#but I still sit in my dorm writing simon snow fanfiction

[ineffable-grimm-pitch]

sitting in my freshman dorm with very limited friends and a mean roommate writing simon snow fanfiction bitch I AM cath avery

[bloodthirstyreviews]

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Gonna start this off by saying, can you people stop tagging this as lgbt fiction? Because oh buddy that is so much of a stretch that it hurts. Just stop. It’s hetero fiction with gay mentions at most. 

So we have Cather. (What the hell is that name? Cather)The completely socially inept “fangirl” who sits around and does literally nothing but write bad fanfiction. The title itself is deceptive. Sure she is a girl and sure she is a fan of wannabe Harry Potter, but this is such a poor representation of what its like to be a fangirl and a part of fandom. It’s all the horrible stereotypes about say Trekkies that floated around before being a “nerd” or “geek” was cool. Cath is so socially inept she starves herself for a month rather than a) ask her roommate / awkwardly follow her roommate to find out where the dining hall is. b) order a pizza? Chinese? Something? c) walk to a gas station or grocery store? She literally just eats some protein bars for a month. Homegirl has some problems, hasn’t been diagnosed, but the thing is? It isn’t consistent throughout the story. Once she finally starts going to the dining hall she’s basically done with being socially awkward so idk. Cath has the emotional and moral maturity of a pre-teen. A legal adult who gets squeamish at the thought of holding hands and kissing. I had a lot of trouble trying to relate to Cath on any level. 

This got long

The fanfic. Which is fanfic of a fanfic, because “Simon Snow” is just a really really really reaallllllyyy bad Harry Potter ripoff. I was horrified when I found a copy of “Carry On” at the library. Meaning that Rowell actually published her Harry Potter ripoff? It’s so obviously a ripoff, and dry as hell, so why? It’s dryer than 4-hours-in-the-oven-at-400-degrees chicken. It was so bad I just skipped it. It has nothing to do with the main story, so don’t waste your time. I tried to read some of it but it was worse than some of the worst fanfic I’ve ever read. Being written by a NYT bestselling author mind you, I expected so much better. It makes me wonder if she was making it horrible because that’s how she thinks all fanfic is? But it was just so bland I don’t even think that was part of the plan. And get this, this idiot Cath, tries to turn fanfic in to her (300 level?) English class. And gets mad at the teacher when she gets a failing grade on it and scolded for plagiarism. Are you serious right now Cath? 

Levi. The love interest. Who is described as looking like a 30 year old, and kind of acts/speaks like a 30 year old. He has wispy hair. That sticks up straight. Because he washes it once a month. He just sounds so greasy and ??? Why. To make it even better, Cath fetishizes his receding hairline, chin, and eyebrows ? Let’s review some of this awkwardness, word for word. 

“Levi’s eyebrows were pornographic” 

 “...eyebrow-driven sex” 

“...raised a hand-drawn eyebrow.” 

“She wanted to make an honest woman of his chin”

I don’t even want to know what kind of weird freaky shit Rainbow Rowell is into irl cause ew. Let’s also not forget how god fearing(?) straight country boy really loves when Cath reads him her terribad gay fanfic.

I think this one is also worth mentioning.  “...pushed both hands through his wispy blonde hair. His hair was made of finer stuff than Cath’s. Silk. Down. Blown-out dandelion seeds.” What even is this. So not only does he have a receding hairline, it’s really thin and wispy. Balding at 20 sounds rough, sorry bro. 

So we have that. Now let’s go into the structural issues. End of chapter to beginning of new chapter was so awkward. Nearly every time it would cliffhanger and then just jump forward to something completely different, I thought pages were stuck together because surely I’d missed something. Re: end of the first semester, Cath goes to Omaha to be with her dad. She’s all worried about this paper she needs to finish since the last day of finals is tomorrow. and then suddenly? New chapter and spring classes already started. It’s so uncomfortable. And we had to wait several chapters to find out what this idiot is doing about finishing the final paper. It’s so unecessarily choppy and I think I just don’t like Rowell’s writing.

There’s several instances of “unfamiliar” writing. Where it feels like Rowell forgot she already explained something, and feels the need to do it again. Or like she rewrote something and placed it further along in the book, but forgot to delete the original entry. I actually thought several times that I’d lost my place in a book because it felt like I was reading things over. 

“Cath would dial 911 on her phone, then run back to the dorm as fast as she could with her finger on Call��

“But most nights she pressed 911 on her phone, then ran back to the dorm with her finger over the Call button”

Yes. We know. 

I’m just adding this quote in because??? what

“Levi’s smile broke free and devoured his whole face. It started to devour her face too.” 

And let’s not forget about Cath trying and failing to gatekeep and stealing inspiration from Hot Topic. 

“To really be a nerd, she’d decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.” . 

“But Levi wasn’t a nerd; he liked real life too much. For Levi, Simon Snow was just a story. And he loved stories” 

The latter just contradicts itself also and it bothers me a lot.

Also going to add that Cath “blech”’d at Aretha Franklin. I felt it was noteworthy to add. 

