Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl
By Rainbow Rowell
Published on  September 10th 2013
By  St. Martin's Press
445 PAges
5 Stars





 
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?


Opening Thoughts
 
My first question when opening this book was,can Rowell really pull off what it means to be a true fangirl? I am a fangirl. I am not ashamed of being a fangirl. I take pride in being a fangirl. I fangirl over so many things. I put my game face on to challenge Rowell if she could write about and understand what it is to be a true obsessive fangirl. I am now a fangirl of fangirl. She hit the nail right on the head.

Characters

I feel like I have a strong connection with Cath. I feel like I know what it feels like to be Cath. Cath reads and writes through her hard times just like I do. I know what it feels like to have that escape from the world. To have the one place where you know you feel more at home with than in your own bed. It's that train you know you can catch on the last second when you need a quick get away. I also know what it's like to worry. I am a huge worrier. You always feels like something will go wrong when your not around. You worry because you care though. You don't want anything to happen to them. I don't need to explain that fangirl part. I feel like I'm reading a part of myself when reading about Cath. I also love the way she writes fanfiction. I want Simon Snow to be a real series so I can fangirl over Simon and Baz. I want to fangirl over them so hard. The way she wrote about them was fanominal.It was true fanfiction. I fell in love with Levi. When ever I read a scene where he has starbucks I want a cup of coffee more than anything. (Which sucks because It's usually like ten at night.) He was so sweet to her, so sweet that I could feel it in the pages. I ship him and Cath so hard that when they fought I slammed my face into the book and screamed. I loved how special he made her feel. I want to date a guy who will make me feel as special has he does to Cath. He was so friendly too. It was like friendship and rainbows were pouring out of every inch of him. I could not let him go when I finished the book. Wren, I was back and forth with most of the book. In the beginning she was not my favorite character. Then I hated her. Then I hated her even more. She was such a stereotypical college student. She was just like crap to me. At the end though I was wary of her but I liked her. She was not a favorite character but she redeemed herself. Now I loved Reagan. I could never describe a relationship with a group of friends I have but now I call it a Reagan-Carth relationship. It was really nice of her to take Cath under her wing. She was a bad role model, but she was a good friend to Cath and was really good about her and Levi getting together. She is one of my favorite characters.   

Plot

Now one of the only problems I had in this book was it was hard for me to find out when the climax came. It seemed just like any other story conflict. I would have thought that the climax would be a lot bigger and more important than what we got. I also wish we could have read more of Cath's fanfiction. I really liked her writing and would be glad to hear more than what was in the book. The in between chapters was not enough for me. 

This is one of my favorite books now. It is so amazing how she captures being a true fangirl and what it is like to be that other girl in college. I would like to saw that Rowell's writing style is my favorite. I highly recommend this book and her others. 


Hope you keep reading
Grace