Fangirl

by Rainbow Rowell
published: St. Martin's Griffin, 2013
pages: 433

Cath, like the rest of the world, is a fan of Simon Snow.  She always has been and always will be.  In fact, thousands of people think she is an incredible fan.  Cath and her twin sister, Wren, are going to college and Cath is bringing along the fanfiction she's been writing or two years in anticipation of the last Simon Snow novel.  Wren has decided not to room with Cath, leaving Cath with a surly roommate who has an omnipresent, overly cheery boyfriend and an intimidating world she's not sure she can handle by herself.  Cath is also really good at worrying.  Will she be able to juggle everything or will all her worrying cause her to lose sight of what's really going on and what's important?

I absolutely could not put this book down.  It was hysterical and beautiful and it made me want to start reading fanfiction again.  There's so many layers to this novel it's crazy.  It's a story about a girl who loves a story so she writes fanfaction about that story.  They talk about the fanfiction quite a bit in the story and at the beginning I was curious to know if we'd get to read any of Cath's stories.  And we did! It's great that we actually get to read some of the fanficiton that Cath wrote.

This book places us in a refreshing setting, college.  Most YA I read is set in high school and I don't mind it, but I loved reading about Cath's transition into college.  It can be a hard transition and Cath's college experience feels so real.  Her feelings about going into this big new and scary situation are on par with how I experienced the beginning of of school. She has introverted tendencies and when she builds up a wall about certain things, I completely understand.   I have so much empathy for Cath.   Despite her concerns and all the other stuff going on in her life he manages to make friends even if they don't understand why she writes fanfiction.

All of the characters in this book are incredibly relatable.  I've been in each character's shoes at some point in my college career and that makes me like them all, even when they are being unbelievably irritating and dumb.  One thing I find so entertaining about this book is that fact that Simon Snow feels so much like Harry Potter and Cath feels the same way about Simon Snow as I do about Harry Potter.  That's grounds for many relatable moments.

I was told that I would love Rainbow Rowell and I do, I love her writing and her characters and her stories and how she took an idea and brought it to life with words.  I cannot wait to read her other books!

Stars: 4.5/5

Praise:

"A deliciously warm-hearted nerd power ballad destined for greatness."
     --New York Journal of Books

"A funny and tender coming-of-age story that's also the story of a writer finding her voice."
     --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Rowell manages to capture both the wildly popular universe of fanfic and the inside of an 18-year-old's head.  Consider me a fangirl of this charming coming-of-age tale."
     --Entertainment Weekly

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