Hey, guys! I just finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (also known as the author of Eleanor & Park). I entered into this book thinking that it would be a wonderfully cute love story where the main character was a giant nerd/fangirl. While that was still what it was, I found the story lacked the umph/the connection that really got me engaged.
The Cover:
The Cover:
It shows Cath writing Simon Snow/ Baz fanfiction while Levi tries hopelessly to get her attention. It's a simple cover that it kind of cute. I love the cover but I think it gives a bit of a misconception about what the book is about. (More on that later) A+ cover.
Official Description:
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?
My (Mildly Sarcastic) Description:
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. However, she is not a quirky nerd who just glows with excitement about fictional worlds.
No.
Cath would rather sit in her room, not speaking to anyone and write fanfiction. Her dorm room is where she will sit like a bump on a log through perhaps two or three hundred of these four hundred and fifty pages. On her laptop she sits while complaining about how lonely she is, apparently not recognizing that she brings it on herself by not even speaking to her new roommate for the first month or so of college.
She will make you, however awkward you are, seem like a social butterfly.
Why read a story about someone on their laptop when you yourself could be doing the same thing? you might ask. I don't know. The best response I have is to read the love story that picks up about 3/4 of the way through this novel.
My Review:
As you can probably tell, I was bored by this book. It wasn't poorly written; the writing style was actually quite interesting, and you can definitely tell that Rainbow Rowell knows how to write. However, I just do not think that she should've chosen this particular topic.
Firstly, you can tell that she doesn't quite get the whole "fangirl" thing. Sure, she gets the basics down, but the overall feel was... off somehow.
Also, she couldn't quite get the whole awkward thing right either. (Well, it was definitely awkward, but it wasn't the right kind of awkward to get across a story.) I have definitely read my fair share of stories with crushingly awkward protagonists. (See: If I Fall, If I Die and Boo) But, those books made me relate to the characters instead of just wincing.
I'm also not going to lie that it irritated me beyond belief how much "Simon Snow" was a blatant rip-off of Harry Potter, a boy wizard in a boarding school to study magic. It wasn't just that though. Here's a quote so that you can see how deep it ran: "'Baz's hair is sick,' Wren said during Simon Snow and the Selkies Four [fourth movie]. All the actors had longer hair in this movie." Maybe being mildly upset about this is just because I know way too much about Harry Potter, but still!
My final complaint was that the ending was the definition of anti-climatic. It was almost as if Rainbow Rowell just lost interest in the book and shrugged and called it done.
All of Fangirl's shortcomings aside, the writing style was still very interesting, and the dialogue was funny. While most of this book was boring, the parts that were a little exciting were all brilliant pieces of writing. However, these great spots were few and far between.
I would not recommend Fangirl. I really hoped to like it and was sorely disappointed, and I think you will be as well. All in all, I would say that I've definitely read better books and, even, better fanfiction.
Phrase:
Range Management
Happy Reading!
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The Cover:
It shows Cath writing Simon Snow/ Baz fanfiction while Levi tries hopelessly to get her attention. It's a simple cover that it kind of cute. I love the cover but I think it gives a bit of a misconception about what the book is about. (More on that later) A+ cover.
Official Description:
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?
My (Mildly Sarcastic) Description:
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. However, she is not a quirky nerd who just glows with excitement about fictional worlds.
No.
Cath would rather sit in her room, not speaking to anyone and write fanfiction. Her dorm room is where she will sit like a bump on a log through perhaps two or three hundred of these four hundred and fifty pages. On her laptop she sits while complaining about how lonely she is, apparently not recognizing that she brings it on herself by not even speaking to her new roommate for the first month or so of college.
She will make you, however awkward you are, seem like a social butterfly.
Why read a story about someone on their laptop when you yourself could be doing the same thing? you might ask. I don't know. The best response I have is to read the love story that picks up about 3/4 of the way through this novel.
My Review:
As you can probably tell, I was bored by this book. It wasn't poorly written; the writing style was actually quite interesting, and you can definitely tell that Rainbow Rowell knows how to write. However, I just do not think that she should've chosen this particular topic.
Firstly, you can tell that she doesn't quite get the whole "fangirl" thing. Sure, she gets the basics down, but the overall feel was... off somehow.
Also, she couldn't quite get the whole awkward thing right either. (Well, it was definitely awkward, but it wasn't the right kind of awkward to get across a story.) I have definitely read my fair share of stories with crushingly awkward protagonists. (See: If I Fall, If I Die and Boo) But, those books made me relate to the characters instead of just wincing.
I'm also not going to lie that it irritated me beyond belief how much "Simon Snow" was a blatant rip-off of Harry Potter, a boy wizard in a boarding school to study magic. It wasn't just that though. Here's a quote so that you can see how deep it ran: "'Baz's hair is sick,' Wren said during Simon Snow and the Selkies Four [fourth movie]. All the actors had longer hair in this movie." Maybe being mildly upset about this is just because I know way too much about Harry Potter, but still!
My final complaint was that the ending was the definition of anti-climatic. It was almost as if Rainbow Rowell just lost interest in the book and shrugged and called it done.
All of Fangirl's shortcomings aside, the writing style was still very interesting, and the dialogue was funny. While most of this book was boring, the parts that were a little exciting were all brilliant pieces of writing. However, these great spots were few and far between.
I would not recommend Fangirl. I really hoped to like it and was sorely disappointed, and I think you will be as well. All in all, I would say that I've definitely read better books and, even, better fanfiction.
Phrase:
Range Management
Happy Reading!
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