Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publication: Published July 3rd 2014 by Macmillan Children's Books 
Genre: Young Adult ~ Contemporary 
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo
Cover Rating: 5/5
Overall Rating: 3/5

A love story about opening your heart by Rainbow Rowell, the New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park.

Special collector's edition with limited edition Emergency Dance Party print, coloured edges and ribbon marker.

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life.

Without Wren, Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate 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.

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible.

Don't get me wrong because I gave Fangirl (only) three stars. It was a good book. Great even. I just didn't love it as much as I would've liked. Honestly, I thought I would absolutely love it but realistic fiction is a bit tricky for me so three stars it is!

I hate to say this but I wasn't too fond of Cath as the main character. Which is really weird because she's a lot like me and I could relate to her pretty well. Maybe it was the fact that she was a lot like me that freaked me out a little too much. 

The other characters were okay, I guess. I just wasn't overly interested in them. If I had to pick a favorite, though, it would be Levi. I really liked him because he was a sweet, caring and really funny guy. Although I wasn't Cath's biggest fan, I did like their relationship. It was just so adorable. So Cath alone? Not so much. Cath and Levi together? Yes, please!

I really enjoyed Rainbow Rowell's writing. As some of you may know if writing is bad in a book then I'll end up hating it for sure, even if the story and characters are good. The writing in Fangirl was excellent. Nothing negative to remark on that, which was a huge relief because lately books have let me down in that area. 

In the end I wasn't interested enough in the story in general because I found myself being more intrigued by Cath's fanfiction about Simon Snow than everything else. Which leads us to the ending. It was too open for my taste and I had wanted to know so much more. 

Overall, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell was enjoyable but not the best book I've ever read. I had some issues with the story and main character as wel as with some of the secondary characters, though I'm sure other people like the book more. I just couldn't connect with it as it didn't blew me away like I wanted. It's still a pretty good book but just not interesting enough to wow me.

About the Author:

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Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (Attachments and Landline).
Sometimes she writes about teenagers (Eleanor & Park and Fangirl).
But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they’re screwing up. And people who fall in love.
When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.
She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.