Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Grade: 4 Butterflies
Series: Stand Alone
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Goodreads Summary

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?

So, I've heard nothing but praise for this book. Everyone, it seemed, loves this book. I was always very curious about this book, but me and contemporaries have a very tipsy and unbalanced relationship and I really wasn't in the mood to be disappointed by a book.  However, a few days ago I bought this one on impulse and started it right as soon as I got home. I am so glad that I did! This book was such a great read and it leaves you with a bubbly and giddy feeling. This was just a great book!

This book is about Cath and her coming out of her shell and greeting life. Cath is a very shy and nerdy girl (book nerds unite!!), she is so shy she sometimes gets panic attacks. Cath and her twin sister Wren are just going off to collage and Wren basically abandons her so she could expand her wings so to speak. One of the main reasons that I loved this book was that it wasn't this coming of age story where the main character thinks about her life and what she wants from it and hates herself and doesn't like her life or herself. This book does have some of those aspects, but they were balanced with other aspects. It wasn't just one serious thought train of the MCs life, it was about Cath's life in her freshman year in collage and she is adjusting and she does have great character development, but it felt natural and normal. It didn't feel like anything monumental was happening, it just felt like she was living her life and she gradually grew throughout, which made the book so much more realistic and relateable!! What I am trying to say is that it wasn't all seriousness, most of the book was dripping with cuteness even while it dealt with serious aspects of Cath's life.

The flow of the book was just so naturally and never felt forced or choppy. The author did a really good job balancing the growth of the characters, Cath's life, Cath's love life, and her relationship with Levi, balancing cuteness and seriousness. Speaking of their relationship, this romance was the cutest thing ever!! It doesn't really come into play until the second half, but their relationship before they got romantic was cute and their relationship after they got romantic was cuter, it was all just so cute!! And very well done. Their relationship was beautifully written that  it felt like a real life relationship and Cath and Levi seemed so right for each other.

I just really loved this book! I really loved that even though it wasn't just a huge block of seriousness it still had it's drama and character development. I really like the mom aspect it had and the fight between Wren and Cath. It was very well done and added to the plot without dominating the plot.

However, there was one thing that I didn't like about this book. It felt incomplete. I wish there was 20 or so more pages because the ending felt choppy and didn't feel like an ending. While Cath's character development felt like it finished and her relationship with her and Levi was on a good track the rest of it was kind of unexplained. We didn't get a resolution between the mom thing, we don't know if she finished Carry On, we don't know how they made it through the summer. I wish there were more pages that told us these things because it just didn't feel like an ending. Heck the book ended with a Simon Snow exert instead of a scene of Cath and Levi or just a normal scene in its own world.

Even with the unfinished feeling to the ending I really loved this book. In my mind this was a contemporary done right! It was the perfect balance between seriousness and cuteness, drama and normality, it was just written so well!! I loved the characters, the plot, the drama, the romance, almost everything but the ending. I would recommend to anyone who even slightly likes contemporaries, heck if you don't like contemporary I would still recommend this book.

This book got...

 4 Butterflies

Beloved, This is a really good book!

Recommended if you like:
Gayle Forman books, contemporaries, love stories, and coming to age stories. 

Happy reading