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| Source of Pic: Amazon |
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Current Rating on Goodreads: 4.22 of 5 stars
Pages: 445 pages
Synopsis (via Goodreads):
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.
A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
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 got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, 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 fan fiction 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? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
"Touching and utterly real." — Publisher's Weekly
Ookayy, wow, idk how I feel about this book.
So this story is called Fangirl, so I guess it's meant to be about how Cather (and Wren?) are Fangirls. In this case about Simon Snow (o.O). But I really don't understand. I mean, yes Cath was a Fangirl, and yes she was so obsessed with Simon Snow and Baz that she wrote fan-fiction to express how SHE felt about the characters and the right ending etc. but.......so? I didn't get the point.
Firstly, just because you're a Fangirl doesn't mean you write fan fiction. Also, the plot branched out from just being about Fangirls. It was about Cather's life. It was a segment in Cath's life, that didn't have any exact particular significance to Fangirls, at least from what I could tell. o.O So I don't really know what the whole story was about. Was it about how Cath found someone she liked? Was it her getting over her 'craziness', as she called it? Did she even get over her 'craziness'? Was it mending her and her sister's relationship? What happened to their relationship to begin with? (and I still don't know what happened with Courtney and Wren, just throwing that out there) Was it coming to peace with anything related to her (terrible) mother Laura? Idk. Maybe a mix of them all, but I just didn't get the point of it all.
In the beginning I was constantly switching between thinking about how hilarious or quirky the book is, and then the next I was either wallowing in annoyance or pondering how the quips are so weird they almost sound unnatural. After a while I kinda got used to it tho........
“I’m not old, you know.” He was tapping the table with the two middle fingers of his left hand. “Forty-one. The other guys my age at work are just starting to have kids.”
“That was good thinking,” Cath said, “getting us out of the way early. You can start bringing home chicks now—the coast is clear.”
“All my chicks…,” he said, looking down at his plate. “You guys are the only chicks I’m worried about.”
“Ugh. Dad. Weird.”
“You know what I mean. What’s up with you and your sister? You’ve never fought like this before.…”
“We’re not fighting now,” Cath said, taking a bite of bacon-cheeseburger pizza. “Oh, geez.” She spit it out.
“What’s wrong, did you get an eyelid?”
“No. Pickle. It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Me:
And the characters felt so fickle. Like one moment they acted one way, and then the next they were completely different. And I didn't really like that.
Cather: Ookayy. So Cath. She seemed to view herself as damaged goods. That ever since Laura (her mother) left when she was emotionally mutilated or something. And she obviously had a lack of self confidence. But she seemed content like that because she was too scared to come out of her shell (praise Reagan at this point). And then she would get all mopey that her sister was the 'Cool One'. Well, honestly it's kinda her own fault. I don't mean to be harsh, but if she just put herself out there, then she would find that there are soooo many people out there in the world, and she doesn't have to rely on just her (only half the time reliable) twin sister to pull her through the tough times. Of course, I'm not a twin so I don't know what it's like to be one, and what it feels like to have that connection, but that's just my opinion. I'm not saying that Cath shouldn't rely on Wren AT ALL. I'm just saying they're not the SAME PERSON. And there will always be differences between them. And thus they should have some parts of their lives that are separate. Otherwise, one of them (being Cather), will probably tend to start to feel inferior. It just seems logical that that would happen. So yeah. I felt for Cather, but she wasn't anywhere near perfect. And she still had lots to learn from life.
Reagan: Overall I liked Reagan. She was blunt, and rude at times, but I think she was really instrumental to helping Cather out of her shell. She pushed Cather out of her shell, actually. The only thing I didn't like was the times she occasionally went a little bit bit**y about Levi and Cather. But I guess it would be a little hard to see your roommate and ex-boyfriend together, even if you DID cheat on said ex-boyfriend when he was your boyfriend.
Wren: Especially in the first half, Wren is Mean-girl, or the 'Cool One' *rolls eyes*, but then at times she also plays Nice-sister. So I'm like, huh. Well then. She says she wasn't effected by her mum's disappearing act like Cather and their dad was, but I don't think that's true. She just reacted in a different way. All the partying. And life ideals. To have fun at every given moment. She certainly wasn't perfect either. But I can't exactly dislike her because she was just learning too.
Laura: I DESPISE the mum. I mean, seriously? Okay, I get it that 'Laura' wasn't happy in her marriage. But not even keeping in touch of your children for 10 years? And THEN, when their childhood is finally ending, when the time that they REALLY REALLY would have benefited from having their mother to look after them has JUST ended, THEN she tries to get in contact. I think that's just pathetic.
Also, here's the thing about me. Books that are overly quirky (aka when the quirkiness is the main feel of the novel) just aren't my style. The protagonist is weird, love interest is weird, the story is weird. EVERYTHING ABOUT THESE TYPES OF BOOKS ARE OUT OF THE ORDINARY OUT OF THE ORDINARY!! Make sense? Not really? Sorry. XD
3 stars because I (kinda) liked it, but the all-over-the-place is not my scene. (Soz Tillie Tallie! ;P)
—MissBloodsucker™ All Sucked Out!
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