Hi loves! It's me again with another review. This is going to be on Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I read this book originally in about September or October of last year and just did a re-read of it. My thoughts have not changed at all between reads and honestly it's one of the best books I read in 2014. This is for a myriad of reason in which I will tell you in this review.
First off, Cather Avery. Our main leading lady, Cather Avery, is starting her freshman year of college and we're immediately met with Levi a friend/boyfriend of her roommate Reagan. He's just there. In her flipping room. Now, I did mention he knew her roommate so this isn't exactly as creepy as it would seem but I mean, if on move in day my roommate's boyfriend was just chilling and my roommate was nowhere to be found, I'd be just as concerned as Cath was.
The book proceeds to transpire over Cath's first year of college, we meet Wren, her twin sister who is quite frankly the exact opposite of her in this book. They have their twin moments but that's about as far as it goes. This all stems from how they've always dealt with their mother leaving them back in 2001. Cath became more introverted than before and Wren acted out.
Cath is a writer, she writes this highly popular fanfiction called Carry On this is based off the fictional world of the Simon Snow series and is basically a tweaked and fictionalized Harry Potter. The eighth and final book was coming out the following May of Cath's freshman year and she puts immense pressure on herself to finish Carry On before the eighth book is released. While I was reading this, I was highly impressed at the amount of words Cath could pump out in one night. From my own personal experience it would take me about twice as long to produce the amount of words as she would in a single chapter of fanfiction so I'm not entirely sure how realistic that was but I still related to it.
In this book we see Cath grow as a person through so much drama. I say that but it's not a bad thing, it's so realistic and I just want to root for Cath to make it through all the drama with her dysfunctional family and for her and Levi to get together (after finding out Levi had not been Reagan's boyfriend for a long time) and actually becoming friends with her roommate and not screwing that friendship up especially after Cath and Levi begin to date.
We also see an academic side of Cath, she got into a 300 level fiction writing course and as a creative writing major myself, that's quite impressive to do as a freshman. I won't be able to take the equivalent of that class until my sophomore year which is honestly just next semester but that still puts Cath a full year ahead of me. Right off the bat she struggles to find a muse to write things that aren't Simon Snow fanfiction and I know exactly how she feels. Creating your own world is hard, it takes getting to know these random muses that just appear one day and might be gone the next. It's much like moving to a new place where you know no one and just vaguely know about the place you're at.
The duality between how Cath struggles with this and adjusting to live at college might even serve as symbolism in this novel. Oops there goes my English major peeking through. Anywho, this book, no matter what age you are (okay it does use the F-bomb quite a bit so I wouldn't really recommend if you're 13 or under) you need to pick up this book. It is one of the most realistic yet entertaining contemporary books I've ever read. I give this 5 out of 5 stars all the way.
You can find Fangirl through these lovely links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
**I don't get anything from those links, I just know from personal experience that links like those are always lovely and convenient**
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