"Just … isn’t giving up allowed sometimes? Isn’t it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?”
“It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“For avoiding pain?”
“For avoiding life.”
Summary: Cath and Wren are twins who are starting their freshman year of college. Wren wants to leave everything behind - specifically Simon Snow and the fanfiction they write and start her college experience. Cath isn't ready to leave everything behind and this leaves her on her own to learn how to survive her first year of college.
I started out really liking this book which I was really surprised about. I was surprised because this book is really quirky and kind of weird and it reminded too much of Rebecca Harrington's book Penelope which I absolutely hated with a passion. But this book was actually okay! I'm a twin so in some ways I can relate to both Cath AND Wren which I liked. But I hated Wren! She basically wanted nothing to do with Cath or her dad which is understandable because of everything that has happened to all of them but still I would never leave anyone behind. She didn't even really talk to Cath and even though I've gone on to do my own things separate from my sister, I always always talk to her 24/7. The whole mother issue really made me angry as well. You'd have to read the book to know everything but their mom left them and then reached out to them. Of course Wren took that chance to try and get her mom back but Cath didn't. I hated that Wren was constantly trying to get Cath to see their mom and I'm glad Cath stuck up for herself! Eventually Cath really turned the year around and she made some changes in her life! I really liked Levi and Reagan. I was glad Cath found them! Some issues with this book were: 1) I started not enjoying this book so much once I got about half way through because it started seeming repetitive and I wanted to smack some of the characters over and over; 2) the fanfiction - now I love fanfiction but I couldn't get into this magic stuff and I eventually just started skipping the pages the had fanfiction on it; and 3) the ending - it just left me feeling blah and I think I expected something more strong. Overall though, I'm glad I read the book but I guess I just don't get the hype over the book or Rainbow Rowell in general.
Rating: 7.5/10
I read Eleanor and Park and felt the same slight disappointment as you did with Fangirl. I was so excited to be reading a Rainbow Rowell book, but it didn't live up to my expectations. It was just average. Have you read any others by Rainbow? I had chosen Fangirl to be the next book I read by her :/
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I haven't gone on to read any others of Rainbow's. I'm not sure if I really want to :/
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