Review: Fangirl
A coming-of-age story about twins, a farm boy, and some mythical mages...
Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell
438 pages - 2013 - fiction, young adult
April 12th, 2024 — April 13th, 2024
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
I have never read fanfiction. Which might be quite surprising to some who know me—when I was young, I was, by all accounts, a huge nerd. In seventh grade my teacher asked every person in our class to write down a word or phrase about every other person in the class, and made us all word clouds to take home. The amount of times “Harry Potter” showed up in mine was really telling.
I think, because of that, because I am not well-acquainted with the world of fic, a good amount of this book was lost on me. I admit that I still have a little, tiny bit of disdain for fanfiction, which is something I am actively working towards fixing. Of course, fanfic writers are writers and can create some incredible art. In the same way that authors can write and publish things that are… maybe a little less than sapid.
Despite that missing piece, though, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a lot of heartfelt moments that I really liked. Plus, I am always a sucker for twin media (even though that aspect in this book made me a bit sad). It is almost painfully YA at times, bordering on read-through-the-fingers cringy, but I think that adds to its appeal instead of taking away.
Summary (Spoilers!)
Cath and Wren are twin sisters who live in Omaha, Nebraska with their father. They are both going to the same college, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the book starts with Cath, the focus of the book, being slightly upset that her twin sister doesn’t want to share a dorm room with her.
We meet Cath’s roommate, Reagan, and her roommate’s maybe-boyfriend, Levi. Reagan is cool and level-headed, definitely not a freshman, and Levi is goofy and incredibly friendly to everyone he meets. Wren, on the other hand, is living in a different dorm building entirely with another freshman named Courtney.
Cath is immersed within the world of her favorite book series, the Simon Snow series, and has posters and t-shirts. She also writes fanfiction of the series under the name Magicath, and she has been publishing an enormous piece online called Carry On that she’s worked on for two years now. She plans on finishing it when the last Simon Snow book is released at the end of the school year.
Cath and Wren used to write together, trading off their laptop and collaborating on the fic. But Wren seems to be moving on from this, and even a little bit resentful that her sister is still stuck in the past, wearing Simon Snow shirts at every occasion.
Levi continues hanging around Cath and Reagan’s room, and one day he gets Cath to read some fanfiction aloud to him. He absolutely loves it and is immediately immersed into the world with her. Cath refuses to go out and party, not even making it to the east side of campus until her second semester, while Wren is getting drunk with Courtney every weekend. There is a lot of tension building between them. Cath is also sort-of-dumped by her “boyfriend” back home, Abel, when he finds someone better (his words). We learn that Levi is not actually Reagan’s boyfriend; they just dated in high school and have been friends for a long time, but the break-up was mostly amicable and they’ve recovered now.
The twins’ father has a bit of a breakdown while the twins are away, and he is brought to a mental hospital, which Cath explains has happened a few times before. He suffers from mania, but now that the girls are gone and he has the house to himself, it manifested in unhealthy behavior. Cath goes home to see him and decides she doesn’t want to go back to school next semester. Ultimately, she does, but it’s incredibly reluctant.
Cath also is placed in a junior-level fiction writing class, which is going great until one day her professor gives her a failing grade for turning in a piece of Simon Snow fanfiction. The professor explains that it is plagiarism because Cath did not create the characters or the world, she is stealing them. And Cath’s writing partner, Nick, decides to hand in a piece they wrote together as his own final project, saying that he felt that it was “his” story. Cath is upset, and Professor Piper can tell that it was co-written; when the story is nominated for a submission to a prestigious publication, Piper says both have to consent or it won’t be submitted. Cath, angry, refuses to say yes, causing Nick to storm out in a rage.
Meanwhile, Wren is partying and drinks herself into a stupor one night, landing in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. The twins’ mother, Laura, shows up, saying that she was the emergency contact. Cath is furious, as their mother had left them one day without much explanation or any warning. Now she is living with a family of her own and seemingly very happy.
Levi asks Cath to read to him every chance they get, and they end up reading all of The Outsiders together one night. At the end of the book, they kiss, and Cath is thrilled. Later, she goes to a party at his house and sees him kissing another girl; angry and hurt, she storms out. He apologizes profusely and says that it was a mistake, and slowly he earns her trust back. They end up together, and he brings her on a trip around campus, drives her home, and even goes to the hospital to comfort Cath while Wren has her stomach pumped.
