I like FANGIRL mostly as a coming of age story for the main female protagonist Cather Avery. I’ve read coming of age novels before, my most recent John Green’s Paper Towns, and they were all about guys. This time it was about a young adult woman.
FANGIRL follows Cather Avery’s life as she starts varsity as a first year student fresh out of high school. The great varsity plan does not go as she imagined it would when her twin sister, Wren, first announces that she does not want to room with Cath. The idea of having to start her varsity career in a new town with people she doesn’t know without her twin sister, the sister she’s always shared her life and her room with, throws Cath off balance.
Along with telling the story of a girl trying to find her place at varsity, it also tells the story of Cath and her obsession with Fanfiction writing and her life online, (hence: FANGIRL). There are lots of ups and downs in Cath’s life from boys to professors to family drama that makes this story relatable and unable to put down.
WHY I LOVED IT:
I read FANGIRL as a story about a young woman trying to find her place in varsity, her attitude to flirting with boys and being flirted with, all while trying to balance her Fanfiction obsession. The novel was so relatable I had to put it down for a few minutes at a time just to wrap my head around what was happening. If you replace Cath’s twin sister with friends and Cath’s obsession with Fanfiction with your own obsessions, this novel could possibly relate to anyone. I loved that I got to witness Cath’s train of thought when thinking about how her sister was ‘the cool one’ and the way she processed the effect boys had on her and flirting this all made me laugh out loud on countless occasions. Her thoughts were summations of everything I have ever thought at some point in my life.
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way about a novel, as I’ve recently tweeted, FANGIRL made me fall in love with the love in the novel and that’s pretty amazing! This novel is for any nerd girl who knows what it’s like to momentarily feel like the ‘uncool one’ and who chooses books over parties.
Favourite quote: “So this is what you look like when you’re keeping a giant secret from me – exactly the same as usual”
There are numerous others and entire pages filled with amazing scenes between both Cath and Levi and Cath and Wren which I could just read and over again.
Final thoughts: a relatable and funny love story, FANGIRL is a book that every nerd girl should read.
So true! This is the perfect story for book nerds yet it doesn’t have nearly enough accolades in my opinion. Great review!
Thanks so much! I fully agree with you, I’m shocked that it took me this long to discover ‘Fangirl’, at least I discovered and can now share the Fangirl love!
[…] fangirl’d over Fangirl for a really long time, read about me gushing about the book over here, and seeing Cath and Levi come to life would be a really amazing […]