Published: September 10th 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: YA/NA, Contemporary, Romance
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?
I bought the Exclusive Collector's edition as a birthday present to myself, and since this is the second time I've read it, I thought it was time to do proper review.
Fangirl is the socially awkward teen girl anthem. The entire time reading it, I kept thinking, "This is me. This is so me. Guys, Rowell stole my life and put it in book form, but with a lot more attractive people and romance." If you
A) are a fangirl
B) suffer from social anxiety
C) have just started or have ever attended a college in your life
D) All of the above
you will probably relate a lot to this book. This isn't the most accurate portrayal of fandoms, but I think it's pretty darn close for many young girls who decide to be a part of such a wonderful section of the internet.
Fangirl follows Cath's first year of college as she learns to juggle the booming popularity of her Simon Snow fanfic, her crippling social anxiety, her (lack) of romance, and a slew of family drama. Cath is a witty, but her social anxiety causes her to avoid people. She feels much more at home talking to online friends and writing Simon and Baz stories. Until a few months before college, she thought the same was true for her twin sister Wren. Unfortunately for Cath, Wren wants to mature and become a real college student, which apparently means leaving Simon Snow and Cath behind.
My heart ached when Cath described, "breaking up" with her sister. It's hard enough losing friends, so I can't imagine how much it would suck to drift away from your built-in-best friend. Plus, Cath isn't as outgoing as her sister, so she ends up spending most of the first semester trapped in her room eating protein bars and trying to become friends with her intimidating roommate and her roommate's not-boyfriend.
Cath's is a great main character, though there were a couple of moments where I wanted to strangle her with her own Simon Snow shirt. Mostly the scene where Cath is confronted by her fiction professor for turning in a Simon/Baz story for a writing assignment. Obviously the professor thinks it's plagiarism, but Cath doesn't understand why she shouldn't turn in other people's characters for an academic assignment.
This wouldn't have been so bad if Cath ever actually understood what she did wrong, but she doesn't. She continues to believe that she was the victim in this situation and that the professor is unfairly persecuting her. Like, girl are you for real? You've been writing fanfiction for how long? And you don't understand that it's academically wrong to turn in fanfiction for an assignment? She's so lucky her professor didn't report her for plagiarism.
There is also bit of a love triangle in the book, but I thought the way it was portrayed was different and more realistic. Instead of some epic showdown between two men who both love Cath and would die for her, Cath crushes on two guys and one turns into something while the other fizzles out. Which is completely realistic. Girls crush on multiple people all the time and it isn't always true love vs other true love.
I wasn't 100% into Levi as a love interest, but in the end I realized that it didn't matter if I liked Levi or thought he was perfect. What mattered was that he was perfect for Cath and he got her. He never put her down or made her feel ashamed for liking fanfiction. Plus, he joined her emergency Kanye dance party.
No one throws it down like Yeezus.
The other characters were great, but props to roomie Reagan for putting up with Cath's shit for a year. Sometimes, it's not great dealing with people with social anxiety. It's easy to want to give up, but Reagan stuck with it and proved to be a great friend.
I would have preferred a little less Simon Snow excerpts. I have nothing against excerpts in general but the problem here was that they weren't even good. Gemma T. Leslie's writing was cringeworthy, and Cath wasn't much better, which made it confusing when everyone was touting Cath up to be some sort of writing God. There was really no need for pages and pages of Cath reading fanficiton to Levi, especially when it added nothing to the story except for word count.
The ending left me frustrated because it ended so suddenly, but I don't know how else I would have had it end. There were a few plotlines that hadn't been wrapped up (the Mom for one), but the book was already pushing 400 pages, and I think it would feel ingenuine to have another fifty pages about how Cath's life suddenly became awesome and all of the drama went away.
I know it seems like I complained a lot in this review, but trust me, I loved this book. The subject is relatable, the writing style is engaging, and Rowell manages to write about real people who are flawed. Recommended for anyone who has ever fangirled over anything in their life.
P.S. has anyone read the excerpt of Carry On that was at the end of the Exclusive Collector's edition? I don't know if I should be excited or scared because the writing was not the best.
Verdict
CONVERSATION