Fangirl

Fangirl 
author: Rainbow Rowell
published: September 10th 2013 by St. Martin's Press
pages: 461
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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?


For someone who loves reading and writing and is pretty shy this book was perfect. Lots of people love this book and now I can finally say I do too.


Cath is trying to survive the challenge that is college, finish her newest fan-fiction and not worry about her dad, all without her twin sister wren at her side.

Even though I'm still in school and not in college, I could really identify with Cath and her struggles. She is thrown into a situation miles away from her comfort zone and now she had to deal with it somehow. Cath is really shy in real life but online she feels more confident which is why she prefers the company of her laptop to real people. It was great to watch her slowly leaving her comfort zone and making friends. Seeing her deal with things she would rather just ignore for ever was really empowering somehow. I couldn't stop reading, anxious to find out what would happen next.

I was a bit torn about her twin sister Wren. Cath obviously loves her but since she and Cath don't really get along since the beginning of the book I wasn't a huge fan of her at first. The way Wren ignores Cath while she was struggling on her own really made me mad.
The other people Cath becomes friends with all won me over sooner or later as well.

One of my favorite aspects of Fangirl was Cath's writing. It made me want to write more as well and I think Cath's struggling to write something of her own that isn't Simon Snow fan-fiction was very interesting. I wasn't a huge fan of the excerpts of Simon Snow or Cath's fan-fiction Carry On so I probably won't read the book Carry On. Nonetheless I really enjoyed the parts of the book where she writes.


Even though I most likely won't pick up Carry On I was a huge fan of Fangirl (sorry, I couldn't resist) and think that this is the perfect book to get the courage to leave your comfort zone or to just  spend a few hours reading nonstop.