Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Source: Purchased
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads

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?

My Thoughts:

Rainbow Rowell is definitely an author that I have loved from the very beginning! Although I have not read Attachments, Eleanor & Park was one of my favorite reads of last year and Fangirl is, so far, one of my favorite reads this year! 

Fangirl speaks to my heart especially strong because I am a huge Harry Potter fan! Although I do not write fanfiction myself, I have been known to read a little Harry Potter fanfiction from time to time! It's a very vast world with stories that I would never have imagined on my own.

I love Rowell's characters in Fangirl. As with her other novels, her characters are very real and they feel very genuine.  It's as if she is writing about something that has actually happened and based her characters off of real people.  Cath and Wren, twins, couldn't be more different.  Cath the introverted one who is super shy with a pinch of social anxiety and Wren is totally outgoing who loves to party and self-medicate.  Levi isn't the typical fictional love interest and I totally thought it was going to be Nick until he turned out to be a complete douche bag. So again, totally believable characters because not everyone ends up with the dreamy super cute guy because they're not always nice. 

I love stories like this where the main character comes out of her shell to take a risks and end up being glad that she did because good things can happen.  Fangirl is such a great novel and one that I will not forget for a long time to come!