Fangirl

by Rainbow Rowell

A love story by Rainbow Rowell, the New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park.

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life.

Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate 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.

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible . . .

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell comes with special bonus material; the first chapter from Rainbow's irresistible novel Carry On.

• ISBN10: 1250030951
• ISBN13: 9781250030955
• Publish Date: 10 September 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: St. Martin's Griffin
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[ktshpd]

Yes, even I liked this book even though I don't prefer YA or romantic-y feelings or whatever. Don't judge me.

[Stephanie]

This is my first and last foray into reading Rainbow Rowell. There comes a time when I have to suspend my disbelief so much, that a story rooted in what is supposed to be mirroring real-life, becomes fantasy. I felt this book did me a disservice by calling it Fangirl, about a fangirl, in a fandom, and missing core components of what it means to actually be in a fandom and how it affects you.

I could go on about this forever, but I'll just stop right here.

[Sam@WLABB]

I swear, this woman can do no wrong by me.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways

1. I am always left warm and fuzzy. Fangirl contains some really touching moments. You have girl-boy love, boy-boy love, father-daughter love, sister-sister love, mentor-student love, roommate love. So much love, and the love is not cheesy. It is very real and honest and evolves organically. I did not roll my eyes once.

2. I could be friends with a lot of these characters. Fangirl's stars are also, very real. They are flawed, and they know it, but they are very genuine, so you care about them and what happens to them.

3. Rainbow never leaves her damaged people without a support system. Cather, our Fangirl, has a lot of baggage and hang-ups, but RR surrounded her with good friends and a family who support her.

4. The characters trip, but they don't fall. RR let's the characters fail and slip-up, but they dust themselves off, and "get back on the horse". Very positive message

5. The pop culture references (Encyclopedia Brown!) as well as a shout out to my Delta Gamma (that's what I amma)

This is a beautiful story of a girl who prefers to live in her fan fiction world, where the story can continue forever and she can lose herself. During her first year of college, many changes occur in her life, which help her discover a lot about herself.

Now I will fangirl. I was lucky to attend the book launch for "Landlines", and I must say, if anyone was named appropriately, it was Rainbow Rowell. She is just so vibrant -- all sunshine and bright color. Loved her! One attendee asked RR if she reads her fanfic, and she told us "no", because she is not sure she is done with all her characters and she does not want to be influenced by any other people's ideas for said characters. This statement gave me hope, that I will hear more about Cath and Levi. I must know more about them.

[boghunden]

Den her anmeldelse er ikke så meget udtryk for en dårlig bog, som den er udtryk for skuffelse. Hvis ikke, man har lyst til at få spoleret egen glæde/forventning til bogen, så spring ned til anden halvdel, hvor jeg er lidt mere konstruktiv ;)

Mine problemer med bogen:

1) Cath er den mest irriterende hovedperson. Hun er kæmpe fan af Simon Snow, en bogserie, og bruger en stod del af sin tid på at skrive fanfiction. Imens hun gør det, har hun også travlt med, hvordan folk ikke forstår hende, at folk generelt bare er til for at irritere hende og vil tvinge hende til at være social. Hun får det til at lyde som om, hun får pest, hvis hun så meget som bliver set af et andet menneske.

2) Simon Snow er en kopi af Harry Potter. I Simon Snow serien findes syv bøger (nr. 8 er på vej), og de handler om en 11-årig forældreløs dreng, der opdager, at han har magiske krafter og pludselig skal redde hele verden. Det er ikke nødvendigt for ham at præsentere sig, for alle ved, hvem han er, når de ser ham. Det var umuligt ikke at tænke Harry Potter! Da der på side 409 stod “She who would not be named,” blev det bare for meget. Rowell skulle have holdt sig til en pige, der skriver Harry Potter fanfiction i stedet for, for det er præcis, hvad det er. Af en eller anden grund følte hun bare behov for, at give ham et nyt navn. Jeg endte med at springe uddragene fra Simon Snow over.

