Comments for Fangirl

Fangirl: 10/17/14

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is about that trying first year of college, away from home, trying to be an adult, trying to take on new responsibilities while holding onto old hobbies. Cath and her twin sister, Wren, are Freshman in the same college but they aren't roommates. For Wren, it's freedom; for Cath, it's like being shipwrecked.

Cath has come to college to hone her skills as a writer. She's a rabid fan of the Simon Snow fantasy series (think Harry Potter). She's been writing a popular fan fiction called Carry on Simon. Except the fan fiction gets in the way of her school work, and ends up being a way for her to find a new boyfriend (gag!).

The main problem here is that Cath is a DULL protagonist. She's painfully shy and completely obsessed with her fanfic (which isn't very good, but then neither is the source material). And then there's her new boyfriend who is written like the classic "good boy" player who preys on young women for his own sexual kicks. I really hoped that he'd be revealed as a cad but sadly, he ends up being the new boyfriend.

Then there are the LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG passages of Carry on Simon that do nothing for the book except to remind me just how much I hate Harry Potter and I why I tend to avoid the most rabid of the fandom.

Tucked away in all that vapid prose is an interesting story of a father succumbing to his own mental illness now that his daughters are in college. The father who is mostly shown through missed phone messages and brief flashbacks is the most tragic of the characters. I really wanted to read more about him and much less about either Cath or Wren. I could completely without any of the Simon Snow excerpts or Cath's fan fiction.

Three stars

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