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Gottie Writes #0
An Unauthorized Fan Treatise
The exclusive online prequel to the novel Last Seen Online.
An Unauthorized Fan Treatise (on the nature of the relationship between actors Rob Hennings and Nathan O’Donnell on TV show Loch & Ness, by @gottiewrites)
Gottie is a fangirl for Loch & Ness, a TV show about paranormal detectives. She’s convinced that two of the male actors are secretly dating, and she’ll stop at nothing to prove it. When her online investigations accidentally uncover far more than she expects, she becomes complicit in secrets beyond just a romantic conspiracy theory.
An internet thriller told in a ‘true crime’ style recollection of events, the novel includes social media extracts such as modern Tumblr posts and early-noughties LiveJournal blog entries.
An Unauthorized Fan Treatise (on the nature of the relationship between actors Rob Hennings and Nathan O’Donnell on TV show Loch & Ness, by @gottiewrites)
Gottie is a fangirl for Loch & Ness, a TV show about paranormal detectives. She’s convinced that two of the male actors are secretly dating, and she’ll stop at nothing to prove it. When her online investigations accidentally uncover far more than she expects, she becomes complicit in secrets beyond just a romantic conspiracy theory.
An internet thriller told in a ‘true crime’ style recollection of events, the novel includes social media extracts such as modern Tumblr posts and early-noughties LiveJournal blog entries.
220 pages, ebook
First published October 14, 2019
24 people are currently reading
696 people want to read
About the author
Lauren James
20 books1,572 followers**This is my old author profile - follow https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1... for ongoing updates!***
Wren James is the Carnegie-longlisted British author of many Young Adult novels as ‘Lauren James’, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. They are a RLF Royal Fellow at Aston University and the story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper (Seasons 2 and 3).
Wren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, editor of the anthology Future Hopes: Hopeful stories in a time of climate change, and a member of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Committee. They work as a consultant on climate storytelling for museums, production companies, major brands and publishers, with a focus on optimism and hope. They run a Queer Writers group in Coventry.
Their books have sold over two hundred thousand copies worldwide in seven languages. The Quiet at the End of the World was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award.
Their other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise.
Wren’s writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Wren was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where they studied Chemistry and Physics. They have taught creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands. Their next release is Last Seen Online.
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October 16, 2019
This story is being serialised on https://gottiewrites.wordpress.com/
If you've ever been interested in fandom conspiracies and wild online drama such as Caroline Calloway, MsScribe, One Direction's Babygate, the Lorde powerpoint, the Kaylor drama, or Cassandra Clare's LiveJournal days - you are going to LOVE this story.
If you've ever been interested in fandom conspiracies and wild online drama such as Caroline Calloway, MsScribe, One Direction's Babygate, the Lorde powerpoint, the Kaylor drama, or Cassandra Clare's LiveJournal days - you are going to LOVE this story.
Read
July 11, 2024July 2024:
The novel Last Seen Online is out 1st August! This features Gottie's blog alongside a whole new investigation into the Loch & Ness murder, set a decade later. If you preorder in the UK you can get a signed goody bag pack here: https://forms.gle/SGbTf7aG93PiLdnu7
ast Seen Online is a murder mystery set in the iconic LA of teen movies like Clueless and Booksmart. Through glam hollywood parties, our girl detective investigates an old murder case by the cast of a paranormal TV show like Supernatural. The OJ- style press frenzy that followed the death has almost been forgotten when our teen characters start stirring up the past. And the twist? One of our narrators might be the true murderer.... Because someone out there still has a lot to hide. It's a book for people like me, who grew up with the internet. A lot of the murder clues in the story are discovered online, in a multimedia 'blog' format that mimics the obsessive fan culture circling celebrities' lives. It interrogates how teenagers interact with digital culture. It's for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Gone Girl and Knives Out, or anyone who obsesses over Taylor Swift's dating life, reads Vanity Fair articles about Caroline Calloway and mainlines true crime podcasts. It's for people who loves messy, toxic women - and unreliable narrators. Like We Were Liars, I wanted to create a book that changes when you read it for the second time. This is for readers who don't accept what they're told at face value, and want stories that stay in the mind after reading, that they can discuss in the group chat.
October 2019:
It is complete! You can read the entire novel at: https://gottiewrites.com/
I answer your questions about the project on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNE2...
Obsessed with Caroline Calloway? Remember MsScribe, One Direction’s Babygate, the Lorde powerpoint, the Kaylor drama, or Cassandra Clare’s LiveJournal days? Still miss the Serial podcast? If so, this is the story for you. I’ve channelled my lifetime obsession with weird internet conspiracy theories into creating the ultimate fandom drama.
AN UNAUTHORISED FAN TREATISE (on the nature of the relationship between actors Rob Hennings and Nathan O’Donnell on TV show Loch & Ness, by @gottiewrites)
Gottie is a fangirl for Loch & Ness, a TV show about paranormal detectives. She’s convinced that two of the male actors are secretly dating, and she’ll stop at nothing to prove it. When her online investigations accidentally uncover far more than she expects, she becomes complicit in secrets beyond just a romantic conspiracy theory.
