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!
So, to summarise... YAY RAINBOW ROWELL!
