Fangirl by Rainbow Roswell

Summary: A college coming of age novel about a young writer of fanfiction.

For all of my reading, I have read very little fanfiction. But I loved another one of Rowell’s books, Eleanor and Park, so I picked this one up without reading the description.

Cather (she prefers to be called Cath) is a new college freshman. Her twin sister, Wren, is trying to form a new identity, without Cath. Their father, a barely hanging on bipolar advertising idea man, raised them on his own. Their mother left when the girls were 8 which traumatized both girls in different ways. (The mother was not prepared for twins and couldn’t come up with a different name so she split the one she had picked out, Catherine, into Cather and Wren.)

Cath is a fanfiction writer. She posts her short stories on a fanfiction site and is working on a full length book. Her obsession is a young adult fantasy series (think Harry Potter). But Cath specializes in changing the story to turn it into a gay romance between the two antagonists. That romance is the only real romance in Cath’s experience.

College is a hard transition for Cath. She is introverted and scared of new experiences. Luckily her roommate takes her under her wing and her upper level fiction writing class gives her a real challenge.

Things get a bit complicated when Cath starts falling for both her writing partner and her roommate’s boyfriend.

I really liked Eleanor and Park, but I liked Fangirl more. The characters are a bit older. And while both are kind of geeks, what is geekier than fanfiction? Both book were character driven. Rowell did a great job building full characters, not just the main couple, but the side characters and backstory as well.

My only complaint is that the ending was a bit abrupt. I was engaged with the character and I wanted more.

Fangirl by Rainbow Roswell Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

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