Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Hiya, guys! I'm back with another review!
I'll post some pics from the Buchmesse soon!

Basics

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Release Date: September 10^th 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN-10: 1447263227
Number of Pages: 445
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
What's special? A tale about fanfiction and fan life!

Summary

Cath is an 18-year old introvert and the author of the probably most famous Simon Snow fanfiction. Simon Snow is not only a story about a young wizard, those books are a life style.
Cath's life style, actually.
Since her mother left Cath and her twin sister Wren when they were eight, the novels were the biggest consolation in their life.

Wren and Cath have a really strong emotional bond, which is the reason why Cath's shock is even bigger when Wren tells her she doesn't want to share college dorm rooms.
Her new roommate is called Reagan and a quite mean person. Also, her boyfriend is always around. His name is Levi and he's always smiling.

This book is not only about love and coming of age but also about family, standing on one's own feet and a wonderful thing called Fandom.

My Opinion

Okay, let's try to put my feelings into words.

This is definitely one of my few comfort books. Whenever I'm sad or upset, I'll read one of these and become kind of reassured. These 'few books' consist out of Fangirl, Carpe Diem and Into The Wild Nerd Yonder.
This book in particular makes me feel safe, and - I don't know, it sounds kind of weird – the words feel like they're wrapping themselves around me to create a comforting blanket.
I've read it multiple times already(around 5-7x) and I plan to read it a few more!
Especially after finding out that the Collectors Edition will be released in May!

This book has no real 'up and down' as we know it from all those adventurous books. It's just a character driven story – with lots of dialogue. But the characteres are written SO GOOD.

I've only read Fangirl and Eleanor&Park by Rainbow Rowell but I plan to read the other two novels as soon as possible! Eleanor&Park wasn't as good as Fangirl in my opinion. No, let's put it that way: It was well written and the characters were really intriguing but wasn't my kind of story. It just didn't do it for me. It was so sad and back when I read the book, I needed a lighthearted story.

But let's move on and talk about the characters.
Our main character is Cath Avery. She has a twin sister named Wren and is obsessed with the worldwide known Simon Snow-novels (about which I'll talk later).
She's an introvert, socially awkward, more follower than leader and loves the internet, the fanculture, fanfiction. Gay fanfiction. Tbh, it's creepy how much we are alike. (Well, I like to think that I'm a bit friendlier.)

Maybe that's the reason why I love her so much. She showed me that having all those traits is not a bad thing and that I don't have to force myself to be an extrovert. I'm such a crappy extrovert.

So, while Cath is the (more or less) the person I am right now, her twin sister Wren is the person I always wanted to be in lower grades. Well, cut out her drinking problem and her bitchy behaviour but basically, yes. Outgoing, funny, witty, a party-goer, attention-grabbing. Well, you get the meaning.
It's obvious that even though they share their love for Simon Snow, they are differ from each other like day and night.
I love that we get a lot of backstory, so we understand how close Cath and Wren are and how heavy their separation lies on both of them.

And we don't only get to see a lot of Wren, but their dad plays a big part in Fangirl, too. I'm a big fan of stories in which the parents/the family members play a bigger role than usual.

I've already told you in the Summary section that Wren refused to share a room with Cath in college, so now there's the question: Who's Cath's roommate? Lemme tell you:
It's Reagan.

She's a pretty awesome character with a lot of potential. She's no pretender which means she's blunt, bossy, grumpy and does nothing really to hide it. She helps Cath to come out of her shell.

Even though she makes fun of her quite often, she accepts Cath and cares for her (even though she doesn't show it).

And lastly, Levi.
I. Love. Him.
I think he's number 3 on my Top 10 book boyfriends list but now I have my doubts...he's just so damn amazing.
I can't tell you how much I love him.

He's always smiling, always kind, always polite and just such a lovely sunny boy! He tries everything to get Cath out of her shell and even though he makes some questionable decisions, he's – wait there's this song I found a few days ago...DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS!
I wish I could get my very own Levi Stewart.
He cares so, so deeply for Cath spending; thousands of dollars on gas, just to be with her.
And then, without hesitation, he starts to get interested in the world of Simon Snow – just to have something to talk to Cath about.

There's one particular scene, where I fell for him completely. Even though you all can probably guess how this book ends, I'll shout:Spoiler Alert! anyway.

When Cath and Levi are sitting kissing on the couch and Levi lifts Cath onto his lap, she says something like (who am I kidding, I know this book by heart – I know exactely what she says):
But I'm heavy.“

And he simply answers: 'Good.'
He doesn't say 'I don't mind.' or 'Don't worry.' or something in this direction but he says GOOD.
I don't know what you think about this little, little scene but I would have married him without a second thought.


Okay, and number two: Simon Snow!
The Simon Snow books are – obviously – based on the Harry Potter novels. Rainbow Rowell is a huge fan of the series and stated that she wrote some fanfics (among others Drarry) herself.
I love Harry Potter too, like I love it. It was my first fandom and got me interested in others!
So it's understandable that I adore Rainbow for weaving it into her book.
At the beginning of the book we get a Wikipedia entry of Simon Snow which is pretty cool, but there's even more! Every pre-chapter page has a little extract from the Simon Snow books or one of Cath's fanfictions. It was cool to follow Simon's story and I have to say: I'm shipping Baz/Simon!
To be honest, I didn't like Gemma T. Leslie's (the author of Simon Snow) writing. Her Agatha was a Mary-Sue, Baz was an idiot and it seemed so plain. I don't know if Rainbow had some difficulties in writing with another style or if the writing was supposed to be like that.
But even if she had failed giving GTL an own writing style, she managed to do so with Cath – I loved her writing! She wrote with an easiness that was missing in the original Simon Snow story.

Here's a little picture of Simon and Baz!
Did you know that Rainbow's next novel (to be published in October) will be about Simon?

And it's going to be Simon/Baz!
I can't wait!!

Rating

5 out of 5 stars and a very special place not only on my shelf but also in my heart!

Have a lovely night, guys!