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helalost's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Abandonment
Minor: Addiction
perth_is's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Okay, I had such high hopes for this book because I really liked the premise HOWEVER. Cath sometimes reminded me of myself and I liked that but most times made me want to commit acts of arson because sometimes she was so unbelievably annoying, sometimes justified, most times incredibly annoying. I get that she’s scared of rejection and lonely but oh my god. She has anxiety, understandable, me too but sometimes if someone is annoying, it’s just because they are annoying. However the stuff with alcoholism and bipolar was done well and was interesting to see. I sort of liked the little splices of Simon Snow books and fan fiction because I knew what I was getting myself into but sometimes it goes on for too long. Another thing is the ending!! WHAT A LACK LUSTER ENDING OH MY GOD. I STUCK THROUGH ALL OF THAT TO GET THAT KIND OF ENDING? bleh. just one big bleh. Reagan was awesome and almost made the whole story for me. Anyways I can see how people like this but I think I’m just not a big fan of love stories anyway. Oh also I understand it is a “blatant rip off of Harry Potter” but I like that about it and like how it’s obviously about Draco x Harry
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Cursing
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
caelix's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Bonus point for the Noelle drawings (and also for Raegan I love her)
(Also i related to the dad which is probably not good but oh well!)
Edited my review down bcs I remembered some moment and cringed again
(Also i related to the dad which is probably not good but oh well!)
Edited my review down bcs I remembered some moment and cringed again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism
Minor: Vomit, Incest, and Sexual harassment
leonormsousa's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
TRIGGER WARNINGS
REPRESENTATION
QUOTE
“I’m not really a book person.” “That might be the most idiotic thing you’ve ever said to me”
“To really be a nerd, she'd decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”
“I miss you.""That's stupid," she said. "I saw you this morning.""It's not the time," Levi said, and she could hear that he was smiling." It's the distance.”
EXPECTATION VS REALITY
- will fall shortly of the expectations since YA books are not really my thing anymore
- ended up loving it even more than the first time (2013)!
WHAT I ENJOYED
- It’s just so funny and wholesome and cute → it made me feel so incredibly happy reading it
- Even though this is YA, I related to the MC much more this time around, maybe because she’s in uni (like me) and suffers from social anxiety (which I started having a couple of years ago)
- The fast pace just kept me completely glued to the pages
- As a bookworm, I felt a lot of myself in Cath and the nerdy vibes are immaculate
- Having read Carry On just made me more nostalgic (?) reading Fangirl again
- The characters are well-developed and feel very real (no one is perfect!) and it’s interesting seeing Cath navigate through her relationships
READ IF YOU ENJOY
- cute fun and lighthearted YA contemporary romances
- bookish and nerdish references
- the topics of writing and fanfiction
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Infidelity, and Mental illness
elliereadsthings's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
My first book of 2023 — check!
I was lucky enough to go into this book with a neutral opinion. Initially, the idea of a book based around fandom was extremely enticing as someone who does 95% of her reading on sites like AO3. However, reading a lot of the top reviews and seeing such a strong divide between readers, I lowered my expectations for Fangirl by quite a lot, and I’m glad I did.
The book wasn’t inherently bad, per se, and I can see why a lot of you liked it. The pacing was good overall and the characters were, for the most part, easy to empathize with. But, lowering my expectations allowed me to finish the book much easier than I otherwise would've.
————————————
Cath, the main character of the book, is by far my least favorite - and yet the most like me. (I wonder what that says about how I view myself…) A mentally ill father, mommy issues, and a sister who says none of it hurt her? Check, check, and check. I just find Cath to be a bit too… I’m not sure what the right word is… Sure, Cath is a very flawed individual, but she tends to be depicted as ‘unique’, both in thought and appearance, more so than not. Her eyes are depicted as being blue, brown, gray, and green — all in the same paragraph. On her first day in her college town she notes that it’s creepy that everyone there is all around her age. I wonder what she expected from a college town, honestly. Cath also suggests, a bit later in the book, that their mother is selfish and desecrated a national tragedy with her own issues, after she walked out on them on September 11th (“The September 11th”). Like I said, I have more than my fair share of mommy issues, but suggesting their mother intentionally left on 9/11 is a bit far.
Other than Cath, we have a bit of my least favorite trope: “pretty girl takes her glasses off and is deemed more pretty”. Levi, the love interest, asks Cath to warn him if she plans to take off her glasses after seeing her twin sister, Wren. Later, he asks her to take off her glasses, and, after she asks if he likes her glasses, goes on to say, “I love your glasses. I especially love the moment when you take them off.”