3) Det her punkt er lidt spoiler-agtigt, så spring det over, hvis du har lyst. Det virkede komplet urealistisk, at en 17-årig pige opdager hendes eks og roommate ligge og kysse og så bare sige, det er okay. Det virker endnu mere urealistisk, at hun vil hjælpe med at føre de to sammen. Det tror jeg ikke på, der er nogen hormonfyldte 17-årige der ville gøre!

4) Caths lærer i fiction writing reagerer virkelig underligt ift. en karakter og det fag. Jeg har ikke undersøgt det, men jeg troede ikke, at en lærer havde autoritet til at gøre den slags.

5) Der er en Thanksgiving scene, hvor bølgerne går rigtig højt. Det varer en side. Så hører man ikke meget til den scene overhovedet! Jeg blev simpelthen bare så træt.

6) Caths tvilling Wren er simpelthen…ja, hun skifter humør som vinden blæser – og mere til. Hun er virkelig ikke til at blive klog på. Og jeg taler ikke om almindelige hormonelle humørsvingninger. Nej. Det er meget, meget værre. Jeg lærte hende slet ikke at kende på den måde.



Når det så er sagt, så hadede jeg faktisk ikke bogen. Jeg blev bare så irriteret allerede fra start af, fordi Cath var den største whiner, jeg nogensinde har læst om. Det ændrede mit syn på bogen og betød, at jeg ikke kunne nyde den. Jeg fik øje på så mange ting, hvor jeg bare tog mig til hovedet, stirrede ud i luften og rystede på hovedet. Jeg kan godt se, hvordan det kan være en sød bog, potentialet er der. Den er bare for lang til min smag. Der kunne snildt skæres 150 af historien, synes jeg.

Hvis formålet med bogen har været at fortælle om, hvordan det er at være en fangirl i dag, så fejler bogen. For udeforstående vil det virke som om, man kun har øjne for sig selv og sin fandom, mens det for læserne, der er fan af det ene eller det andet, vil blive opfattet “krænkende.” Jeg har ikke lyst til at sættes i bås med Cath. Nogen gange, ja, så vil jeg gerne sidde inde i min egen bobbel af lykke og fandom, men jeg hader ikke hele verden, og jeg tror heller ikke, at de er til bare for at irritere mig. Den kasse vil jeg ikke puttes ind i. Som jeg ser det, så puster bogen bare til de fordomme, der i forvejen eksisterer omkring fandoms.

Jeg brød mig ikke om bogen, men jeg blev mest af alt bare skuffet. Eleanor & Park er en af mine yndlingsbøger, og jeg håbede (forventede), at denne bog ville røre mig bare lidt. Da jeg i løbet af de første par sider opdagede, at jeg ikke kunne sætte mig i nogen af personernes sted, så fik jeg et mere negativt syn på bogen, og det har helt sikkert afspejlet min læsning og vurdering; jeg sad fast i en ring af negativitet. Når bogen alligevel får en to’er, så skyldes det to ting: 1) jeg var ikke ved at opgive bogen eller kaste med den på noget tidspunkt og 2) at jeg nok ikke var så fair overfor bogen, i og med, at jeg allerede på side 20 blev skuffet og dermed lidt negativ.

[vagasker]

I really liked this book! I haven't read much contemporary, but this book really warmed me up for the genre. So I guess I'll read a lot more of it.

This book was cute and funny, and the changes between Cath's life and the fanfiction/story of Simon and Baz were great!

[whisperingchapters]

I give it a 3.5 because it should have been longer. I dont know why but I wasnt that interested in the book.

[girlinthepages]

If there is one book that encompasses the internet age and what it’s like to have been the first generation to have truly grown up within it, it’s this one. The Simon Snow fandom is a not so subtle nod to the Harry Potter fandom and is the vice, security blanket, and catalyst for the protagonist, Cath, to grow up through (which is so reflective of those of us who grew up within the world of the Harry Potter fandom). If you remember reading (or writing) fanfic, midnight book and movie releases, poster-covered bedroom walls of Daniel Radcliffe (or maybe your own little HP shrine in my case), and relating to fictional characters often better than to your real peers, Fangirl is a book that will really strike a chord with your adolescent memories.

