Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
Genres: Contemporary (YA)
Pages: 62
Goodreads
‘Everybody likes everything these days. The whole world is a nerd.’‘Are you mad because other people like Star Wars? Are you mad because people like me like Star Wars?’‘Maybe.’
If you broke Elena’s heart, Star Wars would spill out. So when she decides to queue outside her local cinema to see the new movie, she’s expecting a celebration with crowds of people who love Han, Luke and Leia just as much as she does.
What she’s not expecting is to be last in a line of only three people; to have to pee into a collectible Star Wars soda cup behind a dumpster or to meet that unlikely someone who just might truly understand the way she feels.
Kindred Spirits is an engaging short story by Rainbow Rowell, author of the bestselling Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On. Kindred Spirits has been specially produced for World Book Day.
Kindred Spirits was a very short and sweet story about one girl’s love of Star Wars. What I loved about it wasn’t necessarily the story or the characters, which were both fine, but what I loved was that it got me thinking about fandoms, or just one person’s love for a certain movie, book, or television show.
So, that’s what I want to talk about today.
In Kindred Spirts, there is a character named Troy. He’s an older male who has attended all the Star Wars movie release days, which included standing in the lines for the movie. I could relate to him on so many levels. When I was younger, midnight releases of movies were so much fun. People got in line hours before. You brought food, blankets, cards. Hell, I even saw people bring monopoly to a few of them. Some people dressed up. It was always so much fun, in a weird way (since you are kind of just sitting on the sidewalk waiting for a movie). It always felt good to be surrounded by people who shared the love you had for that movie.
Now? Not so much. The theater we go to now has assigned seating. Which has totally ruined the experience of showing up for a midnight showing. What is the point if your seat is saved for you when you purchase the tickets? This isn’t the case for everyone, I’m sure, but it is for me, which is unfortunate.
Elena’s character drove that feeling home for me. She is the only one of her friends who likes Star Wars so she goes to the movie release by herself. How many of you can relate to that? Because I can.
I’m the only one of my friends who reads as much as I do. I’m the only one of my friends that blogs. I’m the only one of my friends that is into certain shows and movies. Luckily, my husband is supportive and we do share some similar interests. He’ll listen to me talk about my blog, my books, he even knows the names of a few of you guys because honestly, ya’ll are my friends. Which brings me to my next point:
What is great about being part of a fandom, or just into books, these days is that there is this whole online community that gets it. There is a whole lot of you that understands what “Am I not merciful?” means. There is a lot of you that gets why All The Bright Places leaves you emotionally drained. There are even more of you that understand why certain books cause book hangovers. There’s an entire community that knows what OTP, ARC, YA, NA, TBR, and DNF means.
Having a community like that is immensely important for so many people.
Kindred Spirits, in its short 62 pages, really got me thinking about this community and how thankful I am to be in it. Even though we can’t all physically wait in lines for hours or go to the bookstore or have book photoshoots or binge watch Netflix together, it’s just as important to have a group of people you can chat about all those things with!
This community gets a little insane sometimes. Sometimes there are debates over books, over political and social views, but what everyone needs to remember is that we’re all here for the same thing. We all just want to talk about our interests and we’re incredibly lucky to have an online community of thousands of people who want to do the same thing.
So, hats off to us guys! For creating this place we can all go to and feel comfortable enough to talk about our opinions. Let’s keep that going.
Oh, and read Kindred Spirits, because it obviously had an effect on me.
17 Comments
I’ve been meaning to get to this book, cause seriously it’s Rainbow Rowell. And SAME not a single person I know shares my first fandom!
You should. It’s super short but maybe it’ll make you think the same as me hahah What is your first fandom?
The first fandom I actively participated in was How to train your dragon
Really? I only saw the first one >.<
OMG, reading this post was like reading about myself. Like you, I’m the only person who is passionate about the books that I read (or reads at all, honestly), the shows that I watch and the ships that I ship. None of my friends blog like me and while that sucks, I’m grateful for the blogging community because I’m not so alone there.
I’m going to put this on my list…which is getting longer and longer the more that I read everyone’s blog posts. Ha!
Girl, yeah. No one reads except my husband. But he doesn’t read the same books as me. OMG yes and blogging! I wish I had a friend who blogged so I could vent about things hahahah but at least we all have each other on here! 🙂
That sounds like such an interesting book, I’ll have to read it! I saw this picture on Pinterest and thought I’d share ?
Hahaha, this is excellent!
hahahah that’s basically real life for me. xD
We have assigned seating now too and I’m like what is this?? The first time I had to pick my seat I was like no way! lol still not used to it. But anyway… Kindred Spirits sounds great, and I’ll definitely check it out. And you’re so right about the community- I have a few friends who are into genre stuff but most people in my family or whatever aren’t into any of this stuff. It seems so boring NOT to be, you know? lol great post!
While I love assigned seating because its convenient. No showing up early for the best seats. You can even be late and you still have your seat. It definitely took away the midnight showing fun all together. But at least we have a few people to chat about our interests with!
I recently acquired this book and am SO EXCITED to read it, because I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things.
I can totally relate to that picture in the comments because most of the books I read have no fandom lol, buuuuuut it’s still fantastic to have this book community. Maybe there aren’t always people to discuss my feelings about specific books with, but there *are* all these people who understand my love for books in general, who don’t think I’m crazy when I finish a book and post on GR that I feel like laughing and crying at the same time because of how much a book affected me, who don’t think it’s weird how much I read, etc. And you’re right, that is so amazing and important to have people who understand things like that!
hahaha while I do read a lot of the books everyone else is reading, I can relate to that a bit. There a few even YA books that other people haven’t read that I love and just want to talk about. But, like you said, either way there are people that understand our love of books & we can still talk about all the bookish things or even just become friends!
I can totally relate to that picture in the comments because most of the books I read have no fandom lol, buuuuuut it’s still fantastic to have this book community. Maybe there aren’t always people to discuss my feelings about specific books with, but there *are* all these people who understand my love for books in general, who don’t think I’m crazy when I finish a book and post on GR that I feel like laughing and crying at the same time because of how much a book affected me, who don’t think it’s weird how much I read, etc. And you’re right, that is so amazing and important to have people who understand things like that!
Aaah, another fandom-related book (or rather, short story) by Rainbow Rowell! I really liked Fangirl so I’m definitely going to read this.
I also have only one friend at school who shares the same passion as I do when it comes to reading, but we usually don’t read the same books so that sort of sucks. That’s why I’m really glad I joined this community, where I can get to talk about books and fandoms without worry while having fun at the same time. Because come on, nothing’s sadder than wanting to fangirl about a book without anybody to fangirl it with!
Yes! This one is a very short story hahaha but it’s still cute nonetheless.
LOL RIGHT. I bug my husband with some of my thoughts about the books I read, but it’s not the same when you talk to someone who has read the book lol