Title:Fangirl
Author:Rainbow Rowell
Release Date:September 10th 2013
Publisher:St.Martin's Press
Synopsis;
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?
Before I start this review,let me confess something first.I took up this book to read mainly because I didn't want to look like a loser who's totally clueless about a book which was at that time a phenomenon in the blogging world.Fangirl was everywhere around the blogs and all the reviews raved about how relateable Cath was and I forced myself to read it see what it was all about.Big mistake in my part,because when I took up this book some months ago,I ended up not being much impressed by it.
Not to say that I didn't like Fangirl.Because when I thought about giving it a second chance and took it up again two days ago,I actually ended up liking it a lot.Why I am saying this is because I want to let you all know that don't let the hype Fangirl carries around play a part in your judgement of the book.
The only problem I had with this book was that I couldn't relate to Cath as much as all the bloggers did.Whether that makes me an odd one out,I don't know,but I didn't feel any connection towards her.I don't believe in the stereotype that book lovers are always shy introverts-especially since I am totally not-and Cath looked like an attempt in Rowell's part to create the stereotypical reader.
But keeping it aside,there was a lot of things to appreciate about the book.I liked all the characters and relationships.The romance between Levi and Cath was so cute and sweet,the bond between Cath and Wren was great and most of all,I loved Cath's beautiful relationship with her father.
I also loved the frequent extracts of fanfiction.As an avid reader of fanfiction myself,I enjoyed those short glimpses we got of Simon and Baz.Speaking of,I really liked these two as well,especially Baz-who reminded me a lot of Draco Malfoy,who is one of my all time favourite characters.
Another aspect I loved about this book is that it showed the plain reality-not the romanticised version of it.Cath's college life was normal and boring-not like the usual dramatic and eventful colleges we see in fiction nowadays.
But most of all,I loved how Rainbow has captured the struggle of a booklover to find people he/she can connect to.It's difficult to find a person in your life who shares your reading obsessions or fandoms.And when you feel like you want to share your opinions and thoughts on books,OTPs,characters and authors,there's no body around you who can get that.This is something Cath deals with throughout the story,and I think that every bookaholic has suffered the curse of reader-less environment in their life.
Overall,Fangirl is a cute read.I'll recommend it to anyone who loves to read about heroines who reads books other than classics or a cute romance with a shy lead.
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