Yet Fangirl is about so much more than Cath’s obsession with a fantasy fandom. It’s a coming-of-age story that’s (uniquely) set in college, which I love seeing in YA because there’s still a lot of personal growth to be done after high school. Though Cath may be a bit extreme in her shyness, she represents a faction of college students who feel like outliers- the ones who don’t make friends immediately and easily, the ones who don’t want to get wasted every weekend and get groped as they stumble out of bars at 4am. Rowell depicts the struggle of fitting in on a college campus when you don’t want to indulge in alcohol, and how it doesn’t invalidate your experience but rather makes it richer once you’ve found your place. Cath finds her place through the relationships she builds with older students who think she’s quirky (or even rather strange) but don’t focus on changing her, rather accepting her as she is. Rowell writes well-developed secondary characters that are so believable you wonder why you haven’t seen them around campus (my personal favorite was curvy, tell-it-like-it-is, works-at-olive-garden-and-two-other-jobs Raegen).

I’ve heard some complaints that this book doesn’t have one single, continuous, over-arching plot, but I honestly preferred it that way, as it made the story really realistic and impossible to put down because it depicted the various struggles and resolutions (and at time non-resolutions) that come during the first year of college. Fangirl is sometimes a love story, sometimes a coming-of-age story, sometimes a fanfic, sometimes a story about siblings, and sometimes a story about how you just don’t want to turn in that one assignment. There are multiple levels to this book, whether it’s about the unresolved issue of Cath and Wren’s mother’s abandonment, their dad’s manic-depressive behavior, or why they sought the comfort of an imaginary world growing up when their home life was torn apart. While not all of these issues are concretely dealt with, the novel explores the journey of self-awareness of these issues by its protagonist, which is the most realistic depiction a reader could ask for, because no one identifies and resolves multiple major life issues in two semesters.

I just want to jump up and down from the rooftops and tell people who enjoy contemporary YA lit to go out and get your hands on this novel now. If you are, have been, or ever will be, a college student, there are situations in here that you will connect with, whether they make you laugh, cry, or cringe. This is a story about the stories that play out in our everyday lives as college students, whether it’s that one guy taking all the credit for your group work, that one professor who breaks your spirit with a single grade, or rescuing your friend from a bad decision at one in the morning. Fangirl has been my number one read of 2014 so far, the book I have most connected with this year, and the book which had the characters that I really felt engaged with me-they were speaking to me, not to the protagonist and to me through the second hand echoes of typeface on a page.

This was my first read by Rowell and I am thoroughly impressed, and she’s an author who I will now not hesitate to buy from no matter the topic. She brings back the third-person narration amidst the over done first-person trend in YA and she writes fantastic stand-alone novels which is practically unheard of within YA lit. My heart is going to break when I return my copy to the library (I will most likely eventually purchase this book when I’m no longer a starving college student) and I’m anxiously awaiting getting my hands on Eleanor and Park.

Rainbow Rowell, you’ve stolen my literary heart.

[leahrosereads]

This is the first novel I've read by Rainbow Rowell, and I will definitely be reading more from her.

Fangirl follows and 18 year old Freshman college student, Cather (Cath), and her day to day life trying to navigate college and becoming an "adult". She's the introvert who's never had to put herself out there, because her twin sister Wren was always there so that Cath could tag along. But, when Wren doesn't want to be her roommate in college, Cath must learn to go at this scary new world of adulthood on her own, or so she believes.

Fangirl was so realistic and charming, I couldn't put it down. I'm trying to think of faults that I found in it, but the only small issue I had was all of the Simon Snow fanfic and blurbs throughout it. I understand that fanfiction is a huge part of Cath, I just thought a little less would have still worked in the novel.

Oh Cath, how I was you when I first went to college. That nervousness of not knowing where you belong, because you didn't belong in high school, was absolutely something that I related with very well.

