A Heartful Story of Fanfiction, College Love and Relationships: A Review of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell’s coming of age contemporary novel Fangirl left me with mixed feelings. While the emotions were raw and the characters wholesome, Fangirl lacks a plot. And a reason. The story begins with twin sisters Cath and Wren moving into their dorms at university, in which they are freshmen. Cath and Wren have done everything and shared every experience together since childhood, so things become exceedingly difficult for a socially awkward Cath as Wren informs her that she doesn’t want to share a room with Cath anymore. Wren wants to meet new people, go on adventures and enjoy a thrilling college life. Cath has issues with social interactions – so much so that she lives out of stacked up protein bars for months, in fear of asking somebody where the dining hall is.

Throughout the first half of the book, I was relating to Cath as a character. She always wants to stay cuddled up in her room, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, struggles with opening up around new people – a lot of which becomes justified as we find out that how Cath has always been overshadowed by her sister Wren growing up as Wren has always been considered the hotter and the more popular sibling. Their mother left them as children and their father has mental issues – everything made me stick even though the story started getting a little boring. It became like the same scenes repeating over and over again with slightly changed dialogues. But I loved some of the scenes including Cath and Reagan’s scenes. Reagan is like a guardian and a roommate in one to Cath and the conversations they had while having dinner made me enjoy my heart out. Also, I loved the scenes of her with her Dad, when she visits her home in Nebraska. Also, Cath making omelette for everyone is adorable. :P

As I reached the second half of the book, I was so bored that I wanted to put it down. But I decided to read ahead in hope of an ending which will bind everything together but no luck. I feel the book could state it’s point and finish in less than have the number of pages. But if you like character-oriented books more than plot-oriented ones, you may find Fangirl worth your read. Towards the end, the only thing that kept me reading was Levi’s character, the only one I loved till the end. Levi is everything you want a person to be. He is caring, understanding, extremely chivalrous and the kind that is too good to be true. And that was the exact opposite of what I felt of Cath in the second half. There was absolutely no character development and she became kind of annoying towards the end. There was this scene towards the end where Nick, Cath’s writing partner informs her that the story on which Cath helped him work on got selected to be published in a prestigious magazine, but it won’t happen unless Cath agrees to share credit. But, Cath refuses. That is because in the past, Nick had turned in the story that she had willingly helped him write. Not only that, everybody, from Wren to Reagan bullies him away. That is not something you want your protagonist to do at the end, when everything is supposed to fall into place.

Also, Cath does literally nothing throughout the time she is in college. All she does is write Simon and Baz fanfiction. She even turns in her fanfiction as her “original” fiction writing assignment, and is surprised when her professor fails her. She doesn’t submit her Fiction Writing project for the semester, but magically gets the chance to do it in the next semester. And guess what? She still doesn’t do it because she has to finish her fanfiction before Gemma T. Leslie releases the final book of Simon Snow. But again magically, she finishes writing her 10,000 words long story, in just a single night(that too after saying that she is incapable of writing fiction in prolonged scenes with Professor Piper!).

There were a number of elements I wanted to read more of – what happened of Cath and her mother’s relationship?(I wanted to know more background story of Cath’s mother) What was the real reason of Levi having trouble reading? I guess we’ll never know.

To sum up, if you are up for a cute college-introvert-first-love read, along with a lot of Simon Snow, then pick up Fangirl.

My Rating – 3/5

Happy Reading!😇

My Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tiyashaghosal29/

Follow me on Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/97996729-tiyasha-ghosal

(Follow my blog for more such reviews!)