Book Review: Fangirl By Rainbow Rowell

Rating: ★★★★★
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Goodreads Synopsis:

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?

Alright, not only do I want to hang out with the characters in this book, I also want to hang out with the characters from the fanfiction that the main character, Cath, writes too! I love love loved this! What an incredibly relatable and fun book! I want more I tell you! More!

Fangirl is the story of loveable, quirky, introverted Cath! Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Probably the worlds biggest Simon Snow fan. She wears Simon Snow t-shirts and hangs Simon Snow posters, she even writes Simon Snow fanfiction (and she’s pretty damn good at it too). She practically breathes, eats and sleeps Simon Snow. But now, Cath is embarking on her first year of college and she’s struggling to adjust to campus life as she makes new friends and works on projects outside of her comfort zone.

I loved this book and I flipping adored these characters. All of them! Even when they were frustrating, I still loved them! They were all incredibly complex and real which made it very refreshing and interesting to read. There was a really wonderful, slow burn romance and I loved getting to see how different people coming in and out of Cath’s life changed her perspective in different ways. There were honestly times while I was reading this that I sat with the goofiest smile on my face, or I’d laugh out loud because the character interactions were just perfection! I could even see some of my own introverted tendencies when it came to Cath, so that was really neat too.

Fangirl also tackled some intense topics such as mental health and alcohol abuse with grace, while still managing to maintain this wonderful light tone. There were times when I genuinely felt for these characters! Because they were so well written, I cared about them a lot! It was a highly character driven read, which is something I really loved about this book.

Overall, Fangirl was amazing! The characters, as I said previously, where incredibly well written and even when unlikable, were weirdly loveable. I highly recommend reading this book! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to purchase every other book Rainbow Rowell has ever written, or heck, I might just reread Fangirl right now!

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