As a coming of age, this is?? I guess? But Cath doesn’t ever really grow. Up, as a person, as a character, really not at all. None of the family problems are really resolved, except the ones between Cath and Wren I guess. I think the most coming of age moment is her finally going to the damn dining hall. That’s it. That’s her character development. If anything it’s more a coming of age story about Wren, who goes through her crazy drunken college days, tries to form a relationship with her estranged mother, has an accident and lands herself in the hospital, has to grow up and leave behind the crazy party days or she doesn’t get to have an education or social life. And Wren also left behind the ‘harry potter is everything and fictional worlds are the only ones that matter and i dont even care about my school because harry potter matters more’ attitude, while still being a fan. If anything, Wren is a more realistic “fangirl”.

What does Cath even learn in the end? She gets a boyfriend somehow. She finally finishes her English paper an entire semester late? Learns that you can do whatever you want and teachers will be fine with it? 

This has nothing to do with fangirls or fandom. It’d be a solid read if Rowell just forgot all the Simon Snow crap. There is no fandom, there is no excitement. Sure she has people in the community comment on her fanfic, but she is so far removed from the community herself. Simon Snow hinders the story. It would be a perfectly fine and enjoyable coming of age college book without it. 

I don’t think I’ll be reading anything else by Rowell, because frankly, this sucked. 

[itsonwithemily]

“Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell

I love Young Adult novels. There, I said it. I’m 19 years old and feel giddy when I read about unrealistic relationship standards. Maybe it’s the mixture of realistic and unrealistic that keeps me enchanted or the simple language that lets me get lost in 114 pages in one hour, but Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell captured everything I love about Y/A.

During my sophomore year of high school (circa 2014), Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell rampaged through the Y/A universe. E v e r y o n e was reading about the red-haired girl and her Asian love interest. Of course, I fell in love with it. Rowell has an easy writing style, very similar to Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games trilogy. Short sentences and facile words; I could swim through her sentences and feel like I wasn’t missing a beat. My love for Eleanor & Park led me to her other books, including Fangirl.

And did I love Fangirl. I still love that fucking book.

Cather Avery is in no way, shape, or form anything like me besides that we both like to read fanfiction. (One Direction got me. I was a pubescent in 2012, let me be.) Not just fanfiction, but gay fanfiction. Between two characters who are never going to end up together, but in our hearts, there’s no one better suited for the other. Fangirl is about Cath’s transition to college and trying to handle the adult world while still holding onto the biggest part of her youth: Simon and Baz from the Simon Snow series. The book begins with Cath moving into her dorm and meeting her roommate’s boyfriend, and then Rowell jumps right in. You meet Cath quickly, her personality filtering into you as you read. That’s one thing I love about Rowell’s writing style; she molds characters into who they’re supposed to be. They’re distinguishable. They’re relatable. And best of all, they’re quirky. I love me some quirk.

The story is fairly long, but I got so lost in the story while reading it I lost track of page numbers. I would sit down at 10:30 p.m. to read, and the next thing I knew, it was 1 a.m. I was sucked into Cather Avery’s world, and I honestly didn’t mind. Cath is unique: she is nerdy and emotional and nervous, three things I try to suppress. She just lets it out, and I loved that about her. Not only that, Cath is real. She understands when things aren’t right, and she feels bad when she does things wrong, even if they aren’t actually wrong. Like making out with her roommate’s boyfriend who isn’t actually her boyfriend but turns into Cath’s boyfriend. Ugh, the innocence.

Of course, this book is filled with fantasies. You don’t get a 100% realistic experience in any Y/A novel, especially written by one who is not the age of the main character. Life is better with fantasies, so reading all the cheesy lines exchanged between Cath and Levi made my heart squeeze instead of repulse. I’m a sucker for romance, and this book excelled in the romance category. Eleanor & Park is known for romance, but the thing I love about Cath and Levi’s relationship is that it naturally progresses. Her main prerogative is her writing, and I love an independent woman. Levi is there because she wants him, not because she needs him. And that’s what I need when reading, and in life in general. The innocence of their relationship is breathtaking. I know for a fact my life is anything but innocent, but to read about it and feel it through the life of another, it’s nice.

Reading Y/A, in my opinion, is to live vicariously through the characters as they journey through their almost-perfect lives. Cath is awkward and adjusting horribly to college life, but she finds a writing partner who bounces off her writing as if they are two waves in the same tide. He ends up fucking her over, of course, but it brings back her twin sister who had abandoned her. Another bad thing in her life: her twin, best friend, soulmate abandoned her as soon as college started. This was a big deal considering they did everything together. Even share a room until college. Imagine no privacy, ever.

Cath struggles a lot. She struggles with being social, she struggles with adult things, she struggles with Wren (her twin sister) contacting their estranged mother again, and she struggles with feelings for boys. She is the conductor of the struggle bus, and reading her journey makes you feel sad for her but also root for her. That’s why I love Cath so much; she’s a fighter, no matter how quirky or awkward she is. And life molds around her, no matter how much she tries to mold herself around it. My advice to Cath Avery would be to just let it happen. Life sucks, but it’s also so good. Just like Y/A novels. Say all you want about them. I will agree many are naïvely terrible, but too many are innocently amazing, like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Fall in love with Cather Avery like I did and read this book.