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A review by crankylibrarian
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
3.0
A likeable coming of age story with an atypical heroine. Cath is a painfully shy college freshman, with no interest in campus social life and is devastated when her gregarious twin sister Wren decides not to room with her. The two have shared everything for years, including authorship of their wildly popular fanfiction based on a very Harry Potter-ike fantasy series. A crucial question in the novel, and in Cath's development is whether or not fanfiction counts as creative writing: Cath's professor says no, yet an encounter with an ardent reader demonstrates the power of world building within an existing fictional world.
There is more to the story: Cath has a bipolar father, an absentee mother, and an alcoholic sister, as well as a far-too-sweet-to-be-true boyfriend, yet none of these plot points intrigued me as much as Cath's development as a writer. I enjoyed seeing her emerge from her "Simon Snow" cubby, yet Rowell argues powerfully for the merits of fanficton. After all, would we really want to be without Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Claudius and Getrude, Wicked, or The Wide Sargasso Sea?
There is more to the story: Cath has a bipolar father, an absentee mother, and an alcoholic sister, as well as a far-too-sweet-to-be-true boyfriend, yet none of these plot points intrigued me as much as Cath's development as a writer. I enjoyed seeing her emerge from her "Simon Snow" cubby, yet Rowell argues powerfully for the merits of fanficton. After all, would we really want to be without Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Claudius and Getrude, Wicked, or The Wide Sargasso Sea?