Book: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Contemporary
Ranking: 3.5 stars
“I don’t trust anybody. Not anybody. And the more that I care about someone, the more sure I am they’re going to get tired of me and take off.”
I tried hard to love this book and actually I did enjoy reading it but it just did not meet my expectations. I heard many positive things about this book and finally forced myself to ditch my September TBR to pick it up with cheerful thoughts of falling in love with it and I would have loved it if it was not the fandom aspects of storyline. Well, I’m a tiny bit disappointed in that area. Well, let’s discuss positive things about this book first. “Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell is a heart-warming story with handful of family drama and college life. It portrays the life of a freshman who is a total introvert and always afraid of meeting new people. It is the tory of twin sisters who look exactly alike but their personality is completely different from one another. Cath is extremely introvert girl who is scared to share a room with a stranger; while Wren, her twin sister, is all ready for college and can’t wait to meet new people. Though cath is always scared of people and has no friend in real life, she has countless friends on internet. Plus, she is a talented “fanfiction” writer who is obsessed with a popular book series. The character of Cath is actually is true portrayal of every teenage girl who is scared of new people, new school, new setting and never being liked by anyone. The book has multi-dimensional characters that you can deeply connect with. All the characters are very realistic, relatable, flawed and interesting. All sorts of personality traits can be found in this book such as an introvert (Cath), an extrovert (Wren) who is excited for college life and likes to drink because everyone drinks, a bipolar father, a mother who was not ready to be a mother and an extremely sweet and supportive boyfriend (Levi). It is also interesting to read about some characters you can deeply relate with. Cath is ME; it seemed at some points like the author is writing about me and not some fictional character. Now I would like to talk about things that earned this book 3.5 stars instead of 5. Firstly, Simon and Baz gave me HP vibes; it seemed like author has presented a story of Harry Potter fandom with different names. Well, it was annoying. I also skipped all the excerpts taken from “Simon Snow fanfiction.” I would have loved this book if it retained its contemporary theme and not portrayed this Harry Potter look-alike fandom. Secondly, the storyline was pretty much linear; I kept waiting for something excited or unexpected to happen that could pique my interest. Even the ending was weak and quite predictive. The story had a strong beginning but it seemed to end before going to crisis. Very strong characterization, but very poor plotline. (I’m sorry but it is my opinion) So, I’m not saying that I totally disliked this novel because this is not the case. I really liked this book and actually enjoyed it but not as much as I thought I would. It is indeed a cute story with complicated and well developed characters. If you are a fan of character-driven stories, this is the book for you!
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