There are also quite a few references, anywhere from Soylent Green to Zack and Cody. Many of which I had to end up Googling to understand. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, but something to know before you go into it.
Oh, and CW: Kanye reference. Yeah… that didn’t age well…
To its defense, however, I don’t believe Fangirl was wrongly represented. (Though, I wasn’t in the book world when it was being advertised, so maybe I’m wrong!) Sure, we don’t get a lot of fandom in here, but we do get what the title suggests; a fangirl. A relatable one at that; one who almost fails a class, TWICE, because of her dedication to her fanfiction. Who gets snarky when someone’s only watched the movies. Who gets hurt when the series she loves is talked down upon.
Like I said, many of the characters are extremely likable (I’m joining the Reagan lovers, she’s the best), including Cath (after the first couple chapters that is). It is not hard to empathize with these characters at all. There are scenes where Wren and Cath disagree about their mom, and I easily flip back and forth between agreeing/empathizing with each.
(On the topic of which, I’m glad that Cath was allowed to never let her mom in. I’m glad that even though family is clearly very important to her, it doesn’t mean she had to cave.)
Overall, Fangirl does what it set out to do, and I don’t regret the read. I wish the book had a stronger start, but I liked following along on the ride!
OH! And don’t get me started on Cath… Wren…
OH! And don’t get me started on Cath… Wren…
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
“I could hear you. In some of the best parts.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, and Vomit
Minor: Drug use, Ableism, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Incest, and Medical content
peachg3m's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this has always been one of my favourite books, it’s heartwarming and well as heartbreaking here and there watching the relationship of cath and wren grow and change, the development of cath meeting levi and reagan (reagan supremacy) and growing into herself. i also think the loving relationship cath has with fan culture and community is comforting to see
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Abandonment and Toxic friendship
Minor: Forced institutionalization
arlaubscher's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Grief and Abandonment
literarypenguin's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Fangirl follows a young girl named Cather Avery during her freshmen year of college and her journey to finish Carry On, a fanfiction she writes based on the Simon Snow Universe. She also tries to maintain a close bond with her twin sister Wren and keep an eye on her father while being away from the house for the first time. During this time she meets a guy named Levi who is the polar opposite of Cath. Will they grow closer? Will she survive college despite her anxieties? I have had this book on my shelf for quite a long time now. I even got the special edition with a bookmark put in! I haven’t gotten around to this book in so long and I feel terrible because it turned out better than I expected!
The writing was good and I enjoyed that at the end of every chapter was a piece of fanfiction written by Cath and sometimes her sister Wren or an excerpt of the Simon Snow books. It showed an appreciation of fandom and how it tied into the main story. The pace was pretty easy to follow except the beginning was a bit slow at first but then it picked up its pace the more you got into the book. The ending was something out of nightmares, I hated how it left off on a cliffhanger not really resolving much of what happened and leaving it in the air. What hurts the worst is that it may never be resolved as the book was written as a standalone. Despite all this, the writing was fine and enjoyable for the most part.
Fangirl focuses on Cather Avery and her navigating her first year of college and all the trials and tribulations that come with it. It follows her trying to tackle all her new classes, having a roommate that isn’t her twin sister for the first time, and even having her first real romantic relationship. The story is the most relatable story I have read, It talks about the stresses of college so accurately and how it can be a lot for people to handle. One of the central conflicts Cath faces is her writing assignment and keeping her scholarship for her Fiction Writing class. She has to learn how to balance her writing of works that she loves like her fanfiction and writing projects for her class allowing her to explore new worlds and create her own. The only thing I wish the plot did more was to focus on Cath becoming a better writer and improve her writing overall. I could have done without as much fanfiction and more about Cath and her journey in the world of being a writer.
Cather was the most relatable character in fiction I have ever read about! Cath views the world differently than most people do and like myself doesn’t like change and would rather isolate myself in my room rather than do too many social situations. It was nice to see her evolve and be more accepting of change and be a bit more social. Wren was the polar opposite of her twin sister, she was more sociable and impulsive than her. She was also more of a flirt than her. She loves Cath deeply though and their bond is truly an inseparable one. Levi. I love Levi! He is such a gentleman and such a big sweetheart! I loved how Cath and his relationship started with her reading him her fanfiction and then graduated to something deeper and more romantic. He was also really supportive of Cath and her writing which was so sweet! I really liked their father Arthur too! He was a good parent despite his mental shortcomings. Reagan was a really good friend and eventually became a close friend to Cath over the story. I loved her brutal honesty and her sense of humor!
