book review: fangirl by rainbow rowell

Rainbow Rowell is a name bandied about all over book review blogs and Goodreads and having read Eleanor & Park and Attachments earlier this year, I knew that it was inevitable that Fangirl would be read at some point.

The blurb reads as follows (credit: Amazon):

"Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. 

Without Wren, Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate 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.  

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible..."

Cath and Wren are twins who could not be any different and I found myself really disliking Wren from the get-go. She's selfish and a Hedonist who doesn't think about the consequences of her actions, though she does redeem herself later on in the book. Cath was someone I warmed to immediately - she's shy, thoughtful and is a bit of a geek. Her 'geek' nature resonated with me completely as I do think I'm quite similar in that respect - I'd rather be at home in my PJs, or around a friend's than out in a sweaty club amongst lairy people who have had a bit too much to drink.

Anyway, back to Fangirl. I loved this book. I loved Reagan and Cath's friendship, I loved how it was written and I loved the storyline. Fangirl is an original book that will grip most readers and I can't think of a book like it - and that's a good thing! I found myself crushing on Levi, wishing I was friends with Reagan and not wanting the book to end. The concept of fanfiction can be unsettling to those who have never come across it before and if you don't understand it, this book might not be for you because it features fanfiction that is a bit unique, shall we say.

Overall, I thought this book was written very, very well. Rainbow Rowell has a knack of writing books that want to be read over the course of a few days, rather than a few weeks and just like Eleanor & Park and Attachments, I found myself wanting more at the culmination of the novel. I gave Fangirl 8.5/10 as I found the ending a bit rushed and didn't quite tie up the loose ends of the book as I would have liked (highlight it if you want to see the question because I don't want to spoil it for you!): what happened between Wren and Courtney? was a question I would have liked answered and also, there were just a few too many extracts from the fanfiction Cath had been writing - I found myself skipping over a few of them, especially the longer bits.

NB: Images updated 19th February 2015.