An internet thriller told in a ‘true crime’ style recollection of events, the novel includes social media extracts such as modern Tumblr posts and early-noughties LiveJournal blog entries.
I wanted to write a story set online because I’ve thirsted for books about internet culture my entire life. I can’t remember a time without the internet. I’m sure there probably was a time I didn’t use the internet (probably around the time Harry Potter first came into my life), but I don’t remember it.
Despite that, books rarely, if ever, talk about life online. There might be occasional references to Facebook, but they don’t actually talk about the internet. At least not as a vital, relationship defining form of communication, the way I use it. My friendships wouldn’t be the same without the internet. The way I speak to people, and the language and topics we cover, are completely different online to the way we talk in real life. The internet has a language all of its own. There are subcultures upon subcultures, stacked together like a Russian doll. This novel is an attempt to explore that in the language of the internet: comments and anonymous asks and forum posts.
All the ‘fandom’ YA books I’ve read are told in prose, and don’t really go into this much investigative detail about what fans get up to online. I think teenagers today, who have grown up with the internet like I did, are incredibly well-versed in this kind of detective work online, and I hardly ever see it in books. It’s a massive skill that a lot of teenagers don’t know they have, and I’d love to see that celebrated more. This kind of internet-based narrative is so fascinating to me because it’s such a unique space to tell stories that have never been told before. So I hope that you like it, or at least find it interesting and refreshing to read!
You can sign up on the website to receive email updates of each new chapter: http://gottiewrites.wordpress.com
The novel Last Seen Online is out 1st August! This features Gottie's blog alongside a whole new investigation into the Loch & Ness murder, set a decade later. If you preorder in the UK you can get a signed goody bag pack here: https://forms.gle/SGbTf7aG93PiLdnu7
ast Seen Online is a murder mystery set in the iconic LA of teen movies like Clueless and Booksmart. Through glam hollywood parties, our girl detective investigates an old murder case by the cast of a paranormal TV show like Supernatural. The OJ- style press frenzy that followed the death has almost been forgotten when our teen characters start stirring up the past. And the twist? One of our narrators might be the true murderer.... Because someone out there still has a lot to hide. It's a book for people like me, who grew up with the internet. A lot of the murder clues in the story are discovered online, in a multimedia 'blog' format that mimics the obsessive fan culture circling celebrities' lives. It interrogates how teenagers interact with digital culture. It's for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Gone Girl and Knives Out, or anyone who obsesses over Taylor Swift's dating life, reads Vanity Fair articles about Caroline Calloway and mainlines true crime podcasts. It's for people who loves messy, toxic women - and unreliable narrators. Like We Were Liars, I wanted to create a book that changes when you read it for the second time. This is for readers who don't accept what they're told at face value, and want stories that stay in the mind after reading, that they can discuss in the group chat.
October 2019:
It is complete! You can read the entire novel at: https://gottiewrites.com/
I answer your questions about the project on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNE2...
Obsessed with Caroline Calloway? Remember MsScribe, One Direction’s Babygate, the Lorde powerpoint, the Kaylor drama, or Cassandra Clare’s LiveJournal days? Still miss the Serial podcast? If so, this is the story for you. I’ve channelled my lifetime obsession with weird internet conspiracy theories into creating the ultimate fandom drama.
AN UNAUTHORISED FAN TREATISE (on the nature of the relationship between actors Rob Hennings and Nathan O’Donnell on TV show Loch & Ness, by @gottiewrites)
Gottie is a fangirl for Loch & Ness, a TV show about paranormal detectives. She’s convinced that two of the male actors are secretly dating, and she’ll stop at nothing to prove it. When her online investigations accidentally uncover far more than she expects, she becomes complicit in secrets beyond just a romantic conspiracy theory.
An internet thriller told in a ‘true crime’ style recollection of events, the novel includes social media extracts such as modern Tumblr posts and early-noughties LiveJournal blog entries.
I wanted to write a story set online because I’ve thirsted for books about internet culture my entire life. I can’t remember a time without the internet. I’m sure there probably was a time I didn’t use the internet (probably around the time Harry Potter first came into my life), but I don’t remember it.
Despite that, books rarely, if ever, talk about life online. There might be occasional references to Facebook, but they don’t actually talk about the internet. At least not as a vital, relationship defining form of communication, the way I use it. My friendships wouldn’t be the same without the internet. The way I speak to people, and the language and topics we cover, are completely different online to the way we talk in real life. The internet has a language all of its own. There are subcultures upon subcultures, stacked together like a Russian doll. This novel is an attempt to explore that in the language of the internet: comments and anonymous asks and forum posts.
All the ‘fandom’ YA books I’ve read are told in prose, and don’t really go into this much investigative detail about what fans get up to online. I think teenagers today, who have grown up with the internet like I did, are incredibly well-versed in this kind of detective work online, and I hardly ever see it in books. It’s a massive skill that a lot of teenagers don’t know they have, and I’d love to see that celebrated more. This kind of internet-based narrative is so fascinating to me because it’s such a unique space to tell stories that have never been told before. So I hope that you like it, or at least find it interesting and refreshing to read!
