Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Synopsis:

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, 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 fanfiction, 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 fanfiction 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.

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⭐⭐/5

Whether it is a book, a movie franchise, a music genre, a band... even a sports player or an online game; we've all been through a stage in our lives where we obsess about something or someone. Personally, I still do (you can see this clearly if you read my reviews on Cassandra Clare's sagas). I am a proper fangirl and, as such, I was very intrigued by Rainbow Rowell's famous book of the same name.

Fangirl was written by Rainbow Rowell and it is a standalone book that follows Cather, an eighteen-year-old girl who is not ready to be detached from her twin sister when they go to college. The only thing that remains normal are her fanfictions on Simon Snow. Throughout this novel, we can see how she comes of age and finds herself falling for a guy, even when she expected it the least.

This book left me wanting more. It is very famous, so I had hoped I would like it as much as others told me I would. However, despite the fact I understood that people loved it and had read it many times because they could relate with the themes discussed, when it comes to my experience, I could not relate at all and it certainly didn't fulfill my expectations. Still, Fangirl was an easy read. There were no complex things such as story turns or challenging words. There were parts where I enjoyed the story and wanted to keep reading but, to tell you the truth, what kept me going was the need to finish it. One of the main reasons why I didn’t like it a lot was the period of time I read it, which was after reading one of my favorite reads, where no flaws were found: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. After having read a challenging novel both emotionally and narratively I found Fangirl a little dull and flat, maybe even childish.

The storyline illustrates typical teenage problems: social awkwardness, adapting through college, dealing with family drama, and much more. I understand how Rainbow Rowell tried to explore them but I disliked how Cather deals with them. She is not an appealing character; she lacks common sense and social abilities and in my opinion, is full of herself. She is not only fearful of making friends, but she is also determined not to have any. She tries hard so that people lose interest in her, so in that way, she has more time to write. I felt sometimes that Cather had the mindset of a 90-year-old grandmother since she would not leave her bedroom, would not go to any party, and even judges her sister when she does.

------Spoiler warning about the characters relations------

Moreover, I have to state my love-hate relationship with the characters. If you’ve been reading my reviews, you know I focus a lot on characterization. On the one hand, I liked the twin’s relationship the most: their anger and resentment, their realistic and underlying love. I also liked their father; so sweet and energetic. Now, the bad: When it comes to Levi, Cath’s love interest, I could not stop thinking of him as a fake person. There is no such boy who will always have a smile on him. Even if there was, Rowell did not expand on his character at all: I don’t know anything about his personal background, his problems, or his life itself. It was all too flat, too superficial; only a pretty face and a nice smile. I thought the same of his and Cath’s relationship. I couldn’t root for them like I love to do for couples in books that include romance.

When it came to her friendship with Reagan, Cath’s roommate, I saw a lot of potential wasted. I would have loved seeing a strong and loyal friendship be forged between them; instead, it is all out of the blue and I’m not even sure if they end up liking each other. Reagan was such an interesting character, and I was really disappointed at the few apparitions she had and at how little her background is explored.

Furthermore, there is the dilemma with Laura, the mother. Laura has abandoned Cath and Wren when they were kids and now, NEWSFLASH, she decides to appear and build a relationship with her daughters. The author never had time to expand on some scenes and never rounded up this issue with her, Rowell left it open when it needed to be closed and sealed in order for Cath to grow up. I consider this mother-and-daughter problem had little influence on the account of the story, meaning that if it had never happened, nothing would have changed.

Last but not least, an important issue I had with the novel was that it is sold as a book about fandom, although it is very much a coming of age story. It isn’t even a good treatment of the topic, even if it was left in the background; at first, fandom is mentioned lightly, however, it is then nearly forgotten. It always focuses on Cath and her view of it, leaving aside the most essential, current and true aspects of fandom like, for instance, the community: Us, that we share and write and discuss. The people that recommend fanfiction, that do fanart, that connect to each other through common interests. I thought this was a pity, because the Simon Snow fanfiction excerpts were really interesting, (so much that I’ve bought the actual book Carry On from which they come from) but they don’t really add anything valuable to the plot. It could have been a good opportunity for this book to embody a representation of what it really is is to be in a fandom, instead of just perpetuating the much established and untrue stereotypes— that fangirls are socially incompetent, cold, abnormal— that make all of us hide our fangirlism. Believe me, I know all about it.

To conclude, even though Fangirl is not one book I love, I still recommend it to those people who want to start reading, and maybe kids of around thirteen. It is a good novel with a simple storyline, ideal for a quick-read. Don’t let my judgments blind you, and try reading it so you can form your own opinion and tell me later :)