Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

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My rating: 5++

Book summary:

"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?
Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?"

“To really be a nerd, she'd decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”

      Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is a must-read for every girl who consider herself a true bookworm. Why? Because all of us can find a little bit of ourselves in main protagonist, Cath. (And maybe even in her twin sister Wren.) This coming of age story about sisters, reading, first love, finding your own identity is a one of those I'll put on list of the books I'll want my (hypothetical) daughter to read one day.

      Story starts with Cath who is settling in her dorm room and she is pretty much freaked with the unknown. Silent, shy girl who spent her whole life being one of the twins, now have to figure out who she is just as Cath, without her more outgoing sister Wren. Whole thing about sisters is one of the most relatable parts for me. I do not have twin, my sister is four years younger, but I recognized so much of our own relationship in Cath and Wren's. Rainbow Rowell doesn't try to sugarcoat sibling's interaction, it's simply real life. You love each other because you just don't know how not to love your sister no matter how much she can piss you off sometimes. Then comes time when you realize that both of you have this whole other life which doesn't include your sister. And it weird. You find out things that shock you and surprise you. In the end you get used to it. You learn to accept that you have each other, but that still you have your own, separate lives.

“I don’t just kiss people. Kisses aren’t … just with me.”

      Other thing that made this book my all time favorite is swoon worthy romance and a kind of boyfriend every girl deserves to have. He makes mistakes, but he's also considerate, always there when you need him, gentle and smart. He can act like douche sometimes, but he always finds a way to make it up to the girl he loves. I fell in love in Levi after every next page, I was mad at him for being an idiot but, let's face it, that is real life guy's logic (I believe you all know which scene I'm talking about). I loved Cath and how level headed she was. And I love her for being a girl who wants to make a fact of kissing someone being really big thing.

“Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.” 

        Fangirl has one of the most interesting premise I've stumbled upon in my reads lately. Fanfiction is a major issue in the reading community - some people like it, others hate it and there are those who find fanfic as stealing other people's work. I am not against it, I read my fair share of fanfics and I understand a need to stay in your favorite fictional world for just a little while. Rainbow Rowell had done amazing work with making it part of Cath's characterisation and in the same time giving her thoughts about reading from her own experience of being a reader. 

Who should read Fangirl?

      All of you who are craving for truly amazing books that will be part of you for the rest of your life and you'd want to buy ten different editions of novel just so you can read every singe one of them to find out if you had missed something previous time. All of you who want your children to read something that will make them a better person. And everyone who loves books.

 Happy reading,