Last month, I read Rainbow Rowell's novel 'Fangirl' which my friend who told me about Rowell's 'Eleanor and Park', recommended to me. I have to admit, it did take me a while to get into it, but I think that was only because it was during the lead up to Christmas time, so my mind was just flying out in all directions, but after the first 100 pages, I just couldn't get enough and couldn't stop reading. There was one point in the novel- I believe it was in chapter 14- that I had to message my friend and just tell her where I was up to and tell her how much I loved that particular scene so much that I had to share it with someone.
'Fangirl' is about the more quiet twin Cath, and her experience starting college, where her sister who was always the more dominant, decides to go her own way without Cath always being there in the background. Cath doesn't like the idea of interacting with people and much prefers spending her time writing fan fiction about the franchise 'Simon Snow' (which is fictitious, so don't look for them at your local bookstore or anything). But she does end up meeting new people, like her new room mate and her sort-of-boyfriend-but-just-friends-really, Levi, who is an absolutely adorable character. But the novel not only focusses on her experiences in college, but also about her family issues, with her twin and dad, but also the mum who left them when they were younger. However, one of the most enjoyable things about this book is the snippets of the fan fiction that Cath writes.
I really enjoyed reading about her interpretation of Simon Snow and Baz. It added another texture to the novel as a whole, because it was like there was a story within the story that was already within a story... ooh, 'Inception!'
'Fangirl' is about the more quiet twin Cath, and her experience starting college, where her sister who was always the more dominant, decides to go her own way without Cath always being there in the background. Cath doesn't like the idea of interacting with people and much prefers spending her time writing fan fiction about the franchise 'Simon Snow' (which is fictitious, so don't look for them at your local bookstore or anything). But she does end up meeting new people, like her new room mate and her sort-of-boyfriend-but-just-friends-really, Levi, who is an absolutely adorable character. But the novel not only focusses on her experiences in college, but also about her family issues, with her twin and dad, but also the mum who left them when they were younger. However, one of the most enjoyable things about this book is the snippets of the fan fiction that Cath writes.I really enjoyed reading about her interpretation of Simon Snow and Baz. It added another texture to the novel as a whole, because it was like there was a story within the story that was already within a story... ooh, 'Inception!'
It was such a good book, that I would rate 7/10.
The reason why I brought this particular book up, is because I've only recently realised that I've embarrassingly become a fangirl for my friend's novels that he is working on. I've briefly mentioned these novels in a previous blog, but it's reached the point that I have started writing my own mini fan fiction for these characters that he has created. And it's not as if I publish them or anything, I just write them because I find it fun and sometimes I just can't resist writing making something happen between some of the characters which can't happen in the actual story. I feel sort of bad when I do, because I know it is like sacrilegious to his storyline, but sometimes temptation can't be ignored. It's like all those Harry Potter fan fictions out there (I like the idea of Ron and Draco ending up together... so much tension between the two!) or like what Cath writes in her fan fiction in 'Fangirl.'
