Goth Girl: Queen of the Universe Review

 Goth Girl: Queen of the Universe by Lindsay S. Zrull is about Jess: a girl who's been in foster care since she was 7 years old. She finds comfort in all things goth: from Edgar Allen Poe to makeup.

At her new school, Jess ends up befriending a guy named Oscar, who is a huge fan of a book series called Prince of Moons. He asks Jess to join his cosplay group so they can win of bunch of cosplay competitions and go to a huge competition at a huge convention in New York City later in the year. His goal is to make their names known so he can start his own cosplay business (he kind of already has one going on in his basement, but he wants to make it legit). Jess is relunctant about it at first, but she quickly finds that she loves sewing and making costumes and all things nerdy. She also befriends Oscar's other two other nerdy friends Emily and Gerrit.    

Jess also runs an Instagram account where she posts all of her goth looks and has lots of followers, but one day someone claiming to be her birth mother slides into her DMs. Jess has always wanted to reunite with her biomom, so they start talking back and forth and finds out it is her biomom. Her biomom says she lives in NYC, which is where Oscar was aiming to go! 

 Jess decides to also try and find her biomom when she and her new friend group go to NYC, but she decides to keep it a secret from them. She also has to keep it a secret from her new foster mother and social worker, since she's really not allowed to be talking to her biomom while in foster care. She also worries about losing Barbra's (her foster mother"s) trust, because Barbra is so different than the other foster parents she's had over the years: she's very kind, patient, and warm, and actually treats her like a mom should. 

This book basically had everything I love in it! From the surface level things like goth subculture and geek culture, to found family and great discussions about mental health and disabilities. The cast of characters is very diverse, too. I gave it 5 stars!