Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I’ve had fangirl sitting on my bookshelf since its release week back in September 2013 and I’ve only just gotten around to reading it (I know, I know.) It’s an absolutely perfect transition book for anyone who is in College or University and I cannot believe I’ve waited this long to read it. Honestly the only thing that forced me to read it now is the fact that this time next year I won’t be a student anymore and I probably won’t relate to it as well. So at the beginning of my third year of University I picked up on of the most well-known YA books around!

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: YA, Romance

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books

Publication Date: 10th September 2013

Pages: 480

Summery : Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one half of a pair any more – she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She’s horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she’s experienced in real life.

Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She’s got a surly room-mate 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.

Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realizing that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible . . .

I’ve only previously read one Rainbow Rowell book (Eleanor and Park) and I adored it, her writing style is easy to read and fun. I was worried going in to another Rainbow book that I’d lose my love for her, I think that’s why I put it off so long. I can happily confirm that no love was lost in the process of reading Fangirl! The writing for me flowed even better than Eleanor and Park, showing her development as a writer. The scenes were put together perfectly in my opinion.

The one thing that stood out the most about this novel were the amazing characters. I’ve heard so many people say that they absolutely loved Reagan and Levi to name just two, so I was sceptical of my feelings towards them as I read. I got about half way through the book before falling head of heels for Levi. I debating changing my list of favourite fictional boyfriends and putting him right at number one to be honest. Each character was so well rounded and crafted that they seemed like genuine, real people as you were reading about them. Also Cath and Levi’s relationship by the end of the novel and the character growth between them was one of the best I’ve ever read. There just seemed to be a depth to the characters I’ve not read in such a long time. It was almost comforting.

The strongest point to Fangirl is how true it feels towards the University/College aspect of it. As someone who has now lived away from home in a shared flat similar to Cath’s I can say that every account is true. From being nervous about finding your way around to the mix of people you will start to meet over the time you’re away, nothing about Fangirl is false in that sense. That’s why I think if you’re just starting out at University/College this is an absolutely perfect book for you to read.

The one thing I didn’t like about Fangirl was the Harry Potter knock off of Simon and Baz (yes I am fully aware that Carry On has just been released.) If it was supposed to be disguised it definitely wasn’t and it just made the whole book feel a little cheap. Whereas I loved the idea of Cath writing FanFiction and that being her passion I thought Rainbow could come up with something a little better for the stories she wrote about. If I’m honest I skipped through a lot of the parts of the Simon and Baz story, I had no interest.

Now that I’ve read fangirl and its over i must admit I’m a little sad that I can’t forget the story to read it again. It was a book that genuinely made me very happy and I fully intended on re-reading it just to be that happy again! After all how often do we get to read books about people exactly like us? Reading and writing FanFiction and someones room that looks like a shire to their favourite character? And for now I will stop putting off Rainbow Rowell books and dive right in to them. As for Fangirl my one question is, why did Cath never get to meet Levi’s family!?