Amid all of her father’s circumstances, Cath fails to hand in her final fiction writing project, but Professor Piper offers her a deal: she can work on something all of the spring semester and hand it in for a final grade, and she will most likely get an A or even A-plus, leading to a spot in her next fiction writing class. Cath, though, does not want to work on this piece, instead devoting all of her time to finishing Carry On before the last Simon Snow book is published at the end of the semester.
Finally, with only a few days to go, Cath does end up writing a piece about her twin and her mother. We know that she submitted it because there is an excerpt from it at the end, and the title notes that it won a prestigious award and was published in a collection. Wren starts helping Cath write again, and together they finish Carry On. Reagan wants to live with Cath again next year, despite their differences; Levi and Cath seem very happy together. At the end of the book, all of these (many) loose ends are wrapped up very nicely.
A Fan
As cringy and often cliche as this book can be, it was also very fun to read. I think the dynamics between the characters were a strong point, especially with so many stories happening at once. In writing that summary, I found it difficult to know which thread to follow—it is confusing in brief, but as whole book, it works very well. I think it captures the chaos that is freshman year of college.
It also made me feel a little nostalgic for that time. I was much more like Cath than Wren in my freshman year—I went home nearly every weekend I could to see my then-boyfriend, still in my hometown. I almost refused to make friends. I did not go to a single party and refused to drink alcohol. I could not wait for the end of each semester so I could go home and be with my dog again.
But eventually, something changed. It’s sort of a magic moment for people like me and Cath. I was in school during the pandemic, which hit at the end of my freshman year. I didn’t love taking classes from my childhood bedroom, but I did like being home, especially since my twin brother was home as well. By sophomore year, though, we were back on our respective campuses, his halfway across the country from mine, and by the end of that second year, I did not want to leave. I remember we weren’t allowed to leave campus for the entirety of the semester, creating a “bubble”. I only left once to get vaccinated. But when my parents came to pick me up at the end of the year, I vividly remember thinking, “I don’t want to go.” It was an eye-opening moment. I think this book captured that feeling, the slow shift from dependence to independence, incredibly well—especially when compared to a twin character. My brother got the hang of it much faster than me, too, but we’re separate people. It was good to realize that, for me and for Cath.
It was also a book that made me want to write. I love media that inspires me. Whenever I am in a huge block, I tend to turn to “Jane the Virgin”, and I don’t entirely know why, but it’s a show that always makes me want to put words on a page. I think it’s one of my favorite feelings. I love creating and writing, but the worst part is starting—anything that helps me feel the urge to begin is a gem. This book, with all its talk of building communities out of stories, definitely made me feel that fire.
The love story, too, is compelling. However, there is the aspect of age—I know that it is mentioned in the book, but it felt a little bit too big for me. Cath is eighteen, a very fresh freshman, and Levi is twenty-one, most likely a junior. If they were older, I don’t think this would be much of a problem in my head, but there’s something off about juniors in college who choose to date freshmen. That being said, though, it was still compelling, and they were respectful of each other. I’m very glad that their relationship did not become a point of contention for Cath, or for Reagan. I think it could have been treated like much more of a plot point/problem than it was, and I am grateful that it was not. There could have been a difficult exploration of the power differential. Rainbow Rowell navigated through those choppy waters expertly.
Most of the twin relationship we saw made me sad throughout the book, and very grateful that I have such a good one with my twin. There were times at the beginning of our college careers that I felt like I was getting left behind; I think necessarily one twin will always feel that. But we never faltered, and we still talk nearly every day. I knew that they would reconcile by the end of the book, but it felt like I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding when they started writing together again. I wish we had gotten to see more of their positive interactions together, but I understand that this is a book, and already a rather long one at that, so it didn’t have space for that. (Maybe there’s some fanfiction out there about it.)
Overall, I think it was a lovely read. There were parts that made me cringe, but I think that’s a little bit of a given with YA, especially as I get older. But I basically read it in two sittings. It’s one of those books that you don’t have to think too hard about, which can be a great relief. I know it got a lot of traction when it came out, and I can see why. If I had read this when I was younger, maybe high school or fresh into college, I think I would have been very happy with it. It’s light-hearted and enjoyable, and I believe it has a little something for everyone.
Total pages read so far, 2024: 7,964
Total books read so far, 2024: 22
Next book: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley