The Relaxed Ravenous Reader

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St.Martin's Press

Publication Date: Sep 10th 2013

Page Numbers: 445 pages

Blurb

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate 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.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

"Touching and utterly real." —  Publisher's Weekly

What I Thought

My oh my...This book made me missed Harry Potter so much (I think I would re-read it). I felt like reading two different books in a same time (or maybe three?). Some of Simon Snow's scenes remained me to HP a lot!!! The one that I can remembering is the fencing scene, when Simon had to face Baz. It looked like Harry vs Draco in Dueling Club, when Draco finally throwed snakes from his wand. Ok..let's stop talking about HP thingy and get back to the real book.

Cath and Wren are twins. Both of them love Simon Snow, a young magician series which wrote by Gemma T. Leslie. Cath and Wren collaborated in write fanfic about Simon Snow which became famous among the fans,Carry On Simon. But college life change everything. Wren decided to live outside, means she would hang out with lots of new people, separated with Cath as eternal roomate (for eighteen years!!), drank when everybody drank and made her life live as ever. And she left Cath alone, felt betrayed and miserable. Also Cath had to deal with her Writing-Fiction final exam, their little manic Dad and Laura, the mom who abandoned them since the twins just eight years old. Daily writing on Carry On Simon became her only escape. The world and people that she loved and understood so much. When Cath knew Reagan and especially..Levi, her life got better, and Cath tried live her own life. 

That's the main story of this book.

For me, the great part of this book is how RR could made the reader like drowned in two different stories. Yes, maybe because I was that kind of fangirl (but not the slash thing). And I made things like Cath did (I was more to fanart, by the way) so I knew the hype and enthusiasm especially when the new series was coming. I also know a friend who wrote ff and she always looked drowned in her writing. That's the way I pictured Cath and her difficulties to finished her final exam. RR wrote the character emotions so well. I felt sad and almost cried when Wren said "The wrong C". That's too cruel. Also flattered when Levi said something sweet to Cath :D The one who need a punch in the face was Nick, for letting a girl back home ALONE by HERSELF in the frozen midnight (also for other reason). Not to meant I underrated girls couragement, but at least he could gave a favor, was he?

There's something personal in this book, kinda nostalgia and for me, it's a big plus!

Add note: 
- People kept saying that Simon-Baz were like Harry-Draco. But for me it was more like James-Snape *based on the haircut* :D (edit: since GTL mentioned that Baz's eyes are grey, it turned to Draco again. Both have same eye color)

- If I ignored hair and eyes color, I imagined Levi as Jim Sturgess XD Simon and Baz are Logan Lehman and Ezra Miller. Cath...more like...my friend that I mentioned before (Wren too, but it's hard to imagined her with short hair).

Opening Lines

There was a boy in her room.

Cath looked up at the number painted on the door, then down at the room assignment in her hand.

Pound Hall, 913