Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

66 reviews

torihbu's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

blewballoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.25

If you enjoyed this, then I'd recommend Alice Oseman's novels, which are more somber and tense than the Heartstopper comics. This reminded me of Loveless in particular with regards to the setting and general character dynamics, but the main character in that book and the one in this book have quite different problems. This book is also a bit of a product of its time and some of the dialogue and attitudes are bit less culturally sensitive than a more contemporary book would probably be. I usually give books that I had a pretty good time with but didn't get really excited about 4 stars, but I can't quite give this book that rating. I started the book disliking all of the characters at least a tiny bit and none of them managed to fully grow on me. I mostly felt uncomfortable and worried while reading, right up until the end I just didn't trust that anything would be resolved or that Cath was going to make good decisions. I will say that it was interesting to read this after having read Carry On, since a decent percentage of the book is references to that story and the Simon Snow in-universe series. The audiobook narrator was a little too monotone for me, I had her sped up to 1.7 speed. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rmpiano's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The romance in this book is adorable, and I love the depth of the point of view character especially. I finished this in 2 days, and would have happily read longer! I love authors who are respectful of fandoms and I giggled a LOT at the thinly disguised Harry Potter references. It's always risky for a writer to write about writing, but this author does an excellent job, and I was completely sucked into the story. Very mild heat, for a romance novel, too.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mrsherrera's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted relaxing 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

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

katie0528's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-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

4.0

Cather is going through a lot her freshman year of college. Her twin sister Wren is more interested in partying than spending time with her, her dad is bipolar, her mom abandoned them, her roommate Regan seems to hate her, and her fiction writing professor doesn't seem to think that fanfiction can be anything but plagerism. Cath does her best to juggle everything whilst balancing a school schedule and trying to finish her queer retelling of Simon Snow, a psuedo-Harry Potter series, before the final book releases. If that's not enough on her plate, Cath also finds herself pulled between Nick, her fiction writing classmate, and Levi, Regan's sort-of boyfriend. What's an anxious freshman to do?

It's definitely a cute coming of age YA romance with a fun fandom twist, alternating between Cath's daily life, snippets of the "real" Simon Snow books, and Cath's own fanfiction.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

joseph_al's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny lighthearted 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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

teslis's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful lighthearted slow-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

4.0

Read it with book club and it was such a fun book. I like that Levie was not written as super good looking but he was the main love interest

I like that the sisters are so different from each other but they still find each other in the end!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

leligavi's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful slow-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

3.5

Another comfort reread. Honestly, I was just too devastated after the atrocity that is the love story in Daughter of the Moon Goddess that I just needed some concrete, unfailing love that is contemporary romance novels. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maggies's review

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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"She had to make him another omelet." 🥹 My god, this was not destined to be a 5 star read, but it so so so was. I connected so deeply, in my heart and soul and stomach, with Cath, right from the beginning. And Wren, Reagan, Levi, Dr. Piper, and Art, even Courtney, Nick, and Laura—the whole cast did such justice to the beauty, fragility, strength, brokenness, wit, and charm of Cath.

Expand filter menu 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. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings