Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
445 Pages
Release Date: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Contemporary
Level: YA
Rating: 5 STARS

Goodreads Summary:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

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?

"Touching and utterly real." —  Publisher's Weekly

This book is so good I want to read all of the Simon Snow fanfic Cath wrote. I want to read the story made up by the main character of a story made up by Rainbow Rowell in this story. This sounds kind of weird but...she understands, Rainbow Rowell...well she puts into words (way more exaggerated and dramatically) how normal people (well...people like me...so us? maybe. This may all just be me) feel about a lot of things. Basically when any of my friends asked me why I liked this book or what it was about I had them read this quote, "In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can’t google.) Like, where does the line start? What food can you take? Where are you supposed to stand,then where are you supposed to sit? Where do you go when you’re done, why is everyone watching you?…Bah.”

Now for Cath this...social anxiety is waaaaay more crippling than for normal people. There was only one time about half way through the book that I got super irritated by it because it was holding her back SO much but most of the time she can work around it tolerably well. Cath is probably the most relatable character I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. She is basically if you took a passionate, bookish fangirl, who doesn't really go out much (because who needs the real world when you have books?) and then multiplied that by like a hundred. She's really cool and snarky and passionate and throughout the book you see her come more and more out of her shell. She starts the speak up for herself, stop being so afraid to try new things and be different, and (oddly enough) she realizes that she doesn't have to be so into Simon Snow and give up her social life, she can still love it but save time for real people too. ( I feel like I'm not describing her well but she's really great)

So Wren...I gotta say 1st half of the book Wren really pissed me off. I honestly wanted to punch her like 90% of the time. That was probably the point but JEEZ that girl was annoying AND bitchy. But she does get better and I soon came to love her too. Their dad is...interesting. I really

love their normal interactions with him. They're really sweet and funny. Reagan...is too awesome for words. She is snarky and beautiful and that is all I have to say about her. Levi is...*grins* well he's special. You should just read this book and find out all this for yourself. Seriously I'm not going to do it justice.

Fangirl is amazing and real and funny and irritating and just amazing. I swear at least half a dozen times I had to put it down to I could squeal "THE AWKWARD IS SO CUTE" into my pillow. Not even I know what that means but its true. Fangirl is really good and you should just go read it. Right now would be ideal but anytime works. Ok...well my brain is fried....I hope you enjoy the book! Byeeeee!