Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Well, I ended up picking Fangirl for my first review here. And I am glad I did, because I liked it, but not so much that I have nothing to say about it. This review will contain some spoilers, so beware!!
I gave the book 3½ stars on Goodreads, and I must say, from everything I have heard about this book, I honestly expected to like it better. I thought it was good, but not fantastic. And here's why:
The plot:
Twins go off to college and while one of them, Wren, takes it as a chance to start over and "liberate" herself from her twin sister, the other, Cath, takes this as an insult and only grudgingly begins this new phase of her life as an independent being. I thought this was an interesting story, especially as I could see myself in some of Cath's character traits, like the social anxiety and tendency to be a hermit. But it just felt like that part of the story got clouded by the many other story lines going on, like the dad and the mom, who each had separate story lines. I felt like the whole "abandoned by mother" part of it did not really serve a purpose in the end. It was a big deal for Cath obviously, but I felt like it never really got resolved. When she said she was writing her assignment in her Fiction-Writing class about her mom, I thought we would get a defining moment when Cath would resolve her issues with her mom and leave them behind her. I feel like we don't really witness that process, even though I guess Cath does this as she ends up writing her story and winning an award for it. But we only hear that she is writing something and then see a small excerpt in the end of that story, that to be honest, didn't really make too much sense to me.
The structure of the book:
I thought it was interesting that the chapters were prefaced by either official Simon Snow excerpts or Cath's fanfiction. But I did feel that sometimes the official bits seemed randomly selected and didn't really connect with the story at hand. Perhaps they were just meant to introduce the Simon Snow world to us, which they did just fine.
The characters:
I really liked the set of characters in this book. They all seemed like real people and not just stereotypes.
The ending:
I must say I thought the ending was long-winded. After Wren visits the hospital it just sort of peters out and not much happens for a good long while. It seems like it was just filling to get to the end of the semester.
In conclusion, I really liked it and I would recommend this to anyone, who likes a college story about personal growth with a little romance thrown in for good measure. You just have to be aware that the story does move a bit slowly sometimes, and the ending can feel unresolved for some people (including me).
I gave the book 3½ stars on Goodreads, and I must say, from everything I have heard about this book, I honestly expected to like it better. I thought it was good, but not fantastic. And here's why:
The plot:
Twins go off to college and while one of them, Wren, takes it as a chance to start over and "liberate" herself from her twin sister, the other, Cath, takes this as an insult and only grudgingly begins this new phase of her life as an independent being. I thought this was an interesting story, especially as I could see myself in some of Cath's character traits, like the social anxiety and tendency to be a hermit. But it just felt like that part of the story got clouded by the many other story lines going on, like the dad and the mom, who each had separate story lines. I felt like the whole "abandoned by mother" part of it did not really serve a purpose in the end. It was a big deal for Cath obviously, but I felt like it never really got resolved. When she said she was writing her assignment in her Fiction-Writing class about her mom, I thought we would get a defining moment when Cath would resolve her issues with her mom and leave them behind her. I feel like we don't really witness that process, even though I guess Cath does this as she ends up writing her story and winning an award for it. But we only hear that she is writing something and then see a small excerpt in the end of that story, that to be honest, didn't really make too much sense to me.
The structure of the book:
I thought it was interesting that the chapters were prefaced by either official Simon Snow excerpts or Cath's fanfiction. But I did feel that sometimes the official bits seemed randomly selected and didn't really connect with the story at hand. Perhaps they were just meant to introduce the Simon Snow world to us, which they did just fine.
The characters:
I really liked the set of characters in this book. They all seemed like real people and not just stereotypes.
The ending:
I must say I thought the ending was long-winded. After Wren visits the hospital it just sort of peters out and not much happens for a good long while. It seems like it was just filling to get to the end of the semester.
In conclusion, I really liked it and I would recommend this to anyone, who likes a college story about personal growth with a little romance thrown in for good measure. You just have to be aware that the story does move a bit slowly sometimes, and the ending can feel unresolved for some people (including me).
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