You can sign up on the website to receive email updates of each new chapter: http://gottiewrites.wordpress.com
May 13, 2020
UPDATE from four hours later: the Msscribe story literally wishes it had this amount of power. Caroline Calloway could never. the amount of gasping i did in this.... the amount of nostalgia....... hoof
You can read this here. This is a novel formatted like a fan conspiracy and it is so much fun. When Lauren James started leaning more and more into the thriller genre with her writing that was frankly an excellent decision on her part because oh BOY am I enjoying this.
You can read this here. This is a novel formatted like a fan conspiracy and it is so much fun. When Lauren James started leaning more and more into the thriller genre with her writing that was frankly an excellent decision on her part because oh BOY am I enjoying this.
Want to read
May 13, 2020the level of creativity and inventiveness you have to have to create a mock-up fandom conspiracy theory treatise like this . . . I am delighted
February 17, 2024
ABSOLUTELY BATSHIT FUCKING BONKERS. THIS HIT ME OVER THE HEAD AND DRAGGED ME BEHIND A CAR. lauren james was IN the fucking RPF larry fake baby conspiracy supernatural queerbaiting johnlock trenches i KNOW she was in the trenches this is TOO fucking real. my GOD.
okay i'm going to be calm. the pitch for this is that it's a novel in the format of a conspiracy blog claiming two male actors from a fake TV show are dating, which, you know, the RPF side of the internet we've all seen it. except it rapidly becomes more complicated, which isn't a spoiler, because the first page lets you know that this conspiracy blog is being used as evidence in court. and oh my fucking GOD, i was not ready for how crazy this was going to get. it ramps up the craziness so steadily that it's almost a frog-boiling situation, except the shit going on in here was still so fucking buckwild that i was actively trying not to scream with every later chapter. dude, what the fuck?
lauren james has recently edited the blog posts to bring them in line with the published novelization coming out this summer. my friends who got me to read this claim that the edits make the story weaker and less insane, and urged me to read the version on the wayback machine, from 2019. i will say that, from looking at the edit list, at least one of them seems to kneecap the story entirely? but i assume that stuff is now going into the novel? i dunno, man, i just do what my friends tell me. i guess i recommend also doing that for the high-octane drama of it all. regardless, though, i am definitely picking up that novel when it drops, because holy shit.
the epilogue as it was in the wayback machine made me wither into dust and die forever. btw. it's 1am i am Just Sitting Here
recommended if: you read the entirety of what happens next comic, found yourself repeatedly shocked into silence by how disturbingly accurately it represented the horrible eccentricity of being on tumblr, and want something else that will make you feel undressed the same way. or, you know, if you like cool formatting. that too.
okay i'm going to be calm. the pitch for this is that it's a novel in the format of a conspiracy blog claiming two male actors from a fake TV show are dating, which, you know, the RPF side of the internet we've all seen it. except it rapidly becomes more complicated, which isn't a spoiler, because the first page lets you know that this conspiracy blog is being used as evidence in court. and oh my fucking GOD, i was not ready for how crazy this was going to get. it ramps up the craziness so steadily that it's almost a frog-boiling situation, except the shit going on in here was still so fucking buckwild that i was actively trying not to scream with every later chapter. dude, what the fuck?
lauren james has recently edited the blog posts to bring them in line with the published novelization coming out this summer. my friends who got me to read this claim that the edits make the story weaker and less insane, and urged me to read the version on the wayback machine, from 2019. i will say that, from looking at the edit list, at least one of them seems to kneecap the story entirely? but i assume that stuff is now going into the novel? i dunno, man, i just do what my friends tell me. i guess i recommend also doing that for the high-octane drama of it all. regardless, though, i am definitely picking up that novel when it drops, because holy shit.
the epilogue as it was in the wayback machine made me wither into dust and die forever. btw. it's 1am i am Just Sitting Here
recommended if: you read the entirety of what happens next comic, found yourself repeatedly shocked into silence by how disturbingly accurately it represented the horrible eccentricity of being on tumblr, and want something else that will make you feel undressed the same way. or, you know, if you like cool formatting. that too.
January 4, 2024
Really fun, but without a real resolution as far as the "case" goes. Maybe the published novel will make more sense, but I'm not sure if I want to re-read all that. Still, it capsulates the craziness of fandom quite well.
February 21, 2024
This book has everything:
- Commentary on early Supernatural fandom
- Snapewives
- RPF fic drama
- Otherkin
- “You can’t hurt/comfort your way out of this”
I love a deeply weird commentary on internet subcultures, and this is definitely up there. Would recommend to fans of Penance by Eliza Clark
- Commentary on early Supernatural fandom
- Snapewives
- RPF fic drama
- Otherkin
- “You can’t hurt/comfort your way out of this”
I love a deeply weird commentary on internet subcultures, and this is definitely up there. Would recommend to fans of Penance by Eliza Clark
Want to read
October 18, 2019*GASP*
Loch and Ness???????
This is that same show the main character from The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was always talking about!!!!
I know I’ll love this and the amount of detail it’ll add to TLGitU.
Loch and Ness???????
This is that same show the main character from The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was always talking about!!!!
