“Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell

Spoiler Alert, the following book review reveals details about the plot.

I can’t believe it’s over. I tried to postpone it, I didn’t want this story to end. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a perfect book by any means. However, it was just so…adorable! It is a great read to cuddle up with during a cold evening, sipping hot tea. It allows you to get lost in another world for a second.

 The character development is phenomenal, it’s been a long time since I was able to relate to protagonists so easily.

The fanfiction aspect had me confused at the start. Since “Fangirl” was the first novel of Rainbow Rowell I read, I had no idea about it. I actually thought that Simon Snow was a previously written book so it just took a little bit of researching before fully committing to “Fangirl” in order to start it properly.

The story touches on very serious subject matters such as social anxiety, peer pressure, mental disorders and many more. The main character Cath is an introvert, focusing all her energy on her twin sister Wren and writing fan fiction about Simon Snow. She is very specific, she doesn’t like changes and has a very closed personality at the beginning and so as the story progresses, we see Cath growing into a young woman and opening up to new adventures in her life. Learning from everything that is happening both to her and around her, Cath finally starts to understand human interactions with people other than her family members. It conveys a message of how important it is to move on in order to grow as a person. Cath as a character was like a stagnant pool of water and it was fascinating to slowly but surely see her becoming a flowing river. We see how she leaves behind the twin stigma and becomes a unique person in her own right.

As much as I enjoyed this story, I found it to be sweet and sour. This is due to the ending, it felt rushed, very underdeveloped. After so much elaboration with all of the main characters, I found it disappointing. In my opinion it had one too many chapters, literally. Second last chapter, no. 37 has left me in awe. However the last chapter has been too much, it felt unnecessary, destroying the rhythm of the book that I felt throughout it.

The other aspect of this novel that I was not a fangirl off, was scenery and the world development. There was little amount of descriptions with regards to the surroundings. It isn’t that big of a deal, because most of the story happened in Cath’s bedroom and I think that’s why it was such an easy read, it focused on people and characters. But maybe just a tad more of the world in order to make the reader feel more immense with the story. As I said, it didn’t matter too much, since Cath is an introvert and characters made this story unique anyway, but this will be something I will pay attention to when picking up another of Rainbow Rowell novels.

Overall it is not a book for everyone, it really depends what you’re looking for. The story is not very complicated, neither does it require a lot of thoughts, but it is an enjoyable and relatable story that touches on important subject matters to some degree. As I mentioned earlier, character development was phenomenal and unique and it was something that made this novel special to me. Some bonus, after the novel ends, there is Fangirl FAQ with the author that includes 4 pages of additional information for readers who are not ready to let the story end.