Fangirl Review

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

“To really be a nerd, she'd decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.” 

Fangirl is a mix between Young Adult and New Adult; there are topics in the book which are mainly in YA like parent issues, growing up, fangirling and having crushes. There are also new adult topics like drinking problems, mental issues and progressing relationships. I think Cath is a typical YA main character and Wren is a typical New Adult main character.

Cath and Wren are twins – I really like their names – Cath + Wren = Catherine. From the start of novel their relationship is rocky because of their differences; Cath wanting to stay in and not socialise and Wren wanting to party and get drunk. Their relationship gets worse as their differences tear them apart until they’re avoiding each other. Cath has to deal with being the less pretty and geeky twin compared to her outgoing pretty sister. However that being said when there is no drama their relationship is really close and they do have similarities.

I love the idea of this book being based on a girl who writes fanfiction. As a reader you can be part of many fandoms and you can do a lot of things in fandoms like reading fanfics, seeing fanart, obsessing about the characters, fancasting and more. So the theme is relatable for many readers and it’s interesting to see people’s views on what Cath does.

Reagan has a moody/harsh personality and I’m surprised she’s not portrayed as a bully in the book. There’s this awkwardness between Cath and Reagan when Cath starts dating Levi but Reagan was a decent friend, she helped Cath meet new friends. And compare her to Wren’s friend who’s a bimbo and portrayed negatively all because she’s Wren’s new friend. 

After every chapter there was either a page from the Simon Snow series or fanfiction from Wren and Cath or just Cath. The world of Simon Snow was interesting and I liked the plotlines and relationships between the characters, even though you can see the links between Simon Snow and Harry Potter. I also really liked how it showed the differences between the real books and the fanfiction.

Though in the book there was some predictable parts; like Nick’s character who was introduced as a might be love interest and to get rid of that idea he had to do something bad, the problems with her mother and sister and what Levi did before they became a couple.

I also liked Levi and Cath’s relationship; from him being the first person she met at uni to him becoming a regular face she saw in her dorm room. As their relationship progresses, it was really sweet with Cath reading her fanfiction to Levi and helping him with his reading however their relationship was built slowly so near the ending it was quite weird when everything started to go really fast and rushed.

Cath did grow in character a little bit; she met new people, co wrote stories, got into a proper relationship and wrote fiction that wasn’t fanfiction.   However too much time was spent on Cath just writing fan fiction to the point in which when she actually tried writing her piece for class it was all rushed and boring.

The other things I liked was how her dad didn’t push her to make amends with her mother, Levi and Cath’s fights practically nonexistent and Cath and Art’s relationship.   

★★★★☆