Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: January 30th 2014
Page Number: 459
Rating: 4/5

 

Summary:

 

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate 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. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible ...

 

Review:

 

After reading Eleanor and Park - Which I absolutely loved by the way - I decided to wait until the paperback of Fangirl came out, so I could read it and enjoy all the extra comic pictures of the characters. And once again I was not disappointed by Rainbow Rowell. Is there nothing she can't do?

 

The story follows twins Cath and Wren who are about to start College and while Wren wants her own independence, it's clear that Cath doesn't. She want's her roommate to be Wren, she wants to write fan fiction with Wren, she wants to be joint at the hips with Wren like she always has been. On her first day of College we're introduced to both Levi and Reagan, who play a huge part of the story as well as Wren, Cath's father and Nick. It's instant that there's somewhat an attraction between Cath and Levi and it really is great to see an older, more mature character in a YA book. It's refreshing. Over the story we see a lot of ups and down, but also a lot of hot makeup scenes and I'm not talking about Levi and Cath. In fact there's more action happening between Simon and Baz then it is Levi and Cath.

 

Cath wasn't the best character to have as a main protagonist. I found her to be extremely immature for her age and the fact that she became a recluse because she was too scared wasn't very convincing. I think she was lost without her Twin, Wren who was an epic character and full of sass! Still Cath was extremely boring. Her days went like this:

 

1. Wake up

2. Have breakfast

3. Go to class

4. Stay in the library

5. Sleep

 

It became annoying, but after the incident that happened with her father she came out of her shell, which was great because we got to know her a bit more, but it would've worked better if she weren't so lonely, annoying and immature.

 

The other main protagonist in this book was Levi. He is definitely a great character: witty and full of charm and has a slight obsession with gay fan fiction - sorry, not sorry - His relationship with Cath was very confusing. It was borderline friendship/awkwardness and then after the whole he-kissed-another-girl-in-his-kitchen incident it felt like he realised that he liked Cath a lot more than he thought and decided to act like a jerk - a sweet jerk - and he still is one of my favourite book characters.

 

Overall, I really loved that Fangirl was set in College because there's no other YA book set in college. I loved that despite her annoying traits, Cath showed the awkwardness and nervousness of going to college for the first time and having a hard time settling in. But to be honest, its Rainbow Rowell, so it wasn't going to be bad.....Unless Levi was never in the story and then it would be bad. But I really enjoyed it and found myself to fly through it very quickly. 

My Favourite Book Stores

This post is to bring awareness of Books Are My Bag.

 

 

I'm unlucky than most people when it comes to a local bookstore. Most people have a local bookstore that is only a couple of minutes away, but my local bookstore is over forty minutes away by train. And that bookstore is Waterstones in Cardiff.

 

 

Now I don't shop there that often since I hardly leave my house, but when I do travel to Cardiff then I will pop in there, but the first time I went there I was in utter awe. As soon as you walk in you are surrounded by beautiful books trying to grab your attention and all sorted out into genre's and authors. However, I never really stay too long to look at them because I always go straight towards the Young Adult section.

 

All the books are organised perfectly, all of the books gaining some attention. But what I love most is that some of the employees give recommendations that are printed in front of the book (not in the book, but in a card form, like a price tag in most clothes shops.) and that's great to see because you get to see what other people are enjoying. As well as that the staff are all very lovely and one of the best things I've seen is that one of the employees is a self-published author and they sell his book there and advertise it. Talk about support like nothing else.

 

The only slight negative is that they don't get many known known

Young Adult authors to have signings, the best they've had in the past two years is Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor and Park. She was there in July and it was a great experience!

 

 

Another one of my favourite book store is in London. FOYLES. Foyles is probably the most beautiful book store in the UK. I know it's been recently re-designed, which I've yet to see, but when I was there in December 2013 I had the best experience ever! All the books were organised properly and the prices were decent. But what's so good about Foyles is that they stock books that are published in America as well. Also you can come across some signed books that most book shops never have. I got a copy of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Steifvater signed and I never even knew about it until I got to the check out.

 

 

When I next go to London, I know that Foyles will be the shop I will visit first because it is so beautiful, plus it's not crowded like most shops. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!