I just really enjoyed reading the about her day to day life and even the Mama drama wasn't over the top. I think it just added a dimension to Cath (and Wren) and made them more real to me. No one has a perfect life, and Rainbow Rowell showed faults and issues in people in a very honest way. It was refreshing.

Onto Levi. Oh Levi. How adorable was he? The chivalrous good guy. A dying breed in society, and yet, even he had faults that made him human and real. Just a wonderful character.

Really all of the cast of characters were great. I loved Reagan and the dad. I disliked Nick in the end, but really liked him in the beginning. I was, however, nervous that there was going to be an awkward love triangle between Cath, Nick, and Levi (there isn't, and I'm very happy about that).

Just really a great novel. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a happy ending.

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

This book made me want to write (fanfiction) again. Which is good, because I haven’t been wanting to write ever since I finished NaNoWriMo last November.

I just loved this story. It’s about Cath and Wren, who are huge fans of Simon Snow, which is basically the Harry Potter of their world. They’ve read all the books (that are out), watched all the movies (that are out), have a lot of posters, t-shirts, merchandise; and they write fanfiction.

That is basically what this book is about. About Cath writing fanfiction for Simon Snow. Oh, and about going to college and learning how to cope with that. She gets a roommate, Reagan, and meets her friend Levi who just made me smile every time I read about him. I just liked the way he was written, and though I thought he was an ass for a part of the book, I still smiled every time I read his name.

In this book, Cath and Wren have a dad, but no mum (well, of course they have one, but she’s not there), and I kind of liked that. You usually read books about the mum raising the kids all by herself, and I don’t remember ever reading a book where it’s the other way around. So yeah, I kind of liked that. I felt bad for Art as well, because he had two teenage daughters to look after, and I know that that can be really hard.

There is a bit of romance in this book, of course, and not just between Simon and Baz. I can say that I rooted for those two, and I actually ship it now. Yeah, they’re adorable. I was afraid that there might be a love triangle going on for a bit, but luckily that whole thing never happened, pfew!

Like I said before, I liked all the small Simon Snow/fanfiction writings that were between the chapters, and I really enjoyed reading it. I loved reading Cath’s short fic that she read to Levi and it has really made me want to read more. The copy I had had some bonus content at the back, and that made me really happy! It wasn’t much, but it was awesome!

There were some tiny things that bothered me personally, mainly the fact that Simon Snow and Baz felt like the Harry and Draco of Fangirl’s world, and I just don’t ‘ship’ those two at all. Also the fact that though there is Simon Snow, there was also still Harry Potter in their world, and I just felt like SS was their version of HP. But that’s just me. I liked the small fandom references (like Cath comparing her mum coming over to the part where the Hobbits hid from the Nazgûl in Fellowship of the Ring), and the mention of Odin (Norse Mythology fangirl here). Yeah this was a good book!

I really like Rainbow Rowell’s writing, I liked it when reading Eleanor & Park and this book made me want to read more of her books. I think I’m going to get Attachments soon, because I really liked the summary of that book when I first heard about it.

Even if you don’t like romance books (like me), I definitely recommend Fangirl, because it’s just awesome!

[lovelybookshelf]

Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:

They may be identical twins, but Cath and Wren are having completely different experiences during their freshman year of college. Cath is the introverted, bookworm type; she is a popular author of fan fiction. Wren is the outgoing party girl. Each sister is discovering her own, individual identity outside of being seen as a unit, while figuring out how to hold on to her relationship with her family. It doesn't sound like the most unique premise for a coming-of-age story, does it?

But this is Rainbow Rowell. Even that which could be deemed "predictable" feels fresh and interesting. I love her characters. I love how she keeps me up into the early hours of the morning to read "just a few more pages" (or chapters!). She did it with Eleanor & Park, and she did it again with Fangirl.

This is what you read when you just want to cuddle up with a good book. When you don't want to have to think too hard about the story, but you don't want mindlessness, either. Fangirl contains just enough of, and the best of, everything: drama, conflict, love, human interest. If this is an example of the "New Adult" genre, let's have Fangirl set the standard for all others.