Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
"In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, 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? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?"
(from Amazon)
I really wanted to read Fangirl because I had never heard of a book in which the main character reads or writes fan fiction. I enjoy fan fiction so I was interested to know how that could fit into a story. But as I was reading I fell in love with the character of Cath Avery and could relate to her greatly. I am also at the age to be starting school, and the very thought fills me with dreadful anxiety. And, like her, I cling tenaciously to the things that are comfortable for me, the books and fictional characters that I love. Sometimes, while reading, I almost wanted to cry because a sentence or sentiment would strike me so truly. Feelings like that are what I read for, to become so immersed in a story or a character while still seeing something of yourself there, making it all the more real in a way. Fangirl did that for me.
But it was also such a wonderful story. You root for Cath to become her own person, you want her to succeed on her own and in her relationships. The relationship between her and her father, which becomes a key part of the story, is very interesting and sweet and slightly dysfunctional in a good-natured way. Her relationship with Wren, also a large part of the story, is always realistic (disclaimer: I say this as a person who does not have any siblings) and I rooted for them as much as I rooted for Cath and her love interest.
Which brings me to the romantic plotline of the story. I loved that the romance was not at all the main plot of the story. Cath becoming her own person and being secure in that is just as important, and strengthens, her relationships with her friends and family.
Honestly, though, I don't want to say too much about the love story. It was charming and sweet and realistic. I grinned constantly. And I loved going into it without any background knowledge. The boy is not some Prince Charming and both have their problems to overcome but they sort of learn from each other. I think that Gayle Forman said it best when she said, "I loved that Rainbow made me fall in love with a balding Ag major with dyslexia."
That's what Rainbow Rowell did. She made me fall in love with these characters, she made me laugh and worry with them.
My final note: the chapters are split up with passages from the Simon Snow series (a sort of homage to the Harry Potter series) and different pieces of fan fiction written by Cath and (sometimes) her sister. I enjoyed these little stories-within-a-story and they really made me want to read this fictional book series.
