DanaSquare

This review was originally posted on my blog DanaSquare! From an ARC that I won from Goodreads!Rainbow Rowell has created a story that perfectly captures the feelings and life of someone is passionately obsessed with a fandom. I heard phenomenal reviews of Rowell's book Eleanor and Park so I was beyond excited to read Fangirl and it met every expectation I had and more. I haven't ever read a narrator like Cath who I was able to relate to and connect to ever. I understood her on this other level and I wanted to meet her and be her friend. This took the emotional impact of this novel to a new high. What is great is that if you are a book lover no matter what you will understand how Cath feels. You don't have to have read Fanfiction or be very obsessed with a series. But just a reader in general who just wants to stay in bed all day and read or write. As an obsessive teen age girl who will be going to college in the fall of 2014 I related a lot to Cath. I was also able to learn from her mistakes which to me makes this book special.Fangirl tells several stories though. It includes excerpts from the Simon Snow Series that Cath loves, excerpts of Fanfiction that Cath has written, and Cath's narrative. Rainbow didn't just create Cath but an entire world. She created Simon Snow and then created an Alternative Universe of Simon Snow with non-cannon characters. The reader not only becomes engaged in Cath's story but also Simon and Baz's which shows how incredible Rainbow Rowell is. Rainbow Rowell's writing is just fantastic. I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe how mind blowing it is. I don't think I have loved a contemporary novel like this in a long time. Especially since it is New Adult. I am not sure if the publisher is selling it off as a Young Adult book but it does fall in the New Adult age range. Cath is a college freshman and deals with those struggles of peer pressure, school, being an adult, taking care of herself. But it is so different from any New Adult book I have read. People say New Adult is YA plus sex but it an age and a time in a persons life the "college years". Fangirl is a great mixture of YA and NA. Yes it features and suggests alcoholism in teens and sex which is very NA but it comes across in a young adult manner. Fangirl doesn't feel like a New Adult book and it has that enrapturing quality of Young Adult novels. Fangirl surprising deals with a lot of heavy material such as mental illness, alcoholism, and abandonment. Cath has to deal with a sister who is drowning herself in partying and drinking to escape her problems. A father who has been battling mental illness since they were young and now is worse because they left the house. And to top it all off a mother who left them when they were little deciding she wants to be in their lives again. Cath didn't always deal in the best way but she did the best she could. Cath is far from perfect; she has social issues and issues about her mother. She is your typical 21st century girl who has a lot of things on her plate but her Simon Snow fanfiction is her coping mechanism. I loved seeing her develop throughout the story and learn how to live. Then we have Levi. Oh Levi! Swoon. He was such a great book boyfriend. He too wasn't perfect but I wasn't really hung up on it. He did do one really annoying thing but at the same time you couldn't fault for it. He was just such a nice down to earth guy. You never seen nice guys win in YA or NA series so it was a nice turn of events. This is one of the best books I have read this year. I definitely want to reread it already. As a fangirl who has read fanfiction I think Rainbow Rowell has created a magical book that people of all ages will relate to. Rainbow Rowell shows how fandoms and fans in general have changed in this digital age. You can connect with people all over the world about your favorite books. Book Blogging and fanfiction aren't that different in that way. Cath is a character that will remain in your heart long after you finish this book!!