Star Shipped A Novel

- idiots to lovers - OCD and (severe) anxiety rep - they work together - roadrip - for all the pople who saw two people on screen and were like "yeah those two need to smooch and belong together" - found family - delightful - MLM My first Cat Sebastian but certainly not my last!

Simon is a thirty-something actor who, for seven seasons, has been the lead in a sci-fi show called Out There. A show that he’s planning on leaving to pursue something a little more challenging. Simon is prissy, unsocial, and stubborn, sometimes bordering on mean. He has a strong anxiety disorder, OCD, and migraines that control most of his life. Then there is Charlie. The second lead in Out There. He’s charming and fun and a little clingy and cares so much about people that it affects his mental well-being. Simon doesn’t like Charlie. Can’t stand the guy. Sure, maybe he’s a little obsessed with him, but in a normal, well-adjusted way. But then, due to outside circumstances, the men are forced to spend multiple days trapped in a car together, and suddenly things begin to change. Star Shipped is primarily a romance, a very good one at that, but it’s also a love letter to Fandoms and old-fashioned network TV shows that may or may not queerbait their audiences to an extent where gay college students write their thesis about it. Most people who have been chronically online in the 2010s and early 2020s will probably have heard of a show like Out There. Weirdly popular with queer people, mostly spanning multiple seasons, featuring two white men who are very codependent and whose storylines are quite romantic but never actually lead to anything more. Cat Sebastian is very good at giving us an inside into the Fandom without it being overbearing or taking up too much space in the story. Sometimes we get glimpses into an Out There Discord server that was so realistic I felt I myself was part of the fandom. The character archetypes, the discussions they had, and the way they perceived the show made it very clear that Cat Sebastian knows how Fandom spaces work and knows the people in it. And she wrote it with such respect and care that I couldn’t help but love it. The characters were a delight as well. Simon was such a complex and interesting person. He was so very flawed but in an intriguing and lovable way. He grew over the course of the story and tried so hard to be a better person and a better partner. Charlie was great too, but I wanted more of his thoughts and feelings. Dual POVs always work better for me in romance books. The best thing about their relationship was the communication. Charlie and Simon talked to each other, talked about their feelings and desires and about problems in their relationship. It felt very mature and like the author didn’t need unnecessary drama to make the story more interesting. Star shipped will forever have a special place in my heart for the way it depicted Fandom spaces. I recommend it to everyone who ever thought, “What if the two actors of the characters I ship are actually in love?"