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Fangirl

Rainbow Rowell

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Jul 30, 2019 Apurva rated it liked it

I have wanted to read Eleanor & Park and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell for a long time. Amidst all the wishing and the ever-growing TBR pile, I managed to get my hands on Fangirl this month. Nonetheless, I highly anticipated this book to be great but I am not very impressed.

The story revolves around twin sisters Cather-Wren (why?) who have contrasting personalities, Cath is an introvert and has social anxiety, wren, however, is extrovert and socially comfortable. Other characters are supporting and I have wanted to read Eleanor & Park and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell for a long time. Amidst all the wishing and the ever-growing TBR pile, I managed to get my hands on Fangirl this month. Nonetheless, I highly anticipated this book to be great but I am not very impressed.

The story revolves around twin sisters Cather-Wren (why?) who have contrasting personalities, Cath is an introvert and has social anxiety, wren, however, is extrovert and socially comfortable. Other characters are supporting and polishing the story of Cather and Wren, like Levi, Art, and Reagan. Cather and Wren have just moved to college and are figuring their lives without each other. They have been together for most of their life and Cath is finding it hard to manage without Wren. This is the entire plot of the story. Along the way, we find out that their mom (whom Cath hates) is a bitchy woman who left them in childhood and is there in some chapters to create turmoil in the lives of Cather-Wren (Why, really?). Cather-Wren are brought up by their dad. His personality resonates a lot with Cath’s. Both Cath and his Dad have had trouble dealing with things as Laura (the occasional mom) left them. Wren also seemed to be a little emotionally disturbed, she, however, has her own ways to vent things out.

The other plot apart from the family drama is the Cather’s obsession with the Simon Snow book series, which is a harry potter version in the book. Cather is the ‘fangirl’ of the series who writes the fanfiction called ‘Carry On, Simon’ and has a massive online following. This seemed to be the classic stereotype of introverts. This gets more irritating because there are chapters of the Simon Snow after every chapter, which are completely different from the running plot of the story. They seem very distracting as they do not add any value to the main story. Had they been an alternate narrative of the chapter, I would probably read them.

I’m rooting for Eleanor & Park. This book didn’t quite resonate with me as much as I was expecting it to. ...more

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