I know I’ll love this and the amount of detail it’ll add to TLGitU.
May 13, 2020
Reading this as it updated weekly was GENUINELY one of the wildest reading experiences I've ever had and I can't recommend it enough.
March 5, 2024
THIS WAS LITERALLY SO FUN!!! I started this yesterday, stayed up way too late, read as much as I could before work, thought about it at work, read more during my break at work, and then came home and finished it. If you were chronically online and involved in fandom in the golden era of livejournal and the height of tumblr, this one is for you. A murder mystery told entirely through the blog posts of a fangirl who sets out to prove that her OTP—the actors of a fake TV show—are in a gay relationship, and instead becomes wrapped up in something far, far more sinister.
Lauren James expertly recreates the absurdity and toxicity (and also the fun) of fandom culture, the dangerous side of shipping real people, and the Internet as a perfect playground for scammers, liars, unreliable narrators, and attention-seekers. There is just something so satisfying about this particular narrative format: clicking through on all the links for "evidence", feeling like you're uncovering the mystery in real-time with all fake anonymous blog-post commenters. I think it is an absolutely fantastic and underutilized way to engage readers. The magic of serialized web novels and fanfic is on full display in An Unauthorized Fan Treatise!
Having just finished it, I am left with many questions and a lot of loose-ends. I think if I did not know there was going to be an expanded published novel version coming out this summer, I would have been less satisfied with where this ended. The build-up is much better than the "resolution." I see the physical novel is going to place us in now-times rather than the early 10's. A thrilling time-skip that promises for a more satisfying conclusion. Who the hell is "gottiewrites" ACTUALLY? I can't wait to find out in August.
Lauren James expertly recreates the absurdity and toxicity (and also the fun) of fandom culture, the dangerous side of shipping real people, and the Internet as a perfect playground for scammers, liars, unreliable narrators, and attention-seekers. There is just something so satisfying about this particular narrative format: clicking through on all the links for "evidence", feeling like you're uncovering the mystery in real-time with all fake anonymous blog-post commenters. I think it is an absolutely fantastic and underutilized way to engage readers. The magic of serialized web novels and fanfic is on full display in An Unauthorized Fan Treatise!
Having just finished it, I am left with many questions and a lot of loose-ends. I think if I did not know there was going to be an expanded published novel version coming out this summer, I would have been less satisfied with where this ended. The build-up is much better than the "resolution." I see the physical novel is going to place us in now-times rather than the early 10's. A thrilling time-skip that promises for a more satisfying conclusion. Who the hell is "gottiewrites" ACTUALLY? I can't wait to find out in August.
February 19, 2024
this is like katharsis for larry shippers
October 21, 2023
This was a book (or, web fiction piece. Web serial? I’m not actually sure how it was initially released) that I read basically on a lark after getting curious seeing a few people talk about it on tumblr. So, score one for viral marketing and the convenience of reading free webfiction, I suppose – I was up until half past three in the morning barrelling through it all in one sitting. Which is all just incredibly appropriate for this story in particular.
So, the story’s a thriller/murder mystery, but specifically one about the actors on a trashy CW-style hot-young-adults-playing-supernatural-creatures-having-teen-drama style tv show, as told in the form of a sprawling series of essay-length posts by a fan devoted to proving that the two male leads are fucking in real life but forced to hide their live by the homophobic network. Things get more tangled from there.
So, as I said, very appropriate that I learned about this on tumblr. Basically everything about it is about online fan culture – there’s tens of thousands of words devoted to recounting livejournal sockpuppet drama, every chapter ends with a ‘comment section’ that’s mostly a Greek chorus but occasionally relevant to the plot, and almost literally every single aspect of the story and framing are a reference or pastiche to some famous online clusterfuck or other of the kind you’ve probably watched far-too-long video essay retrospectives of on youtube. Or I have, anyway (but then again, ninety percent of the references were a bit before my time anyway, so the cultural education was pretty crucial to me understanding what this was going for at all).
And, given all that, I ultimately found this pretty disappointing? It was absolutely readable, and enjoyable in the moment, but the metatextual commentary element meant the thriller plot at the heart of it just ended up seeming like, well, cheap soap opera. Beyond that, the framing device just seems like one giant missed opportunity, the commentary on fandom culture was in the end pretty shallow, and the shocking twist in the epilogue was, I think, just a mistake.
So okay, lets justify all of that in order.
When I say the plot didn’t really hold together for me, that might be more the fault of the word-of-mouth marketing that pointed me towards the story more than any promises the text itself makes, honestly. But I went in expecting a story about fan obsession and hallucination, projection and parasocial relationships, and all that. And downstream of that, I was expecting something a bit grounded? And the story just wasn’t either of those things; to begin with, the two celebrities the ‘fan treatise’ is about really are secretly dating and being forced to hide it, which seemed like kind of inexplicable decision to me as I read it. It’s not just that, either. Like to be clear this story absolutely has an unreliable narrator, but for a story ostensibly about fan obsession, it seems a bit odd for, lik, there to be an extended digression about how a famous actor was totally of an asshole in a livejournal fanfic community a decade previously, and then have that be revealed to be totally and unambiguously correct.
