Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
I loved this book. I related to it so much and had so much fun reading it. And I don't mean we're-on-an-epic-and-dangerous-quest-and-people-die-but-we're-funny fun. I mean real mindless fun with no one being in mortal peril. And I needed that so badly. What I also needed so very much was a main character that was just as socially awkward and a tearcano as I am. When Cath almost cried in the first chapter already only because she was extremely nervous I was THIS far from actually doing a happy dance in public. (But because it's not exactly advisable to dance in school hallways during lunch time, I did not.) (And because I don't dance. Period.)
Summary:
Fangirl is a fun contemporary novel about a girl called Cath. She and her twin sister Wren go to college for the first time. But where Wren is eager to meet new people and make friends, Cath is a more introverted and socially awkward kind of person who would prefer to stay in her room and write fanfiction about her favorite book series, Simon Snow. For me, this was a page turner with a lot of relatable moments and feelings squished between the pages. Especially for introverts who are forced into new environments, this is an amazing read.
Rating:
5 stars.
Spoilers. Most fangirls evade places with spoilers like real people evade places with epidemics.
I wanted to resist the urge to do this, but I can't help myself. I have to do this.
This spoiler section is a tribute to Alan Rickman, who died the 14th of January 2016. He's one of the few actors that was alive when I watched the movies and then suddenly he wasn't. (I think the first one was Philip Seymour Hoffman.) Even though I've only seen him play Snape in the Harry Potter franchise (and a tiny part of Sense and Sensibility when I was small without knowing who he was), I don't think I'll look at the movies the same way for a while.
(Wow, now I feel all serious and depressed. How am I going to do this?) Well, let's start by the necessary explanation of the Dutch school system so you can comprehend the relatableness of this book for me. Feel free to skip this part.
(I wrote a long explanation but realized I was wasting my time. But since I didn't want to delete it, I left it in my computer. If you ever feel a creeping need for information on the Dutch educational system and my role in it, feel free to leave a comment.) (But I know you won't.)
Now that you've heard me explain the entire first fourteen years of Dutch education, I realize that this was a complete waste of your and my time, and hope that one day, you will compete in a game show and some of this knowledge will suddenly be worth $10,000. Until then, I'm sorry for wasting 483 words of your precious life, but I've worked too hard on my explanation to delete it.
Now that you've heard me explain the entire first fourteen years of Dutch education, I realize that this was a complete waste of your and my time, and hope that one day, you will compete in a game show and some of this knowledge will suddenly be worth $10,000. Until then, I'm sorry for wasting 483 words of your precious life, but I've worked too hard on my explanation to delete it.
What I liked:
-I loved Cath, because I could relate to her. Tris, I love you and how you're small and fast and smart, but you're way too badass for me to relate to. Cath's struggles with crowds and how she didn't even want to meet new people: that was me at the start of this school year. I've heard some people say they don't like her, because she doesn't like change and doesn't even try to be a little more friendly: Let's face it, you would probable not like me IRL, but I won't hate you for it. Her Simon Snow addiction from youth is, obviously, a lot more relatable for people who A. grew up on Harry Potter, and B. actually write/read fanfiction. I have read ONE (okay, a half) fanfiction in my life about Draco and Hermione. (It's a weird little kind of ship of mine. Learn to live with it.) I won't go into detail about which fanfiction it was, but I quit reading because A. it had an unhealthy relationship in it, and B. I have difficulties letting go of J.K. Rowling's 'truth'. (And C. I mean capital-U unhealthy.) Still, the anti-social part of Cath and especially her friend's and family's reactions to it really were what made me like this book as much as I did. I felt like someone got me.
-Oh, Levi. I just kept grinning once he started to really enter the picture. The romance was cute and it just made me smile. And that's what contemporaries are supposed to do A. make you smile, or B. make you cry. The whole thing wasn't really surprising, but I just consumed the dialogue and the cuteness of it all. I also liked that neither Cath nor Levi was extremely inhumanely handsome. (It's always good to know there's hope for us middle-classers)
-I enjoy watching authors mingle happy and serious, because it makes a story more interesting. Cath and Wren's parent situation provided me with that little serious touch to the book. It made for some emotional balance.
-Fiction Writing class and asshole classmate Nick (was his name Nick? I don't remember) made for some good reading material as well.
-This book forced me to think about what to after high school again. I greatly dislike almost every possible career at the moment except for three options, two of which are highly unlikely: A. becoming a YA author, obviously. B. working for the UN. I honestly don't know which one is less probable. C. translating English-Dutch, preferably children's and YA books. It forced me to think about these kind of things and go over some of my options again. That's good. Not really that much fun, but good.
Some things I didn't like:
-The interruptions with Cath's fanfiction. I dislike interruptions full-stop. It's also the reason I occasionally have problems with multiple POVs. It's not that I prefer one to another per se, it's just that I completely immerse myself in one chapter, really like what's happening, and then we switch. Then when that chapter gets going, we switch again. It's a little problem of mine. I've heard about the fanfiction problem more, and some people say that it keeps them from reading Carry On. I'm currently reading Carry On, and it's way better than the fanfics. It doesn't feel like an interruption anymore and is just a whole load of fun.
-The way the book slowly got more and more buried in the romance. This is a problem I have with MANY books. And countless more are added to the list every day. It's not that it made me tire of the love story, but it just left the other story lines hanging a little. That's a shame. A great shame. With some books I've read, I just feel the author getting unfocused and distracted and tangled in his/her own storyline. Luckily that wasn't exactly the case here, but some things felt unfinished at the end, and that bothered me. Not enough to make me un-5 stars this book, but enough to make those 5 stars an emotional rather than a rational choice.
A fitting little notification for my fellow Dutch folks, there's a contest on short stories on this site. I entered with the story 'Een Sterke Hand' (A Strong Hand), so if you're curious, you are free to read and vote if you'd like to. Please only vote if you've read the story, it would feel weird for you to do so if you hadn't. You can vote until the first of February. There will be a winner chosen by the public and some by a professional jury. If I for some magical reason do get picked, I will of course notify the lot of you.
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