Fangirl

Fangirl

by Rainbow Rowell

Synopsis:

In Rainbow Rowell''s Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

My thoughts:

The world of Simon Snow is something special that twin sisters Cath and Wren have shared since their mom left.  They read and reread the books, visited the forums, dressed up for midnight book releases and even wrote fanfiction about the series. But with the start of college Wren decides she is too old for such things, informing Cath that college is the place to meet new people  and that she will not be sharing a dorm room with her sister. Cath alone, scary, and completely overwhelmed by the size and expectations of college hides in her room immersing herself in her two year epic Simon Snow fanfiction that she is determined to finish before the final installment of the series.  But life intervenes forcing Cath out of her comfort zone and breaking down her protective shell. Fangirl is a funny but realistic story that deals with many complex issues such as abandonment, addiction, and mental illness. Rowell genius lays in her ability to write such well-developed and endearing characters that are never entirely perfect making them instantly relatable for the reader. While fans of fanfiction will thrill at finding this memorable story about one of their own, Fangirl is a novel that should be in every library.