Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Review: Fangirl
Series: N/A (Stand-Alone Novel)
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 3.5/5

Genre: contemporary

Hmm, I just don't understand why this was so praised. It was good but it was far from fantastic or life changing. It was just cute. I also thought it was really quirky, funny, and original…but at times it was too…boring? Not exactly, but it wasn't very enthralling. 

The plot was centered a lot on "finding oneself" and character development. Which is great, especially as Cath is painfully shy and very focused on books. She's not outgoing and has trouble without her twin. It was really great to see how Cath begins to mature throughout the book, and make friends on her own. On top of that she has to cope with her sister going crazy, her poor depressed father alone at home, and her own abandonment issues by her mother. 

I really think the most interesting parts had to do with her father suffering from the breakdowns and her broken relationship with her mother. The family background was deep and definitely had a huge impact on Cath emotionally. Seeing Cath overcoming that and go out into the world was the best part of the book. 

Other than that…Levi was cute, but there wasn’t enough for me. I didn't fall in love with him, he was friendly and cute. Typical love interest style stuff. Wren I didn’t like, I don't know if the reader was supposed to like her by the end, but she was very annoying and made terrible life choices. I liked Reagan a lot, she was so sarcastic, and she turned out to be a really loyal friend. I think she was a fantastic side-character that I would have liked to see even more of. Bu in general, I didn't really connect with the characters too well. They seemed distant at times. Cath herself was again relatable but sometimes she got annoying. She was constantly pushing herself down, and I disliked how she refused to do the writing project simply because she was so hung up on fan-fiction. Meh.

The fan-fiction parts were also good, but I didn't really get the full point of them. I enjoyed them, but they seemed extraneous. The end was unmemorable, I didn't really feel impacted. It was a solid book, but it didn't blow me away like I was expecting. I didn't fangirl over this or feel absolutely required to keep flipping pages as I read it, but I did like it. I am pleased that this was a stand-alone book because it was great as a simple story to read.