It’s less of an issue, but as I said the actual murders and intrigues at the core of the story are kind of just..ridiculous? Which I honestly normally wouldn’t mind, but- wen your story spends so much time talking about trashy supernatural tv shows and fanfic, it becomes kind of important that the ground-level narrative seem real by comparison, you know? And this had altogether too much talk of ‘the dark web’ for that.
I’m very possibly going to be putting my foot in my mouth hear (most of the specific fan cultures and pieces of drama being referenced, I only really know second hand through various salacious youtube gossip rags), but for all that the entire story’s utterly preoccupied with, in the end I found the commentary on fan culture really..shallow? Sure, the entire premise is having a laugh at larry stylinson-style RPF shipping conspiracies, the entire livejournal plot is a pastiche of the MsScribe drama, there are plenty of jokes about how m/m shippers literally forgetting about te female lead in te show she headlines, etc, etc. And they’re, largely, well-done references and jokes! Not really complaining about that.
But I’m kind of left feeling like there’s nothing really underneath it all. Which- if James had sat down a story with the explicit purpose of Saying Something About Fandom, it would almost certainly have been terrible. But between the murder plot and the revelations of Gottie’s byzantine revenge scheme (which honestly I’m consciously choosing not to think about too hard lest this just turn into cinemasins-for-books), in the end all the fandom stuff almost felt like window dressing? Elaborate, detailed, and impressive window-dressing, to be sure, but as the story went on and the plot became more clearly thriller-ish, increasingly revealed to be surface level and ornamental.
Speaking of ‘surface level’: the web serial medium and use of links here was such an incredible missed opportunity. You have an utterly unreliable narrator with a secret agenda and a grudge writing tens of thousands of words of livejournal essays about celebrities, and then you go to the effort of making actual accounts on twitter/insta/whatever to leave real links to when you cite them, and then you have her actually faithfully relate what the cited paged say? What a waste! This would have been so much better if it was 50% more postmodern and up its own ass about playing with the format. And doing so would even let you have that (incredibly obvious on one level, entirely out of nowhere and dramatically dead when it’s dropped as the literal last word of the story) reveal in the epilogue actually work!
Anyway, this all sounds incredible negative. Which isn’t entirely inaccurate, honestly, but I should reiterate that I googled this out of idle curiosity on a Friday evening and only realized it was 3am when I finished it. The negativity is more because this seemed so close to being amazing than because it was anything heinous.
So, the story’s a thriller/murder mystery, but specifically one about the actors on a trashy CW-style hot-young-adults-playing-supernatural-creatures-having-teen-drama style tv show, as told in the form of a sprawling series of essay-length posts by a fan devoted to proving that the two male leads are fucking in real life but forced to hide their live by the homophobic network. Things get more tangled from there.
So, as I said, very appropriate that I learned about this on tumblr. Basically everything about it is about online fan culture – there’s tens of thousands of words devoted to recounting livejournal sockpuppet drama, every chapter ends with a ‘comment section’ that’s mostly a Greek chorus but occasionally relevant to the plot, and almost literally every single aspect of the story and framing are a reference or pastiche to some famous online clusterfuck or other of the kind you’ve probably watched far-too-long video essay retrospectives of on youtube. Or I have, anyway (but then again, ninety percent of the references were a bit before my time anyway, so the cultural education was pretty crucial to me understanding what this was going for at all).
And, given all that, I ultimately found this pretty disappointing? It was absolutely readable, and enjoyable in the moment, but the metatextual commentary element meant the thriller plot at the heart of it just ended up seeming like, well, cheap soap opera. Beyond that, the framing device just seems like one giant missed opportunity, the commentary on fandom culture was in the end pretty shallow, and the shocking twist in the epilogue was, I think, just a mistake.
So okay, lets justify all of that in order.
When I say the plot didn’t really hold together for me, that might be more the fault of the word-of-mouth marketing that pointed me towards the story more than any promises the text itself makes, honestly. But I went in expecting a story about fan obsession and hallucination, projection and parasocial relationships, and all that. And downstream of that, I was expecting something a bit grounded? And the story just wasn’t either of those things; to begin with, the two celebrities the ‘fan treatise’ is about really are secretly dating and being forced to hide it, which seemed like kind of inexplicable decision to me as I read it. It’s not just that, either. Like to be clear this story absolutely has an unreliable narrator, but for a story ostensibly about fan obsession, it seems a bit odd for, lik, there to be an extended digression about how a famous actor was totally of an asshole in a livejournal fanfic community a decade previously, and then have that be revealed to be totally and unambiguously correct.
It’s less of an issue, but as I said the actual murders and intrigues at the core of the story are kind of just..ridiculous? Which I honestly normally wouldn’t mind, but- wen your story spends so much time talking about trashy supernatural tv shows and fanfic, it becomes kind of important that the ground-level narrative seem real by comparison, you know? And this had altogether too much talk of ‘the dark web’ for that.
