Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Source: Purchased
Order: Powell’s || Amazon
In a nutshell: Things are changing for Cath and very quickly. She’s spent her whole life holding the hand of her twin sister Wren, but now they are starting college, and Wren doesn’t even want to be her roommate. Wren has also abandoned their long time joint hobby of writing Simon Snow fanfiction. Cath is completely out of her element, but still, she’s got to learn to navigate her new life, which includes a brutally honest roommate and her always cheery boyfriend, a Fiction Writing class where fanfiction is not welcome, a twin sister who keeps drifting away and the father they left behind, who she can’t quit worrying about.
Plus, she’s determined to finish her latest fanfiction story before the final book in the series is released.
We Judge Covers: It’s cute and it makes me think of fan-art, which is fitting. It isn’t overly eye catching and I would probably pass it by in a bookstore. It does become a bit more amusing once you’ve read the story. Mostly, though, I want to knock (presumably) Levi in his nuts for calling Cath’s name over and over while she’s trying to write. RUDE.
Main Character: Cather Avery is perhaps not built to be loved, but she’s built to be related to. She’s an introvert who spends time plotting how to actively avoid people and lunch time situations. She writes fanfic and spends some time in the book explaining to people why she loves it and why Internet friends are real friends. She’s witty and insightful at points and says things about being the sort of undercover crazy person that only an undercover crazy person can truly appreciate. So, like, I did. I did for sure.
Cath spends a big portion of the book missing what’s in front of her, but it’s done in an understandable way. You miss things when you hide out, and Cath hides out because the alternative is scary. I loved that throughout the book and despite everything she goes through, she never compromises herself. She was a nerd at the beginning and she finished a nerd at the end, regardless of whatever friends, hobbies, or romances she racked up along the way.
Love Interest: Levi. I liked Levi because I like to come across love interests who are nice to main characters. Cather didn’t fall for him because he’s a douche; she falls for him because he smiled at her, and talked to her, and spent time with her. It was refreshing, and what was even better was that he wasn’t perfect. Levi messes up, and he’s flawed, and he has weaknesses. He’s a good fit for Cather, though. She rarely smiles and he always does. Their romance wasn’t overwhelming in the story, and it happened at a nice pace. There was progression and it was affection cemented through sharing their passions, reading together in bed, trying new things and coffee. It’s college, so of course, coffee.
Negligent Parents? Like woah. Cath and Wren’s mother abandoned them when they were 8, and (almost) on 9/11. Cath’s inability to forgive her comes up in this book, and it is explored nicely as yet another piece of the web of things Cath is forced to face. By the end, I hated Cath’s mom for everything she’d done, but mostly for all the things she failed to do.
Thankfully, their father takes care of them, in his own way, and despite the fact that he’s battling mental illness. I loved the relationship between Cath and her father, and it was one of the things that most broke my heart.
1430: It’s clear to me that Rowell has a nice understand of fan culture. She does a good job of presenting it and never looking down on it, even when people around Cath do. The book’s true charm comes down to the details (from the fact that Cath writes slash fic to the fact she avoids the lunch room) and the characters (REAGAN. BEST ROOMMATE EVER.)
Additionally, I love that this book also takes a look at a number of relationships, and not just romantic ones. I’m a sucker for books about sisters. Reading about Wren and Cather drifting squeezed my insides. How they treated each other and how they fought felt incredibly familiar.
#MEH: Throughout the book, Rowell includes snippets of either Simon Snow canon or Simon Snow fanfiction. Simon Snow is a clear type of Harry Potter. It was fine in moderation, but there were longer chunks of these excerpts included in the story and I wasn’t a fan. Nothing was wrong with the writing, I just didn’t care a lick about Simon Snow; I only knew his story in abbreviated pieces. It sometimes felt like a rude interruption to the main action.
The End: It was nice. There were things left unanswered that I would’ve liked answered, but authors have a thing now-a-days about not tying things up too neatly for readers. There was closure and resolution, but just enough left in the air to leave me wondering.
While I was reading, Fangirl felt like a good story, but I realized that it was more than just good after I finished, and Cath stayed in my head. I didn’t expect it, but I was left with a little book hangover.
Away Message Worthy Quote: “And I’m crazy. Like maybe you think I’m a little crazy, but I only ever let people see the tip of my crazy iceberg. Underneath this veneer of slightly crazy and mildly socially retarded, I’m a complete disaster.”
For Traumateers who love: Contemporary YA/NA or anything else written by Rainbow. I enjoyed both Attachments and Eleanor & Park.
Final Grade: A-
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
