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Book Reviewed by:A coming-of-age novel that is smart, funny, and genuine.
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? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Cath is a character many readers can empathize with. These include not just those who, like her, feel like their most authentic selves reside online, but also anyone who has felt like an outsider when thrust into a new situation...continued
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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).
In Fangirl, Cath's story is interspersed with snippets of her fan fiction (or "fanfic") starring characters who, in Cath's world, are as well known as Harry Potter is in ours. This hugely popular (primarily online) genre of amateur writing is inspired by existing fictional characters, settings, and themes.
Writers of fanfic are part of a fandom, a whole community built around mutual admiration—and often enthusiastic imitation—of a fictional world. The most popular topics for fanfic include the Harry Potter and Twilight series of novels, as well as the television shows Glee and Supernatural and several anime series. You can find fanfic on sites like Fanfiction.Net, which brings together thousands of fan-submitted stories in ...
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