Fangirl Review

    Cath is an introvert obsessed with the Simon Snow, a character in a very popular fictional book. She even writes widely known fanfiction about him. Her and her twin sister start their freshman year of college at the same university; however, they are not as close as they once were. Cath is thrown into a whole world outside of her comfort zone as she begins this new chapter in her life. With obstacles both old and new and her tendency to stay in her room writing fanfiction, will she be able to adjust to her new life?

    I am going to give a warning before I start my actual review. First, my opinion seems to be on the more unpopular side of things, so take into consideration you may have a different opinion than me. Second, this is not normally the sort of book I choose to read. The only reason I did so was because I received it in an elephant book exchange, and a couple of my friends spoke very highly of it. Therefore, it is not really my style. Now, let's get into my review:

    At the end of each chapter, there is a supposed excerpt from the fictional Simon Snow novels that Cath is so obsessed with. For the life of me, I could not find a true purpose to these, so I found them rather annoying. I spoke with the person I received the book from, and she told me that she believes the excerpts are simply meant to get readers more immersed with the Snow fandom. Well, this just plain out did not work, at least in my case. They were inconsistent with each other, not allowing you to feel a connection because you never got involved in one story line. I personally had a hard time caring for the true characters instead of Cath's versions of them because the excerpts just annoyed me. The Simon Snow novels actually seemed to have a pretty cool plot. They are something I could see myself reading; however, for the purpose of this book, the excerpts don't work.

    There were a couple of minor plot inconsistencies that I found. They were very minor, so it did not affect a huge part of the book; however, they were noticeable enough for me to catch and be irritated by them. For example, Cath new about a bar called Muggsy's on page 71, even coming up with an argument as to why she should not go with two of the other main characters. Then, on page  113, she suddenly did not know that Muggsy's was a bar, and there had to be a whole conversation explaining it to her. These are not super important in the long run, but are still enough to put me off. 

    It took me an extraordinarily long time to get through the first quarter of the book, especially taking into consideration that I normally would read fairly quickly. The plot seemed pretty slow, almost bordering on stagnant, for a lot of the first quarter. I could not grow an attachment to Cath, making it even harder to care about the book. In fact, I found her to be annoying. As a more introverted person myself, I understand staying in your comfort zone and not wishing to talk to large groups of people. Still, this does not give the excuse to be rude, which is exactly how Cath is in many moments throughout the novel, but particularly within the first quarter of it. There was even a time when Cath said she was not rude- she was just bordering on the line in her eyes. I laughed outright. Any time her roommate, Reagan, or Levi tried to go out with her meant rudeness from Cath. She was mildly petulant at first, also. She got better as the book progressed, which I am super grateful for because, if she didn't, I would have have put it on my DNF list fast.

    Some scenes, paragraphs, and sentences were not necessary. I did not see their relevance or how they helped the book progress. It felt as if Rainbow Rowell had a word count she needed to meet but couldn't, so she started adding in random things. Ironic enough, at the end of the book, it felt incomplete. I understand, in part, why she ended it where she did. It is slightly satisfying, actually. Sadly, this satisfaction was deterred by my feeling as if I still had a couple more questions, or that I wanted a few storylines to have a bit more to them. It did not feel like an ending to me. It is a bit hard to describe how I felt properly, but that is my best attempt.

    On the other hand, there were some redeeming qualities. I am always a sucker for a cute romance story, and this book definitely delivered on that once it got around to it. If I am being honest, this is the only reason I did not put it on my DNF list and gave it three stars. I can't help but get sucked in when the romance gets more involved. I thought Cath's relationship with *someone* (I will not spoil that) was very sweet. I believe this was mostly because I like the guy she was with, so he made up for my remaining complaints about Cath at that point. I found him to be extremely cute, the type of guy many girls like because he is (almost) the embodiment of a gentleman. He is probably my favorite character, followed by Reagan because of her no B.S. personality. Other characters, such as Wren, were slightly vexing. They got better, though, the more they were built up and explained, so no complaints there. Furthermore, as I said before, Cath did get better as the novel progressed. There was definitely growth which made me actually like her once the novel was over. 

    While this does not have any relevance to the plot itself, I felt I had to mention it. I LOVE the cover, the artwork, and the edges of the pages. I think it is very unique and pretty. If I was shopping in a bookstore and came across this edition of the novel, it would have immediately caught my attention, and I would have read what it was about. As for the artwork, it was fun to anticipate that scene in the novel and nice when the scene finally happened because I knew exactly how it looked in Rowell's head. I also appreciated being able to know just how the characters looked.

    Overall, I think this book and the author's writing style just are not for me. I did not hate the book, but I had several complaints. The love story was the redeeming quality, especially because most of Cath's growth stemmed from her relationship. Keep in mind, this is only my opinion, and you may have different thoughts. I would still give the novel a chance, whether in your comfort zone or not. Even with all my complaints, I still believed it was mostly worth the read.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: Wednesday Books

# of Pages: 435

Genre: YA, Fiction, Coming of age novel

Series: Standalone (*The author has two other novels that relate to this book, but they are not a true series.)