Fanfiction as Networked Literature: Review of Suzanne R. Black’s Between Novel and Network

Sebastian Sparrevohn Under Review:Suzanne R. Black. Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction. LSU Press, May 2026. Networks are with us all the time now. We are entangled and embedded in them. The internet has long ago ceased being a place we go and is instead something that envelops us. This notion once suggested a utopian imaginary; the internet was imagined as a medium that enabled radical possibilities and creativity. However, that utopian imaginary has largely been eclipsed by the rise of platforms and their algorithms. The platforms have enclosed the public internet, directing behaviour and traffic to their sites. For many, the social internet now primarily means engaging with a small number of privatised platforms. But what are the ramifications of this comprehensive digital entanglement for the literary? This is the question Suzanne R. Black’s Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction seeks to…