Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Entry posted by toomanycurls
687 views
Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell
Young Adult, Coming of Age, Romance | Teen | 4.5 Stars
This story follows Cath through her first year of college. It’s a year of many firsts for Cath and most of them seem insurmountable. But first, a bit about our protagonist.
Cath is an avid Simon Snow fan and writes fanfic. Simon is very much a not!Harry protagonist who Cath ships with the not!Draco antagonist, Baz. Cath’s fanfic Carry On is extremely popular and has its own cult following on not!FF.net. The entire Simon fandom eagerly awaits the final installment of the series.
The story instantly feels relatable for me as someone who wrote fanfic while the HP books were still coming out. I loved the difficulty and awkwardness of interacting with people who were neither as invested in a fandom or involved with fanfiction. There were many, many other (not spoiler-y) relatable moments
- Trying to navigate a new situation -- there are never directions clear enough to know exactly how to go through an experience without awkwardly fumbling around. Whether it’s eating at the cafeteria, taking the bus (one I took years to do because I didn’t know how), or any of the infinite firsts people experience in life.
- Family relationships -- Cath’s relationship with Wren just killed me. I’ve also had a sibling push me away while working through their own issues. Even the slights Wren makes about Cath’s Simon obsession hit very close to home.
- Making people understand that online relationships are real and fanfiction is real writing. The book doesn’t go into online friendships as much but the idea is just below the surface as Cath defends her fanfic writing to others. I can’t count the number of uncomfortable conversations I’ve had with people as I explain that I have a friend in some region where I’ve never lived and am visiting for the first time.
- The fanlife struggle -- who hasn’t stayed up until 3 am writing when they have work or school the next day???
- The reality of mental health struggles -- as Cath tries to cope with her own anxiety and her dad’s manic episodes the story gives a very punch-to-the-gut depiction of what it feels like to have severe anxiety.
Two parts that were relatable but also spoiler-y are:
- When Cath had to defend her fanfiction as real writing to her professor, even when I realized she wrote fanfiction for an assignment, I cringed so hard. It was one of those moments in lit where the reader just knows things won’t go well for the protagonist but is left powerless to avoid the awkwardness.
- The entire story stealing with Nick was unbearably poignant. I’ve never had my writing stolen but I’ve had numerous male colleagues get undue credit for my work and I’ve experienced gaslighting. I was certain that Nick’s behavior would go unchecked. There were two moments that blew me away: Professor Piper catching and punishing Nick’s abuse of his cowriting relationship with Cath and the hallway standoff when Cath refused to authorize him to list her as a co-author on the piece. Those moments made up for how awful it was for Cath (and me) to go through that experience in the first place.
I can’t go through a review without talking about Levi. He was great for Cath and the story. While he’s a little Gary Stu (minus a few minor flaws) it was refreshing to have someone so unwaveringly kind and good.
What knocked a few points (okay, half a star) off the story for me were how many conflicts in the story relied on Cath reaching the wrong conclusions people around her (especially with Levi). Way too many of the plot arcs were resolved by someone clarifying some situation or misunderstanding that Cath had through the book. I found myself wanting to yell “just freaking talk to them” but realized Cath not talking to them was tied to her anxiety.
The smaller plot arcs kind of got lost at the end and it didn’t seem there were any lasting impacts for the mistakes Cath made through the school year.
Having Cath crank out her semester late short story in a day and getting published in the school journal felt undeserved. Backing up from that, having her bail out on finals and just skipping the short story to begin with felt like she got off scot-free. She made up the final and got a multi-month extension on the short story. I was fine with that -- people do occasionally pull a get out of jail free card. What bothered me was that she spent the entire quarter not doing her short story, not showing progress, and still coming up with the best possible outcome she could hope for.
The lengthy sections of Cath reading fanfic to Levi were a bit repetitive after a bit as was their slow sexual exploration. If anything, the last 3 or so chapters felt rushed with too much of the main plots taking a backseat to making out and not doing her short story.
I want to end on a high note, because the book is quite excellent. Cath has a lot of complexity to her life which is artfully revealed to the reader through the book. The author plants questions in the reader’s mind and answers those queries in due time but only as the plot requires. In some ways, the story and Cath felt like a mystery that I was eager to get through. Hardly a chapter went by without me finding a moment that could have been out of my own life and my own experiences with Harry Potter, fanfiction, college, family, etc.
-
3
