Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fangirl is about Cather, one of a set of identical twins, and her first year in college. Her sister, Wren, is also there, but she has chosen to live seperate from her twin for the first time in their lives. Cather is the withdrawn one that has difficulty adjusting to new situations. She has panic attacks. Oh, and she writes fanfic about a Potter-ish character called Simon Snow. That’s really her thing and she’s writing a conclusion to the Snow series before it’s author can get the final book out.

It’s a kind of coming of age novel that balances an impressive number of narrative threads. One thread is the conflict between Cather and Wren, one is the relationship between Cather and her roommate, another is Cather and various guys, another is Cather and her journey as a writer, and yet another is Cather’s Simon Snow story. There’s a lot going on and it is surprisingly well balanced.

My one criticism of the book is that the end is a little abrupt. While many of the threads hit a sort of resolution, it just didn’t feel satisfying. However, even so, the journey is worth it even if the end didn’t wow me.

Like so much of my reading, I picked this up because a student recommended it. In fact, she raved about it, I have to concede that she has pretty good taste.


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