Review: Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Genre: YA, contemporary, romance
Published on September 10, 2013
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 438
Read From: 4. 3.14 - 4.5.14












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 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? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review

Cover Blurb: Yes or No? I admit that the cover art is kinda cute. It's what caught my attention in the first place. Yes, it's clearly a chick-lit. But every time I saw this book, I kept stopping and looking at it. I even almost bought it. But I heeded my advice and borrowed it from the library. Boy, am I glad I did. Note to self: cover art is not a good enough reason to buy a book. Even if that cover art makes you stop every time you see it.

Characters: I desperately wanted to like and feel bad for Cath. She very obviously suffered from severe social anxiety, and I can totally relate. But Cath is a fangirl - worse, she is the sort of fangirl that I abhor. Caution: I am about to insult and tick off a lot of fangirls. I don't care if you take this personally. Cath is the sort of girl who gives "fangirl" a bad name. I don't consider myself a fangirl because of what her type have turned "fangirls" into. Cath is the sort of fangirl who takes male protagonists who have a close camaraderie relationship - and makes them gay. She's the sort of fangirl who is responsible for Johnlock. She is the sort of fangirl who is the reason I can't pin pictures of John and Sherlock on Pinterest without someone coming on and making some idiotic and rage-inducing comment about them being lovers. She's the sort of fangirl that has made me hate fanfiction and all it stands for. She is the sort of fangirl that makes us normal fangirls scream and say, "No! We are not fangirls! We are normal! We would be respectful and calm if we got to meet our favorite characters - and actors who have played them - simply so we won't be mistaken for fangirls!" In short, I could not like Cath because of everything she stood for. You might be thinking that I am taking this way too seriously. Maybe I am. But I am a Sherlockian and I have seen the Sherlockian community suffer at the hands of such fangirls. I have to explain to the casual person that being a Sherlockian does not mean I'm part of the weird fandom that has cast Sherlock and John in an odiously creepy light! The term Sherlockian has been hijacked by these fangirls and it makes me apocalyptically cross! Sod off, fangirls - this is my territory! Stop ruining it for us normal people!

Setting these things aside, Cath is also just not all that likable. I understand her social anxiety, but she also spends a lot of time whining. I have social anxiety, and I don't whine. Her roommate Reagan was just rude, Cath's sister Wren was a bitch, Nick was a user, and Levi . . . . I wanted to like Levi. I did like Levi - mostly because I was desperate. For the most part, he was funny and adorable and the sort of guy friend who can always make you feel relaxed and better. But . . . Well, I'll cover the rest in the romance section.

The Romance:

Levi licked her mouth like he was trying to get the last bit of jam off the back of her throat. (pg. 397) 

Just . . . ew! Just ew!!! No, no, no - that is so many levels of wrong. Really?! Did you have to drag jam into this?!

Levi's slept around. Yes, I am going to hold this against him. No, I don't care if you think I'm being too judgmental. I have a thing about morality and personal pride and keeping your bloody trousers on and being responsible! I'm so sick of reading books that have guy characters who have slept with their girlfriends, and I'm so sick of reading books where the girl acts like her virginity is something to be embarrassed about. And that is what Levi and Cath's romance boils down to. Levi has experience; Cath doesn't. Cath is embarrassed; Levi doesn't mind - he'll show her how. Because he's decent that way (can you hear my eyes rolling?) And because this is chick-lit, the romance takes up 95% of the book. Perhaps more than that.

Plot: Plot? What plot? Cath and Wren go to college, Wren becomes a jerk who abandons her sister and gets drunk all the time. Cath obsesses over Simon Snow and writes fanfiction when she should be writing papers for her classes. Periodically, their lives are interrupted by emotional breakdowns from their dad or their estranged mother trying to get back into their lives, and Cath being a brat about it. Don't get me wrong - I understand why Cath didn't want to have anything to do with her mom. But she still seemed like a brat. This sort of plot goes on for . . . . 433 pages, with smatterings of Cath's fanfiction in between. Oh my gosh, the fanfiction . . . . The only reason I preferred the fanfiction bits was because it was a break from the constant barrage of profanity. But it, too, came with its own problems (more on that later). There was literally no point to this book. Except to read about Cath's difficult integration into the college life, and how Cath couldn't figure out that Levi liked her (when it was so glaringly obvious). The whole concept of Simon Snow was silly. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but I can understand why this book irritated a lot of them. Simon Snow is supposed to be Harry Potter, but not. It's supposed to be clever little "bow" to Harry Potter. This, of course, makes no sense, since Fangirl takes place in our world, where Harry Potter, in fact, exists. I suppose maybe the Author couldn't actually use Harry Potter for copyright reasons. But how then was she able to create the Simon Snow world - which is so obviously supposed to be Harry Potter?!

Believability: Not applicable.

Writing Style: Third person, past tense. That sampler quote is only the beginning. Here are some more.

He practically didn't have a top lip, just a smear of red. (pg. 83)

His mouth was small, but bowed. Like a doll's. She wondered if he had trouble opening it wide enough to eat apples. (pg. 137) 

Umm, do we care?!

It was hard to make eye contact with Nick - his eyes were almost buried under his eyebrows; you had to dig into his face. (pg. 130) 

O-kay.

Then, if he decided to laugh, his shoulders would start shaking and his eyebrows would pull up in the middle - Levi's eyebrows were pornographic. (pg. 302) 

You know, there's a way to do funny similes. These - especially that last one - are just wrong. Bad writing. I don't know what kind of emotion the Author is trying to go for, but I wasn't feeling it. I was just grossed and creeped out. Pornographic eyebrows?! Seriously, people?!

Content: 46 f-words, 20 s-words, 6 g--damns. There was no letup. Oh yes, and in Cath's fanfiction of Simon Snow, Simon and his sworn enemy - who is another guy named Baz (. . . .) - are lovers. They're gay. Yes. Cath decided to take someone else's characters - in this case, a fictional writer, but this happens in reality - and made them gay. I am not okay with fans taking someone else's characters and doing what they want with them - especially this. That is crossing a line that no Reader is allowed to cross.

Conclusion: Now, one might expect Cath to maybe learn at the end of the book that she doesn't need Simon Snow. She can let go of the fandom and live a normal life; she can remember it with fondness as something she had as a tween, and move on. Spoiler: the ending is as pointless as the beginning and the middle. Cath keeps her fandom, and as far as we Readers know, she never abandons it. I can say with compete conviction that I don't like chick-lit. And I now know why! Apart from the fact that it's a bunch of sappy nonsense, the guys have always slept with a girl at some point, and the girl is always ashamed of her virginity. Yes, one can encounter this theme in dystopian, fantasy, time travel, science fiction - any of them. But it is most prominent in chick-lit and contemporary. So guess what, people: you can't tell me that I simply haven't tried chick-lit, so how can I know I don't like it. I've read a John Green book - thee John Green book, - I've read My Invisible Boyfriend, and I've read a Rainbow Rowell book. I don't need to try Sarah Dessen to know I dislike chick-lit. And I still dislike fangirls.

Recommended Audience: Chick-read, nineteen-and-up, fangirls and fans of chick-lit.