Genre: YA Romance
Published: September 10, 2013
Pages: 481
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park. A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
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?
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?
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and the minute I was finished listening to it the first time, I wanted to listen to it again. I didn't because I have several other audiobooks in my library to listen to, but I really wanted to because it was that good.
So Cath is basically me...No really. My name is Katherine (which her's would have been if she wasn't a twin although spelled differently), and the college she's attending sounds a lot like the college I attended (although I went to a private school not a major state university). She is more of a city girl than I am, but that was really a very small facet of her personality as it pertains to the story. And like Cath, I'm a major Harry Potter fan (and let's face it, Simon Snow is pretty similar to Harry Potter). What I'm saying is that I really related to Cath and it took pretty much zero effort to step into her shoes, and that might be part of why I wanted to listen to the story again immediately, because the ending of her story was more what I'd wanted for my life at her age, but I didn't get there.
As far as the audiobook goes, I felt the narrator was perfect for Cath's voice. The accent was neutral to my ears (as it should be for a midwestern girl), and while the opposite gender voices weren't spectacular, they also didn't seem like caricatures. The Simon Snow and fanfic sections of the book were narrated by a man with a British accent and it worked well to set those segments apart from the main story. I would definitely recommend this as an audiobook if you enjoy them.
Overall I give Fangirl 5 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK, FANGIRL and CARRY ON). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.
When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.
She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.
When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things.
She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.
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