Consider me a Fangirl of Rainbow Rowell's FANGIRL

 

 

Oh I was so sure when I saw the cover of this book that it was gonna be another romcom.

 

Mushy sweetness, a happily ever after, a lot of goofiness, and secondhand embarrassment (I don’t know why I get secondhand embarrassment every time I read a rom-com) were some of the things I expected when I began reading Fangirl.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Really.

 

The story revolves around Cath Avery, an Omaha-based girl who has to move to Nebraska to attend University, against her wishes. If you think it’s because of parental pressure, nop. It’s because Cath’s twin Wren has had enough of a life of being ‘one of the twins’, and wishes for change. Wren wants to have more freedom, be her own person, make more friends, and expand her small-town world. Cath, however, is more than reluctant, very much against, and borderline petrified about this new idea.

Despite Cath’s disagreement, Wren convinces their Dad who pretends to be enthusiastic for their sake. Except he’s not. Neither is Cath for that matter but Mr Avery is not exactly okay, mentally, or emotionally, it can be discerned from Cath’s thoughts and words.

And that is how Cath’s tumultuous college life begins.

 

There’s Cath’s loud and rude roommate, Reagan, and her boyfriend? Levi, Wren’s new best friend, Courtney, Cath’s Fiction Writing Professor, the nice boy Nick in her Fiction Writing class who wants to write with her. There’s moving from one class to the next, having meals at the canteen, and going about the dorm house. There’s managing her studies and writing chapters for her fanfiction book, Carry On Simon, based on a fiction series by a fictional author in the (very fictional) book (God what even was that?) and writing stories for her Fiction Writing course.

College life is hectic and chaotic, Cath finds that out soon. All freshman main characters show us that. But Rainbow Rowell’s characters always show the unlit parts of it. Maybe what college looks like from the point of view of a recluse, an extreme introvert, or someone with trauma. From the point of view of a twin who is not used to being without her twin beside her. Cath’s character speaks aloud for all the small hesitations, minor panic attacks, nerves, tingles, overthinking, overanalyzing, awkward social skills, modest thinking, and many other issues that introverts face in any type of new setting. It certainly is an eye-opener for this.

 Safe to say that the book doesn’t revolve around romance alone. The genre includes YA, coming of age, family dynamics, friendships, falling in love, and college life. But it's mostly about self growth and self discovery. 

 

At first, Cath is at odds with everything. At odds with her twin, her roommate, her roommates' boyfriend, the dorm arrangement, her dad, with the new situation. You name it, Cath was most likely at odds with it.

But she changes.

For the better.

Slowly, but surely.

 

And Wren sinks.

A little faster but just as sure as Cath rises.

 

Wren is every teenager who loses their head when exposed to college life and the reckless freedom that comes with it. The type of teenager who drowns themselves in alcohol and parties and new boyfriends and thinks they’re being cool and whatnot. She is also exceptionally rude to her twin and thinks of her as a wet blanket. Trust me, Wren was a pain to read. The fact that Cath kept excusing her crass behavior with excuses like if she was sober or if Courtney wasn’t with her made it even more frustrating.

But while Wren suffers because of her own bad decisions, poor Cath has issues with Nick, her nice guy partner from Fiction Writing because of her gullible and trusting nature when it comes to intellectual people. Nick turns out to be a only bearable jerk and Levi turns out to be kissable. No, you didn’t hear me wrong. Cath ends up kissing her “roommate’s boyfriend” who is promptly revealed to be not her roommate’s boyfriend, but her ex-boyfriend which solves only half the problem because the same day Cath catches him snogging another girl. Heartbreak time guys. But before poor Cath has time to recover from that blow, she receives news that her Dad is badly ill and she makes the decision to travel back to Omaha to take care of him at the hospital. To no one’s surprise, not even Cath’s, Wren is not ready to go check up on their father. Cath gets a lift from Levi.

Well, you can guess what happened next. Explanations, accusations, confessions, nerves, made-up lies, and denial among many others.

 

Cath wants to quit college after her dad’s episode, but her dad manages to convince her not to do so.

 

Cath’s problems, the way everything is new and alien to her, her issues with her twin sister, befriending Reagan and Levi, her fanfiction, and thoughts about Levi, her disagreements with Professor Piper, and her friendship with Nick are what make up the first part of the novel.

The second part is getting comfortable with college life, trying to finish her fanfiction book before the release of the final book, trying to work on her Fiction Writing Course, making up with Levi, completely falling out with Nick, and many other things. It's about making things work. 

Oh, and Wren learns her lesson and gets a warning both from Life and from her Dad. Cath gets a chance to meet their divorced mother who left them behind. New drama, new problems. But Cath also does a good job of dealing with them.

 

The best thing about this book is the relatability of all the characters and in her FAQs, Rainbow Rowell has stated that most of them are based on real people. For example, she has revealed that just like Cath she was also afraid of college life and the newness it would bring into her routine and familiar life. Levi was inspired by some guy friends of hers who were always smiling at every person they passed by. I think that the closer the author is to the said people, the clearer and more graspable the character is.

Fangirl has it all. All the typical types of people you are likely to come across. The Anxious One, the Rude Teenagers, the Smiling Sunshine person, the Responsible Friend, the type of Parents, that One Totally Invested in her Children Teacher. Literally, every character is infinitely relatable.

I really enjoy reading it and then rereading it and then again rereading it. It’s one of my comfort books, really.

If I had to rate it I’d give it ten on ten just for how beautifully and rawly (is that a word?) written the characters are let alone the simple but elegant plot.