Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

★★★★☆
Very Relatable

First, I want to say that I really did enjoy this book - just as much as I was expecting to.  After hearing nothing but good things, I was not surprised to find this an amazing read.
Something you need to know about me is that I'm not good with realistic fiction, if that's what you want to call it.  It's very tough for me to really love a book that has no fantasy elements.  Another problem I have with the genre is that I can never really tell what the character's goals are, or where the story is going.  And sometimes I finish these kinds of books wondering if anything really happened in the story.
Fangirl wasn't completely like that.  I loved the writing, the characters, the setting and how real the story was.  At times, I did feel like I didn't know where the story was going, but I was so sucked into the main character's life that I hardly noticed.  It follows a girl named Cath, who loves (loves) the Simon Snow book series (which is kind of like the Harry Potter series) during her first year of college.  And, as you can guess from the cover, she writes fanfic about it.  She's not just good at writing fanfiction - she's great, and has a massive audience.  She used to write it with her twin sister, Wren, but she has since moved on from Simon Snow and this distances the two sisters.  The story is about Cath learning to be independent and having her own life without being as close to Wren.
I liked the adorable romance in this book, and if you love romance stories you'll love Fangirl.  Levi was definitely my favourite character - his personality reminded me of a cute little puppy, which may not make sense until you read about him.  I also ended up really liking Reagan, though I disliked her at the beginning of the story.
Strangely, I liked Cath less than Reagan.  I noticed so many similarities between Cath and me that I ended up feeling uncomfortable at times - like I was reading about myself.  It actually scared me at times how similar my decisions would have been to hers.  This was one of the main reasons why I gave Fangirl a 4/5 on Goodreads, rather than a 5.
Overall, I really loved this book and would definitely recommend it for any contemporary or realistic fiction fans!


Check out Rainbow Rowell's website here or click here to go to Fangirl's Goodreads page and you can see more of my spoiler-y thoughts if you've already read the book by scrolling just a little further :)




As mentioned above, my main problem was feeling uncomfortable with Cath.  It terrified me that I could be like her in a couple years!  Not that that would be so bad, but I can honestly see myself living off protein bars for four weeks instead of asking someone where the dining room is!  Cath had so many similar characteristics to me, not only in personality but in looks as well.  I also felt like a lot happened a little conveniently for Cath relationship-wise.  I thought she was only ever rude to Levi, yet he jumped to help her in every occasion.  This did change later in the book though, so I believed it when they (finally) got together.
The ability of Rainbow Rowell to get emotion out of me was incredible.  I got mad at Nick, mad at Wren, mad at Laura, mad at Cath's Fiction Writing teacher... I also found myself tearing up at parts, which I was definitely not expecting, as I'd been led to believe this was a light, happy book!


Comment with your thoughts of Fangirl!