I recently finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I had been seeing it on a lot of Top Ten Tuesday lists and decided it sounded good. When it became available on audiobook, I had to read it, because it seemed like a story I could identify with.
Cath is starting her first year of college. She has an identical twin sister that wants to live on her own this year. As a result, Cath feels… lost.
She also has a difficult time talking to people, and she writes fanfiction. Wow, you could say the same thing about me! Only Cath is way more successful at writing fanfiction than I am, and she really has a difficult time talking to people. She has such a difficult time talking to people that she’d rather hang out in her room eating protein bars than ask someone how to get to the dining hall.
Throughout the story, Cath finds love (who I’m saying I won’t say), deals with being a fanfic writer when her professor thinks it’s unprofessional, and deals with family difficulties. Most of the excitement happens towards the end of the story, and that’s when I really didn’t want to put down the book. I was just okay with the story at the beginning, but when it picks up, it really picks up. I loved it.
The characters were great. I could identify with Cath, but there were so many other great characters. Her sister Ren is a typical college student who gets a little too into partying. Her roommate, Reagan is the brooding, moody type with a good heart. Levi is one of those really friendly but not so smart types. Nick from Cath’s fiction writing class makes a good writing partner. Cath and Ren’s dad is a little wacky. They all make this a great story.
If you’ve ever been to college, thought about going to college, or have written fanfiction, you should probably read Fangirl. It’s an excellent story.
Since I read Fangirl on audiobook, I have some comments about that. I was NOT a fan of the audiobook quality. The voices were outstanding, don’t get me wrong. My problem with the audiobook was the editing. It was horrible. Half the time, when a new section of the book took place, the first few words of the sentence were cut off. Not acceptable. I took music recording classes in college, and I seriously could have done a better job editing this audiobook as a college senior. There’s no excuse for cutting off words in an audiobook.
I loved this book, but I have to admit, I skimmed the fanfic. Levi was so fantastic and I thought the romance was fantastic as well as the female friendship. Definitely a fave of mine.
I think the fanfic was my least favorite part, but the rest was great.
I love Fangirl! Are you going to read Carry On?
Maybe at some point. It’s not at the top of my list. There are so many other books capturing my attention right now.
I’m glad to hear your enjoyed Fangirl. I thought it was a lot of fun when I read it. That’s a bummer about the audio quality though.
It’s strange but I’m finding this problem with several of the Overdrive books I’ve been borrowing. I don’t know what’s up with that. I don’t subscribe to Audible, but I did get a free book earlier today from them. I wonder if they’re any better.
That sucks about the quality of the audiobook, but YES! I love this novel. It’s one of my all-time favorites. I liked Carry On, too. It’s really funny. Great review!
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Maybe Carry On will be one of my 2019 reads. There’s a lot of year ahead of us next year.
The author actually put the fanfic in the novel? That’s pretty meta. As both a fanfic writer and fan I should give this book a try.
Cath was a well-known fanfic writer. There were snippets of the fanfic throughout the story. It was pretty cool. In the audiobook, they were read by another voice actor.