I’m very possibly going to be putting my foot in my mouth hear (most of the specific fan cultures and pieces of drama being referenced, I only really know second hand through various salacious youtube gossip rags), but for all that the entire story’s utterly preoccupied with, in the end I found the commentary on fan culture really..shallow? Sure, the entire premise is having a laugh at larry stylinson-style RPF shipping conspiracies, the entire livejournal plot is a pastiche of the MsScribe drama, there are plenty of jokes about how m/m shippers literally forgetting about te female lead in te show she headlines, etc, etc. And they’re, largely, well-done references and jokes! Not really complaining about that.
But I’m kind of left feeling like there’s nothing really underneath it all. Which- if James had sat down a story with the explicit purpose of Saying Something About Fandom, it would almost certainly have been terrible. But between the murder plot and the revelations of Gottie’s byzantine revenge scheme (which honestly I’m consciously choosing not to think about too hard lest this just turn into cinemasins-for-books), in the end all the fandom stuff almost felt like window dressing? Elaborate, detailed, and impressive window-dressing, to be sure, but as the story went on and the plot became more clearly thriller-ish, increasingly revealed to be surface level and ornamental.
Speaking of ‘surface level’: the web serial medium and use of links here was such an incredible missed opportunity. You have an utterly unreliable narrator with a secret agenda and a grudge writing tens of thousands of words of livejournal essays about celebrities, and then you go to the effort of making actual accounts on twitter/insta/whatever to leave real links to when you cite them, and then you have her actually faithfully relate what the cited paged say? What a waste! This would have been so much better if it was 50% more postmodern and up its own ass about playing with the format. And doing so would even let you have that (incredibly obvious on one level, entirely out of nowhere and dramatically dead when it’s dropped as the literal last word of the story) reveal in the epilogue actually work!
Anyway, this all sounds incredible negative. Which isn’t entirely inaccurate, honestly, but I should reiterate that I googled this out of idle curiosity on a Friday evening and only realized it was 3am when I finished it. The negativity is more because this seemed so close to being amazing than because it was anything heinous.
December 11, 2024
great companion to last seen online
April 26, 2020
Brilliant. Innovative, engaging and insightful. I hope it gets the huge audience it deserves.
March 3, 2024
hmmm. fun & bonkers but i’ll admit i wanted this to be a little sharper, a little more thought-provoking about fandom, perhaps a little more plausible? am i still chasing the idlewild high WELL who’s to say. 3.5/5 rounded up
Read
June 9, 2023my god do i love deranged media written by gay people raised by the internet
February 28, 2024
THE TWISTS. THE DRAMA. THE ESCALATION. lauren james has clearly witnessed some atrocious internet discourse and i salute her — this narrative is batshit insane but it feels painfully real.
(i read the original version from 2019 on the wayback machine because that's what my friends who have read both recommended — from what i've heard, i think it's a stronger story)
(i read the original version from 2019 on the wayback machine because that's what my friends who have read both recommended — from what i've heard, i think it's a stronger story)
July 6, 2023
First of all. I want to preface that very rarely do I find a work of art that is truly unique, endlessly riveting, universally felt yet so profoundly niche it feels like a heated personal attack. I'm rushing a couple of things right now and am still reeling from having binged all this in such a frenetic haze, but let me just say: as a fangirl myself, this is THE best portrayal I have ever seen of fandom in a non-fandom work. I really have to applaud Lauren James for the horrifying accuracy she makes this rancid, rabid fan behaviour so true to life. They say it takes one to know one, and I'm so wowed to see that there are ACTUAL fanfics and accounts made for the interactivity and to flesh this out; and even when the terror begins to settle in I can still feel the amount of love and effort that went into creating this.
And because this story's subject matter is so close to my heart and unbelievably well-executed, I felt it was almost a crime to try and sum it up/begin this review with a choice quote. Not that I don't have one — I most certainly do — it's just that it's super long. And this time, I want you all to read this and see just how much this affected me. I think this paragraph speaks for itself:
I lie awake at night wondering what Gottie's problem is. Then I realise that she and I are not so different from each other.
However, as much as I hate to say it; there is one single thing that stops this from being wholly perfect:
TL;DR: from one insane fangirl to another, Gottie and her essay truly represent the best of us and yet also the worst of us. I feel that I speak for all teenage girls who have been obsessed with something that helps them cope with real life: we are all Gottie. Some of us are just more Gottie than others.
(Anyway, have any of you seen that 60s TV show Star Trek? It's SUCH a good show. I'm totally shipping Spirk like no one's business. I may have to start a sideblog...)
And because this story's subject matter is so close to my heart and unbelievably well-executed, I felt it was almost a crime to try and sum it up/begin this review with a choice quote. Not that I don't have one — I most certainly do — it's just that it's super long. And this time, I want you all to read this and see just how much this affected me. I think this paragraph speaks for itself:
I lie awake at night wondering what Gottie's problem is. Then I realise that she and I are not so different from each other.
However, as much as I hate to say it; there is one single thing that stops this from being wholly perfect:
TL;DR: from one insane fangirl to another, Gottie and her essay truly represent the best of us and yet also the worst of us. I feel that I speak for all teenage girls who have been obsessed with something that helps them cope with real life: we are all Gottie. Some of us are just more Gottie than others.
