Fangirl

Now, as I’m pretty sure I’ve said previously, contemporary stories are not my thing. I lean much more towards fantasy/sci-fi. I think it’s because I want to read about escaping. Not the reality we already live in! But anyway. I’d seen a lot of love for this book Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and I was very unsure. But my friend at work read it and enjoyed it (even still, doesn’t mean that much because she loves contemporary 😂) So I borrowed it off her.

And I fell in love.

The story follows Cath, a fanfiction writer who is starting college. Her twin has moved to a different dorm and so Cath is left to find her way through her classes, through her first semester, by herself – all the while trying to maintain her fanfiction account which gets thousands of hits per day (kudos love!) It’s a story of love, anxiety, family, school and naturally – fandoms 😊

Now to start with. I have never ever EVER read a character so like myself. I was Cath and Cath was me. Everything she said and did was so incredibly relatable. I loved how Rowell wrote things in, like Cath’s anxiety. For someone who only recognized recently that they have social anxiety, reading it in the character of Cath was so REAL. It made me feel okay about having those insecurities and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone! I absolutely commend Rowell on her beautiful ability to express that and to help her readers understand and feel that it is okay to feel this way.

Now. Levi. I actually think he might be my dream guy. I mean, like, I know I rave about Rhysand and Dorian and Chaol. But Levi. He is something completely different. His silly jokes, his hair habit, the way he treats Cath – I just love him! My heart was so happy whenever he was on the page and I loved how awkward Cath was about him! (Remember when I said Cath was me? Yah – case in point…) Again, this awkwardness just made me feel like other people actually understood what went through my head! And I loved it!

I loved the relationship building in this story. Cath and Wren – their sister bond was beautiful. And I loved each of their bonds with their father. It showed that families aren’t perfect all the time. But that we do what we can to try and help -when we can. I loved the character of Reagan and how her friendship with Cath is based on the weirdest things. But isn’t that how the best friendships are formed? The relationship with Nick – I loved this because we’ve all had something like that happen, or know someone who would act just like Nick. Everything about these characters was real and relatable.

It was also completely funny! I loved Rowell’s dialogue. She is a mastermind at writing dialogue! Everything sounded so natural and the jokes were terrible! As we all know they would be in real life! If I have one nit-picky thing, it would be that whenever she was writing ‘text messages’ in the story, the first letters were capitalized. Like oh my gosh, how nit-picky is that?! But still, I thought it worth noting 🤷🏻‍♀️

Overall, this book made me exceptionally happy. I think I shall be sourcing my own copy of it because it was just such an easy and beautiful read. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone! I hope you like it as much as I did! It got a very easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5 from me. If you would like to get your own copy (which I suggest you do) you can find it here:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Fangirl/9781447263227?a_aid=princessbecreads

Until next time – happy readings 😊

-Bec