Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)

> Nº 11 on My 2015 Reading Challenge – A book with a one-word title <

With a title like this, I just had to read this book. A few weeks ago, after prowling the bookstores of Lisbon and Barcelona for an English copy, I finally found one… in Oxford, obviously (it was 1 of the 9 books I brought from my recent trip to the UK). The cover is gorgeous, so having just finished Love at First Type, I decided that Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell would be a good book to start while still there. It was! I finished it in 3 days!

“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 fanfiction, 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 fanfiction 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?” – Rainbow Rowell

I could totally relate to Cath, though I never wrote fanfiction (or read it), but her reactions to everything new and her anxieties are all too familiar to me. Starting college is hard, actually, being anywhere new is always hard, no matter what age you are.

I loved this novel so much, I loved Cath, though I sometimes wanted to punch her, with her Simon shirts and her power bars under the bed… LOVED Levi (though there’s also a couple of moments where I could totally hit him) and the fact that he respected and admired Cath so much. Loved Reagan and the fact that people don’t have to click right away to become friends and that not all friendships look the same. I loved that no one is perfect and that it read true to me. I saw myself there and I’m just sorry that no Levi has ever crossed my path…

Wonderful book! It’s more than just a coming-of-age book, it deals with a variety of subjects such as social anxieties, alcohol abuse, bipolar disease and dyslexia… while mixing it up with the Simon Snow universe (which is basically Harry Potter… the school is where they shot the movies and everything…) and a lot of Simon/Baz fanfic… you know… you should give it a try =D.

Rating: 4.5 stars