Book Review- Fangirl

"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 would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. 

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

 

I don't think I have ever, in the 12-13 years (give or take) of reading, related to a character or book as much as I did with Cath in Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl. I'm not ashamed to say that I would definitely class myself as a fangirl of various book/movie franchises and TV shows, so when I spotted this on my sister's bookshelf whilst looking for a new book to read I knew I would have to give it a go. I actually haven't read a YA novel for a while as I've been favouring darker, heavier thrillers and science fiction more recently, so this was a nice little break from all that, so much so that I ended up adding yet another book to my list of 'What I wish I'd read sooner'...

The novel essentially revolves around what is, for me at least, quite a common young adult plot whereby a pair of best friends or siblings attend university together and end up drifting apart as they both want completely different experiences. Whilst it is a stereotypical story what makes this book different to me, and one of the reasons why I love it so much, is the unique ensemble of characters presented by Rowell. For example, the main love interest in the book, Levi, isn't exactly portrayed as an attractive college student, yet his extremely friendly personality and enthusiasm towards Cath's fanfiction ensures the whole audience (including me) falls in love with him. There is such a variety of characters featured in the book, which all contribute a different point to the overall storyline, making it quite an interesting and mutli-layered plot. 


For me, probably the biggest reason why this book struck such a chord was the way in which it dealt with some pretty difficult topics. Themes such as mental illness, alcoholism, isolation and parent abandonment were strongly presented throughout and made up the bulk of the plot yet, unlike other teenage fiction I have read previously, these issues weren't sugarcoated or manipulated into a 'happy ever after' love story. I was actually quite surprised whilst reading this as to how honestly and genuinely these moments of the story were dealt with and whilst some were resolved, others weren't cleared up the way I naturally expected them to which was an unexpected change from a lot of other YA fiction. 

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel as I found it extremely relatable due to the fact that I share quite a lot of personality traits with Cath. Being a reader of fanfiction myself I loved the interweaving Harry Potter-esque 'Simon Snow' plot and it actually served as a pretty interesting side story to the main plot. My inner fangirl was extremely happy whilst reading this and I can't wait to try some more of Rainbow Rowell's works. 

Have you read this book? What did you think?

Megan