This book mainly takes place at Cath and Wren’s college in Lincoln, Nebraska. I don’t know too much about Nebraska personally but I enjoyed the author putting an emphasis on the farming communities in the area and how the colleges offer education on farming and agriculture. I think that is so interesting and really shows the importance of that industry in the state. I like that not all of Nebraska was shown as farming either and how the state had cities as well.
One of the themes that this book explores is anxiety and mental illness in general. It depicts Cath suffering from a sort of social anxiety disorder and their father suffering from mental illness as well. It also depicts children being raised by a single parent and the abandonment of a parent. How Cath and Wren both deal with their father’s mental illness and their estrangement from their mother for decades. I think the author handles these themes very well for the time that this book was published and it handled it with care. I love that Rainbow Rowell wrote a book featuring these themes and brought them all in a positive light!
In conclusion, I really enjoyed Fangirl and I think if you are a fan of fanfiction then you will feel a connection with this story. If you are a person that enjoys a sweet and wholesome romance about two unlikely people being drawn to one another then you will like this romance! I think this was a lovely book that will stick with me!
The writing was good and I enjoyed that at the end of every chapter was a piece of fanfiction written by Cath and sometimes her sister Wren or an excerpt of the Simon Snow books. It showed an appreciation of fandom and how it tied into the main story. The pace was pretty easy to follow except the beginning was a bit slow at first but then it picked up its pace the more you got into the book. The ending was something out of nightmares, I hated how it left off on a cliffhanger not really resolving much of what happened and leaving it in the air. What hurts the worst is that it may never be resolved as the book was written as a standalone. Despite all this, the writing was fine and enjoyable for the most part.
Fangirl focuses on Cather Avery and her navigating her first year of college and all the trials and tribulations that come with it. It follows her trying to tackle all her new classes, having a roommate that isn’t her twin sister for the first time, and even having her first real romantic relationship. The story is the most relatable story I have read, It talks about the stresses of college so accurately and how it can be a lot for people to handle. One of the central conflicts Cath faces is her writing assignment and keeping her scholarship for her Fiction Writing class. She has to learn how to balance her writing of works that she loves like her fanfiction and writing projects for her class allowing her to explore new worlds and create her own. The only thing I wish the plot did more was to focus on Cath becoming a better writer and improve her writing overall. I could have done without as much fanfiction and more about Cath and her journey in the world of being a writer.
Cather was the most relatable character in fiction I have ever read about! Cath views the world differently than most people do and like myself doesn’t like change and would rather isolate myself in my room rather than do too many social situations. It was nice to see her evolve and be more accepting of change and be a bit more social. Wren was the polar opposite of her twin sister, she was more sociable and impulsive than her. She was also more of a flirt than her. She loves Cath deeply though and their bond is truly an inseparable one. Levi. I love Levi! He is such a gentleman and such a big sweetheart! I loved how Cath and his relationship started with her reading him her fanfiction and then graduated to something deeper and more romantic. He was also really supportive of Cath and her writing which was so sweet! I really liked their father Arthur too! He was a good parent despite his mental shortcomings. Reagan was a really good friend and eventually became a close friend to Cath over the story. I loved her brutal honesty and her sense of humor!
This book mainly takes place at Cath and Wren’s college in Lincoln, Nebraska. I don’t know too much about Nebraska personally but I enjoyed the author putting an emphasis on the farming communities in the area and how the colleges offer education on farming and agriculture. I think that is so interesting and really shows the importance of that industry in the state. I like that not all of Nebraska was shown as farming either and how the state had cities as well.
One of the themes that this book explores is anxiety and mental illness in general. It depicts Cath suffering from a sort of social anxiety disorder and their father suffering from mental illness as well. It also depicts children being raised by a single parent and the abandonment of a parent. How Cath and Wren both deal with their father’s mental illness and their estrangement from their mother for decades. I think the author handles these themes very well for the time that this book was published and it handled it with care. I love that Rainbow Rowell wrote a book featuring these themes and brought them all in a positive light!
In conclusion, I really enjoyed Fangirl and I think if you are a fan of fanfiction then you will feel a connection with this story. If you are a person that enjoys a sweet and wholesome romance about two unlikely people being drawn to one another then you will like this romance! I think this was a lovely book that will stick with me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Abandonment
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Alcohol
holyhead_harpie's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is a god darn delight. If you have ever read or written fan fiction, read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Vomit
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Body shaming and Bullying
ashleycmms's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, Medical content, Alcohol, and Alcoholism