine Betancourt

  The book with the most spoilers for anime, TV series, movies, comics, and books that I have read in my life.
  Not everyone is like this but, I hate spoilers, if it's something I'm not interested in seeing it doesn't bother me, but in this case, it was something constant and repetitive throughout the book, many times I had to skip 30 seconds of the audiobook to see if she would stop telling me the random ending of tv series.
  If you are interested in seeing a series or anime without spoilers, do not read this book. It seems that what the author wanted was to talk about how geeky she is and tell you sometimes for no reason about the scene from Doctor Who, the Magicians, or the anime that it's streaming on Netflix. She seems like one of those types of people that you find on the street and wants to tell you the first 5 minutes that you know them, the ending of the new Avatar.
  Sorry, but it was too much