8 / 10
I love stories about the empowerment of women, especially in the tech world. Screen Queens will make readers quake with outrage at the injustice that women face everyday in the industry, and then turn that stereotype into fodder for change through three young women who’ve had enough. I laughed, I raged, and I ultimately loved this story. We get to see relationships challenged and change for the better, or at times, worse. More importantly, we get to see women empower each other, not just tear away at themselves.
At the crux of this story are Lucy, Maddie, and Delia. All three of these young women have just made it into ValleyStart, the tech program where they can jump start their dreams. For Lucy, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, getting to rub elbows with the big-wigs in tech as a future CEO in training. Maddie sees it as the ultimate chance to bolster her design portfolio and nothing else, while Delia is ready to find out if she can make it in the tech world as a self-taught coder. As the competition begins, these girls realise how challenging the weeks ahead will be, adding on the fact that if they win…they’ll be the first female only team to win. Let’s also add a first love, a nemesis ex, and a two faced mentor and we’ve got a wild ride ahead.
The story is told in three perspectives, which I quite liked, getting insight from Lucy, Maddie, and Delia really helped round out the story. More importantly, it helped distinguish their personalities, thoughts, and feelings. The character development in this story was really something. While I do love rooting for the main characters in the story, I will openly admit that I was a little underwhelmed with Lucy at the start. She comes off as superficial, fake, and ultimately only seeking to better her social status. I was disappointed, however, she does eventually grow on you. Not only that, but readers will begin to understand and see the motivations and drive behind her actions.
Maddie is quite the opposite in terms of Lucy, she likes to keep to herself, and is not in any way interested in Lucy’s machinations until she gets to know her. She’s a tough nut with a squishy center. The relationship she has with her brother was sweet, and I loved that this also showed in her interactions with other kids her brother’s age. Delia is the shyest and youngest of the group, very timid and soft spoken. However, she’s got a back-bone of steel. One of my favourite scenes is toward the very beginning, where she stands up for herself in front of Lucy. It’s an assertion that she might be shy, but she will not let people bully or put her down.
These girls are besieged by challenges of all kinds, but I think the most important one is how they’re treated by some of the men within this book. They are objectified, ridiculed, and their accomplishments minimised especially in comparison to men. It made their pushback so incredibly satisfying to read. It expressed the solidarity that women should have in the face of someone attempting to tear them down.
Though the story did feel to start off a little slow, it definitely gained momentum and strength as I kept reading. I couldn’t put it down toward the end. There was a sweet romance as well that slowly builds, and felt satisfyingly quirky. There’s also a lot of humour to be found in this story, and I loved it, even when I got side-eyed at work while reading. That being said, at times there were moments where I felt there was a disconnect between certain characters, like we were potentially missing some important development in certain scenes. It isn’t enough to be really bothersome, but I think other readers might also find the same thing happening as they are reading.
Ultimately, Screen Queens attempts to dismantle outdated ways of thinking; especially sexism and the attitudes of men towards women in the tech world. Though there are some minor things that I didn’t love, overall, it’s a great story. It’s an 8/10 for me. I encourage others to pick up and read this story, especially if you need a dose of women empowerment. It will also make an excellent summer read.
Screen Queens is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Bold Type meets The Social Network when three girls vying for prestigious summer internships through a startup incubator program uncover the truth about what it means to succeed in the male-dominated world of tech.
This summer Silicon Valley is a girls’ club.
Three thousand applicants. An acceptance rate of two percent. A dream internship for the winning team. ValleyStart is the most prestigious high school tech incubator competition in the country. Lucy Katz, Maddie Li, and Delia Meyer have secured their spots. And they’ve come to win.
Meet the Screen Queens.
Lucy Katz was born and raised in Palo Alto, so tech, well, it runs in her blood. A social butterfly and CEO in-the-making, Lucy is ready to win and party.
East Coast designer, Maddie Li left her home and small business behind for a summer at ValleyStart. Maddie thinks she’s only there to bolster her graphic design portfolio, not to make friends.
Delia Meyer taught herself how to code on a hand-me-down computer in her tiny Midwestern town. Now, it’s time for the big leagues–ValleyStart–but super shy Delia isn’t sure if she can hack it (pun intended).
When the competition kicks off, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia realize just how challenging the next five weeks will be. As if there wasn’t enough pressure already, the girls learn that they would be the only all-female team to win ever. Add in one first love, a two-faced mentor, and an ex-boyfriend turned nemesis and things get…complicated.
Filled with humor, heart, and a whole lot of girl power, Screen Queens is perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Jenny Han, and The Bold Type.