(Anyway, have any of you seen that 60s TV show Star Trek? It's SUCH a good show. I'm totally shipping Spirk like no one's business. I may have to start a sideblog...)
August 26, 2021
Oh. My. God. I'm in love with this book.
No, you don't understand, the amount of creativity one needs to create something like this...I'm honestly speechless. This was truly iconic.
The plot twists? Unbelievable. The humour? On point. The accuracy? Unmatched.
I've never in my life read anything like this. Lauren James, I'm in love with you.
TL;DR: READ THIS BOOK OR I'LL MAKE YOU!!!
No, you don't understand, the amount of creativity one needs to create something like this...I'm honestly speechless. This was truly iconic.
The plot twists? Unbelievable. The humour? On point. The accuracy? Unmatched.
I've never in my life read anything like this. Lauren James, I'm in love with you.
TL;DR: READ THIS BOOK OR I'LL MAKE YOU!!!
June 14, 2021
An Unauthorised Fan Treatise is so incredibly creative, and creepy in the best way. The format is really well done, and really contributes to the suspense. If you enjoy unlikable and unreliable narrators, well, this is one of the best examples I've seen. And not only has author James created an engaging story, but also an incisive commentary on the darker sides of celebrity and fandom. It's certainly a good warning to be careful what personal information you share online...
Note: I read this book online, where the author serialized it. She says she hopes it will be picked up by a publisher, and/but that a future print version of the story would likely have different content. I wonder if that would include changing the British slang and spellings.
Note: I read this book online, where the author serialized it. She says she hopes it will be picked up by a publisher, and/but that a future print version of the story would likely have different content. I wonder if that would include changing the British slang and spellings.
August 30, 2021
Deeply & pleasantly surprised by this rollercoaster of a deep dive/homage/exposé of fandom culture, internet spaces, and teen girls' behavior in both of the above. A must-read for anyone who's ever moved in online fan spaces before (I'm including Tumblr in this), an intriguing read for anyone who followed the Caroline Calloway saga unfolding or loved the messiness of the Cassandra Claire/Clare drama, and a likely incomprehensible read for people who've never heard of the above. I think the format is really easy to dismiss at first in favor of "traditional" publishing but James' clear mastery of both the subject matter and the English language make a strong argument for the blog and the fan essay as legitimate art forms. The most unrealistic part of this entire rollercoaster was the comments' relatively consistent capitalization and punctuation--other than that, this is such a perfect encapsulation of fan culture that I frequently forgot I wasn't reading legitimate screenshots about real shows and real actors. Such a fun read & a fun format!
April 17, 2025
God this was bad why did I read it
March 29, 2022
this was incredible oh my god
August 2, 2024
This started out WILD but it became wilder and wilder in every single chapter, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through.
I read this in preparation of Last Seen Online, and I am READY.
I read this in preparation of Last Seen Online, and I am READY.
June 16, 2021
I spotted this on my GR feed yesterday and thought I'd give it a quick glance to see if it was my cup of tea because I really like everything I've read by Lauren James.
I was completely hooked from the off and couldn't put my phone down, itching to get to the next post. It really felt like I was there in the middle of a chaotic fandom and the use of blog posts is really clever. Between the blogs and the Twitter accounts, it's clear how much hard work went into making this feel real and James truly pulled it off.
I was completely hooked from the off and couldn't put my phone down, itching to get to the next post. It really felt like I was there in the middle of a chaotic fandom and the use of blog posts is really clever. Between the blogs and the Twitter accounts, it's clear how much hard work went into making this feel real and James truly pulled it off.
July 31, 2023
Lauren James is a genius. If you haven't heard about An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, it's a serialised story currently online that's inspired by a lot of the MsScribe-esque fandom conspiracy theories/scandals. It follows a blogger as she begins to investigate whether the two male leads on her favourite TV show are secretly in a relationship, but this quickly leads her to discover things she maybe shouldn't.
This story is amazing. It's fascinating to read, especially if you've ever been in a fandom like this one (Supernatural especially), mostly because you've probably seen a situation similar to this, even if it didn't end up going down the dramatic roads this one does. We've seen fans pick apart every social media post from celebrities, speculate wildly about their personal lives, and even do super illegal things just to get closer to them (anyone else remember that time 1D fans hacked airport security cameras to spy on them). Well, I have at least. If you've managed to never be in a fandom that's done all this on a large scale then god bless you because I don't know how you did it.
Other than that, though, James has just written a really compelling mystery. She's using the Internet format to her full advantage, having everything that happens be something that someone is telling you and therefore making it inherently unreliable while also having in-universe commenters who can sway your suspicions one way or another.
I've been reading this story since the second chapter and it's been a wild ride, but god has it been a good one. Would highly recommend checking out, it won't take up too much of your time and it's so worth it.
This story is amazing. It's fascinating to read, especially if you've ever been in a fandom like this one (Supernatural especially), mostly because you've probably seen a situation similar to this, even if it didn't end up going down the dramatic roads this one does. We've seen fans pick apart every social media post from celebrities, speculate wildly about their personal lives, and even do super illegal things just to get closer to them (anyone else remember that time 1D fans hacked airport security cameras to spy on them). Well, I have at least. If you've managed to never be in a fandom that's done all this on a large scale then god bless you because I don't know how you did it.
