Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I bought Fangirl on my kindle a couple of days ago and started reading it straight away, I finished the whole thing in one night, I think that says it all don’t you?

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.

At the beginning of Fangirl, Cath has some serious anxiety issues. She keeps jars of peanut butter and boxes of energy bars under her bed because going to the school dining hall is terrifying. Cath finds comfort in Simon Snow. Cath is a huge fan of the Simon Snow books (Fangirl’s version of Harry Potter). She writes her own fan fiction called Carry On, Simon and throughout Fangirl, snippets of her story and also extracts from Gemma T. Lesley’s books are presented, I loved this aspect of Fangirl, as it seemed as if there were two books in one, both of which were beautifully written.

Cath’s roommate Reagan and Reagan’s ex-boyfriend, Levi, are near constant fixtures in Cath’s room and they help her adjust to new people and come out of her shell bit by bit. Reagan is cranky and fierce but somehow doesn’t scare Cath into hiding under her bed with the peanut butter. Levi is funny and sweet and made me fall in love with receding hair lines.

Cath has other problems in the form of her sister Wren, who, at one point in the book landed herself in hospital with alcohol poisoning. Throughout the book, the girls’ were barely on speaking terms but towards the end, I adored the way that they worked together on the deadlines for Carry On, Simon. Cath also has to deal with her unstable Dad, she worries constantly about him and the amount of pressure he is under. Cath also has to put up with her hardly-there Mom who walked out on her family when she was eight, I felt that these emotional issues really strengthened Cath as a character and moulded her into a brilliant person.

Cath and Levi’s romance was perfect. It practically oozed cuteness out of the pages. Enough said.

This book really captures the essence of what it’s like to grow up with Harry Potter and be surrounded amazing and life changing people who you will love for the rest of your life. This is another one of those books that I won’t be forgetting for a long time and I’m sure in no time at all I’ll be giving it a re-read. Overall, I give Fangirl five out of five stars.