Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Pages : 445
Genre : YA, Contemporary fiction
Stand alone
My Rating : 4.5/5
About the Book :
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? = And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
My Thoughts :
So last year all I heard about was how great Rainbow Rowell’s books were. YA blogs, lit blogs, even some non-book blogs were throwing flowers at her characters, insisting she was a must-read. So I picked Eleanor & Park and… I couldn’t really get into it.
I know, I know. Don’t throw eggs at me yet!
Honestly, I didn’t really give it my best effort; it was mostly a case of not the right time.
Then I picked up Fangirl, and it was a match made it heaven. It was adorable and fun and light, but still with a lot of heart. This is one of the truest college experiences I have read, easy to relate to. Even if you have never had anxiety like Cath’s, what she experiences feels like something any young woman starting college could feel, on a bigger or smaller scale. The nervousness of living in a new space, among new people, on a new schedule. Her whole world is thrown upside down, and Simon Snow is where she finds solace many times, even though college takes away a lot of her time.
One of the other things I loved was how the story had multiple aspects. It’s a college story; it’s a love story; it’s a family story. It’s a human story, basically. Cath isn’t one or the other of these things, but the sum of it. I felt it through her love for her sister, her worrying about her dad, her attempts at friendship, her passion for writing, her uncertainties for the future.
I was also fascinated by Rainbow Rowell’s writing. It’s short and to the point. There’s no long winded descriptions, but little details thrown here and there that tell you who that person is. Some of them aren’t really relevant, while others don’t appear to be until you get to know the characters better.
If I had one thing negative to say about the book it would be, ironically, about the fanfiction aspect. One thing is that I didn’t really “get into” the excerpts of Cath’s writing or the books she so loved. Even though they sometimes related to her own life, I didn’t find them necessary. But I would also have loved to hear more about her part in the fan community. Other than being loved and popular in it, I mean. This felt like a side of her world we never truly explored.
All in all though, I adored it. Reading Fangirl was the book equivalent of a slightly toasted slice of bread covered in thick, melting nutella; excessively yummy, and creating a spiraling need for more more more. I will definitely have to give Eleanor & Park another try now!
