Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Fangirl

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

12 reviews

torihbu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

a wonderful, fast-paced, witty coming-of-age novel that's not afraid to explore heavier topics that come up for young teens heading into their college years (sex, drinking, mental health, etc.) the author weaves in fanfiction throughout, keeping the tone relatively light hearted while also being respectful of the overall plot and tone. teens can lose themselves trying to be someone else in college--fangirl lets them know that they can be themselves, and still have it all.

Content Warnings

alexxmichelle's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one of my favorite books ever. I could write a 10 page essay on all the things i love about it but its 530am and I haven’t been to sleep yet so im gonna cut it down a little. The relationships really make this book for me. Caths relationship to wren, to her father, to regan, to levi, and to her professor are the reason I love this book so much. I love romance and of course watching the romance unfold in this book was incredible and I love love love the way her relationship with

levi

goes but i would read and love this book even without it. I cried about her father and sister and mother. As someone with a dysfunctional relationship with my dad seeing the love between them was so healing, even though they had a lot of problems. And wren, rowel can write a sister relationship like nobody’s business. If she doesn’t have siblings this is the greatest piece of fiction of written because she truly captures what its like to have a sister in such an incredible way. The way she weaves in simon and baz’s story and connects it subtly to what cath is going through is amazing (read carry on!!!). As someone who read this book for the first time in 8th grade and is now writing this review as a junior in college caths freshman experience was so well written. It was VASTLY different from my experience and actually made me feel really good about how im handling college but it felt real and it felt genuine and it felt accurate. College is hard. Despite the book having some more intense themes its really funny and I regularly laughed out loud reading it. I know this review is all over the place but of youre trying to decide if you should read it just do it. I know its long but its worth it. It is so worth every second you spend reading it.

Content Warnings

lri_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I thought the book was really good! I didn’t really see the point of all the Simon content before each chapter, I didn’t really understand how it related to each chapter but maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention to it. There were some little things that I felt took away from the ability to be immersed into the story and connect with Cath but I found her and the other characters relatable enough that it didn’t matter. Overall, I really liked this book!

Content Warnings

peachg3m's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this has always been one of my favourite books, it’s heartwarming and well as heartbreaking here and there watching the relationship of cath and wren grow and change, the development of cath meeting levi and reagan (reagan supremacy) and growing into herself. i also think the loving relationship cath has with fan culture and community is comforting to see

Content Warnings

gymbeannz's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Content Warnings

breadbees's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

risten's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

crufts's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I picked up this book one morning, and was pleasantly surprise to find myself having blitzed the entire thing in less than a day. It is good.

The premise of the story is established in the very first page, an imaginary Wikipedia article about the Simon Snow series - a seven-part fiction series that's effectively this world's equivalent of Harry Potter, having sold millions of copies, spawned seven movies and achieved worldwide fame.

Meanwhile, our protagonist Cath is a big-name Simon Snow fanfiction author. Her magnum opus fanfic is Internet-famous; but in real life, she's a nobody. The world of fandom is comfortable for her, whereas her new world of college life is unfamiliar, frightening, and worst of all, real. With a group of college roommates, friends, and classmates around her, Cath is thrown into this new world and has to learn how to deal with it.

Amongst its many fine points, I adored Fangirl's depiction of anxiety. The author takes Cath's irrational fears and writes how they twist and bend to become rational and believable, showing the true, internal experience of anxiety.

How can [my roommate] just fall asleep like that with a stranger in the room?

The depiction of mental illness and mental disabilities in a few other characters was also sensitive and realistic.

It also made me laugh that the Simon Snow series had all these parallels with Harry Potter, tiny details that fans will enjoy:

[They were watching] Simon Snow and the Selkies Four [i.e. the fourth movie of the series]. All the actors had longer hair in this movie.

I liked that we actually get to read many, many excerpts from the Simon Snow series. It's not just a handwaved plot device that we have to believe; we get to see for ourselves why it charmed so many people. (It was a bit odd that the Harry Potter series also existed in this world, though.)

Fangirl ended a little abruptly, with some of the climactic crisis decisions being resolved in less than a page - e.g. the conclusion of Cath's university fiction writing course was resolved in a one-paragraph text excerpt. However, perhaps the author knows this because she added a little FAQ section to this edition, answering the questions of what the characters got up to after the story. A little odd, but hey, it worked.

I really enjoyed this book, and I hope you will too.

Content Warnings

jennysometimesjen's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really loved this book. It was highly recommended which is usually a bad thing for my expectations.

Cath was really well written, I loved the book in a book of the fanfic/Simon Snow books.

Content Warnings

More...