Jen reads... Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

With this book I think I have very enthusiastically jumped onto the "OH MY GOD Rainbow Rowell is amazing!!" bandwagon. I picked the book up in England when I went back there in February, and was pretty sure that I would love if after I read Eleanor and Park… but I saved it for a while, partly because I don’t want to go through her whole back catalogue too quickly, and partly because I think some part of me was scared that I would be disappointed by it.

Luckily, I wasn’t!

Fangirl is about twin sisters, Cath and Wren, who are both starting at the same college. Up until this point they’ve always been together, but Wren decides that she wants to be more independent, leaving Cath, who (like me!) is a bit scared of change, alone to fend for herself.

Oh and Cath writes really popular fan fiction based in the world of Simon Snow (similar to Harry Potter).  

The story is about how they grow apart and grow as people during their first year at college. It has love story angles as well, but to me the story was so much more about Wren and Cath’s relationship than anything else. This is probably one of the reasons that I loved it. I have a weakness for anything based around sisters (which is probably why I reacted so strongly and with so many tears when I went to see frozen a few weeks ago!), and I really loved seeing how they interacted and dealt with their own individual problems and each other.

The story focuses on Cath, who seems to be completely scared of everything new. Which I completely understand, because I am like that as well! I’m not sure that it’s a spoiler to say this because, let’s be honest, it’s quite obvious that the book is going to go this way, but it’s really nice to see her overcome a lot of her issues with the people around her and the new world that she’s been thrown into, and to open up and grow as a person.

Also, I REALLY want to read the Simon Snow books now. Even though I know that they don’t exist! BOO! Somebody write them!

I really really really loved this book, to the extent that it resulted in at least 1 ridiculously late night because I couldn’t put it down. I’m normally quite strict with myself about when I go to bed (otherwise I spend the next day being really grumpy and feeling rubbish), but I honestly couldn’t stop reading.

The only issue that I had with the book (only a very very tiny issue, mind you) was that my copy had a picture on the inside front cover which set up really clearly how relationships were going to end up being played out, which wasn't a HUGE problem, but I would have much preferred it if they had gone with a more ambiguous picture, or put that one at the back. It didn't really ruin the reading experience, but I definitely would have preferred to go in without any knowledge of how things are going to go.

Apart form that though, a hearty recommendation from me! Even more so if, like me, you’ve ever had a period in your life when you’ve been really into fan fiction. I can remember getting obsessed with Harry Potter fan fiction after the goblet of fire came out, when I was waiting for the order of the phoenix. I can’t remember what it was called at all, but there was one really long piece of fan fiction in particular that was supposed to be a potential version of what the order of the phoenix might be like (similar to what Cath is writing in Fangirl) which I looooved, and I was actually a little bit disappointed initially with OOTP because of it, hehe.

I don’t ever read fan fiction now (I’m sure there is good stuff out there, but I have no desire to wade through all of the rubbish to get to it), but it reminded me of that time in my life, and made me feel all nostalgic.

So, to summarise... YAY RAINBOW ROWELL!