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.