Review: 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?
 
A New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013

Genre: Older YA, contemporary. 

Cover Love: Love it! It's like a mini comic.

Overview:

First I want to say how amazing the author's name was. Rainbow. Dude, I don't know if it's a pen name or what, but it's awesome. I approve. Ok, onto the bookish stuff: I REALLY liked this book. A lot of books I've read where the characters are in college basically go like this: "Nervous, idk what I'm do to, oh my gosh cute boy, let's not date because he's a mean person, oh let's date now, etc" I hated those books a lot. Fangirl was nothing like those books, this girl was a normal person, her own faults and her own fears. Barely any romance until the very last chapters. It seemed like a possible college story in real life. It seemed real. I think Cath could be me if I was in college, (not exactly, but close) she was a great character, and she took on the world like a normal person should. She wasn't perfect, and all her friends were great people, and her boyfriend as you got further into the story is a great guy. Perfection.

Romance:

Like I said above, not a lot of romance. BUT, Cath does right fanfiction about two boys falling in love, but it's never anything bad. The romance with Cath is just some kissing, and they flirt a lot. Not the kind of flirting I approve of, and some things I really didn't like, they used some terms and things in there. But then again, this book was about college, and making choices in your life, so it wasn't like they totally threw stuff in there for no reason. But it was never in your face either, you can always see when something's coming up and you can skip right over it, even though the author never writes anything over the top. Overall, the romance was sweet. (can't say I approve of everything though)

Language:

Typical stuff. Words you shouldn't say. The end.

Violence:

Not really, aside from Cath's sister getting drunk from time to time (which Cath and their father thinks is really bad, which I gave an A+ to). there wasn't any violence.

Religion:

Cath many times thinks to herself if she has an abstinence pledge, and things like that, which might seem a little like religion. (Abstinence pledge FTW) and God is mentioned once in the context of religion, but there didn't seem to be any real religion in there. 


I also want to say that there's a scene when her boyfriend is trying to carry something for her, and she's convinced that he's insulting her because she's a girl and she can't carry things, but he makes a valid point that he just wants to be nice and carry things for her. WIN.

Rating: 4.8 out of 5!

-M.L