Other than that, though, James has just written a really compelling mystery. She's using the Internet format to her full advantage, having everything that happens be something that someone is telling you and therefore making it inherently unreliable while also having in-universe commenters who can sway your suspicions one way or another.
I've been reading this story since the second chapter and it's been a wild ride, but god has it been a good one. Would highly recommend checking out, it won't take up too much of your time and it's so worth it.
October 22, 2019
As this is an updating story released online here I'll be updating my review as I read further into the story.
Prologue: So far the prologue is hilarious, interesting and just like a forum or tumblr page for any fandom I was a part of when I was in high school. I love Gottie so far, she's sharp and completely obsessed like me and my obsessions which I can totally relate to. I also loved The Loneliest Girl in the Universe so much, I devoured that book in two hours, so I'm so excited to hear about Loch & Ness again and it links back to that book well as the main character loved the show as well but now we have Gottie who is actually in the same time period of the show airing and who is also an avid fan. As always, I adore anything by Lauren James and I'm excited for new chapters!
Chapter 1: This story is starting off so strong and I can't believe I have to wait another week for a new chapter but I am so keen to read 22 chapters of Gottie proving Nathan & Rob are dating through her evidence and sleuthing skills. Like all her online readers though I need to know why there were in the courthouse that day and clearly she finds out! This chapter is so fantastic and I read it far too quickly but that's the beauty of this online essay that we can follow along weekly because while the author still puts a lot of effort into it (with comments, footnotes and some real links too!) it's still something that's not as intense as writing a full book and I love the online format too because it can connect so well with the readers and fans.
Prologue: So far the prologue is hilarious, interesting and just like a forum or tumblr page for any fandom I was a part of when I was in high school. I love Gottie so far, she's sharp and completely obsessed like me and my obsessions which I can totally relate to. I also loved The Loneliest Girl in the Universe so much, I devoured that book in two hours, so I'm so excited to hear about Loch & Ness again and it links back to that book well as the main character loved the show as well but now we have Gottie who is actually in the same time period of the show airing and who is also an avid fan. As always, I adore anything by Lauren James and I'm excited for new chapters!
Chapter 1: This story is starting off so strong and I can't believe I have to wait another week for a new chapter but I am so keen to read 22 chapters of Gottie proving Nathan & Rob are dating through her evidence and sleuthing skills. Like all her online readers though I need to know why there were in the courthouse that day and clearly she finds out! This chapter is so fantastic and I read it far too quickly but that's the beauty of this online essay that we can follow along weekly because while the author still puts a lot of effort into it (with comments, footnotes and some real links too!) it's still something that's not as intense as writing a full book and I love the online format too because it can connect so well with the readers and fans.
March 10, 2025
2025 UPDATE: do not read the edited version of this, read the original, complete version. I made the mistake of trying to re-read this yesterday and it felt like someone had clumsily taken a hatchet to it. This is the author's attempt at making it work with her new 'sequel' book, but the editing was extremely confusing and at times self contradictory, and several breadcrumbs that USED to lead to big reveals now go nowhere. It just really doesn't work, this was honestly a perfect piece of art before and is now....not. I knew it was edited after the book came out, but if I'd known the extent and quality of the edits I wouldn't have read the new version, I feel like I wasted my time and was deprived of an *actual* re-read. The original felt complete and honestly it's much more fun to read it in this format:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230610184500/https://gottiewrites.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/31/
https://web.archive.org/web/20230610184500/https://gottiewrites.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/31/
January 8, 2020
I'm truly obsessed with this serialised unfolding murder mystery set within a fandom.
Fangirl Gottie starts investigating queerbaiting in (and around) her favourite tv show Loch & Ness, a show about paranormal detectives. Are the two main guys dating? Or is the PR just spinning it that way to get more people to watch... Gottie is a perfect example of the unreliable narrator done well, and I'm hooked.
If you love those weird powerpoints about Taylor Swift and Lorde, if you found yourself wondering if you're a Natalie or a Caroline, and if you love digging up weird bits of LiveJournal drama and internet history then I fully expect you will enjoy this too.
Fangirl Gottie starts investigating queerbaiting in (and around) her favourite tv show Loch & Ness, a show about paranormal detectives. Are the two main guys dating? Or is the PR just spinning it that way to get more people to watch... Gottie is a perfect example of the unreliable narrator done well, and I'm hooked.
If you love those weird powerpoints about Taylor Swift and Lorde, if you found yourself wondering if you're a Natalie or a Caroline, and if you love digging up weird bits of LiveJournal drama and internet history then I fully expect you will enjoy this too.
June 7, 2022
This was!!! Incredible!!!!!! I couldn't put my phone down the whole time I read this, it was the only thing I had on my mind in the two days it took me to read it. I am in awe at the creativity and the intricacies of this story, it felt so real at times (and I laughed so much at all the Easter eggs I managed to spot - though I know I missed many as I was never part of a fandom like that and never read fanfictions). I can't wait for the novel to come out to get some extra content and learn more about this case. I had my suspicions for a while about that ending and I'm certain it's the truth!
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