Hello Rad Readers!
This is genuinely the best book ever. Easily one of my favorites of all time (tied with Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo). I loved it so much; everything about it was great. It is the most adorable, well written, fun, and funny story in all of the universe. Why am I starting to love contemporaries all of a sudden!?!?
If you don't know what Fangirl is about... We follow our main character Cath who is going to the same college as her twin sister Ren. They have been extremely close all their lives, so when Ren tells Cath that she wants her own, separate life in college, it comes as a major shock. Cath is far more reserved than Ren is and is left to figure out who she is going to be when she isn't with her sister. She is really shy so she has a tough time fitting in. Her major outlet is through literature and writing. Her problem is that she gets lost in stories that aren't her own. She lives her life vicariously through her writing and the books that have already been written rather than living a story for herself. We get to see where her talents and passions take her, and watch how through this she is able to make her way out of her shell.
Cath is the greatest character of all time. Levi is a close second, and Reagan is a close third. I related to Cath so so so much it was nuts. If you are a book lover, (or a Rad Reader ;)) then you will love Cath as well. She is just like us! I thought it was very funny that Cath is made to be this extreme version of a fan for this series, and how there is such an emphasis on how there are posters from books all over her walls and she wears bookish t-shirts all the time. I was reading this and I was like... wow, someone basically wrote a book about me hahaha! 100% of my socks are Harry Potter themed, 90% of my jewelry is bookish themed, I have a miniature Harry Potter dangling in my car, and I bring a book with me everywhere I go, because JUST IN CASE! I am literally Cath.
The way this book was written is absolutely incredible and positively genius. The characters are so vivid and so real, and for a stand alone novel it never felt rushed, or too dragged on, or too focused on irrelevant details. I make that praise because with so many stand alone's that I read, I --no joke-- get anxious because there is so little time for an entire story to happen and when... like... 30 pages are centered around something entirely irrelevant or boring or unimportant... ahhh! BLOOD BOILING! But anyways, that wasn't a problem in Fangirl. There was never a part where I was skimming or half in the story. When I was reading it, it was all in, all the time. It was painful to put it down, so I didn't! Ah, the beauties of quarantine!
I absolutely was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I've said this before, but in the past I have always found contemporaries a bit boring. Something about reading about a life with bounds the same as mine, where there are no fire breathing dragons or people with super powers has always seemed capital L-- LAME! to me, but Rainbow Rowell is such a talented writer and I think that there is something great about contemporaries after all. The comedy is grade A, golden, A1, perfection, gnarly, radical, and all the other synonyms. Along with the comedy however, it is a coming of age novel and with that comes some very relatable and very real story points. All the characters had such strong and honest voices, and for me personally, the story was felt very deeply very easily.
I highly recommend you read this book! Pick it up! Check it out! You will love it!
-C8 ;)