Fangirl By: Rainbow Rowell

Author: Rainbow Rowell


Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition


Released: September 10th, 2013

Official Synopsis: "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 go

t them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, 

writing Simon Snow fanfiction, 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 fanfiction 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?"

My Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is a classic 

coming of age story about a girl named Cath who has 

always depended on her twin sister Wren, but when they 

go off to collage Cath has to learn how to be more 

independent, which isn't easy when she has to constantly 

worry about her dad, who is mentally unstable, and 

continue to write her VERY POPULAR fan fiction about 

her favorite book series called Simon Snow. 

The book starts off with Cath and Wren moving into their 

separate dorms, which made Cath feel betrayed by her 

sister because she always thought they would dorm

together, until Wren decided against it. When Cath gets to 

her dorm she sees a boy in her room, and she's very 

confused... Soon she learns this boy is a boyfriend? Or 

Friend? She doesn't really know... To her real roommate  

named Reagan. Reagan is never in their dorm, she's always 

partying or working... Cath writes fan fiction for a book 

series called Simon Snow, which is  basically the Harry  

Potter of this world; and Cath's story is  about Simon and 

Baz (the main characters) falling in love, 

she writes her fan fiction under the name Magicath. Her 

story get 40,000+ reads per chapter. Cath is taking a 

fiction writing course usually only meant for 

upperclassmen, so it's a big deal they let Cath take 

it as a freshmen. Levi is always in the dorm and he and 

Cath start to become very close, and they soon discover 

they have feelings for each other... but right now Cath's  

life is very stressful. When she got to collage her sister 

basically abandoned her altogether, now all Wren does is  

party and get drunk... Her dad is going downhill in his 

mental health, and Cath isn't there to watch over him, so 

she is constantly worried. On top of all that her mom, who 

left them when they were 8, is trying to make contact with 

them again. The story follows Cath trying to deal with all 

these problems, while also trying to figure out her 

relationship with Levi. 

This story would be a good fit for the older young adult 

reader. For me, I couldn't connect that well because I 

haven't  had a lot of the same experiences. But even 

though I couldn't connect, I still think it was written very 

well. While your reading you get to read some of her fan 

fiction as well as the actual Simon Snow story. It got a bit 

confusing for me because I didn't really know what was 

going on in the Simon Snow novels, I felt that it skipped 

around a lot. But on a better note, I also felt that it gave

the reader a good idea of what kind of writer Cath was,

and how dedicated to Simon Snow she is. The character

development for Cath was slow in the beginning, I felt like

she could of came "out of her shell" a little faster. As for

Wren I think it would of been nicer to see how she was

before she "went off the deep end." I really enjoyed how

Rainbow Rowell made family a big part of Cath and Wren's 

life. I've read to many books where the teenage characters

are off doing crazy things and the whole time your

wondering were the parents were the entire novel. Are

they just oblivious or did the author forget to put write in

parents? The relationship between Levi and Cath took a

REALLY long time, there wasn't enough pages of the being

an "item". Overall this was a well developed and well

written book, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rainbow

Rowell's writing style.

I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars!