Fangirl

So, here’s the thing. I recently finished Fangirl, and I wish I hadn’t. You might be thinking, “Wow, Lucy… was it that bad?” and the answer is an all caps NO! Fangirl was AMAZING! The only thing I didn’t like about it was that it ended at all. 

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what it is about this book that I find incredible. I didn’t notice any particular techniques, or character related things that stood out to me, but I think that might be because I was invested? It didn’t feel like a book to me. It felt like I was diving straight into the memories of a girl that might’ve been me. If that makes any sense.

Fangirl is about a girl named Cath during her first year of college. Long story short, and because I don’t care much for writing summaries, Cath is a giant fangirl, a writer, and an introvert… You can see why I might relate to this character, no? I’m not joking when I say that it almost felt like I was reading my own memories. Cath even reads outloud to her boyfriend, which I never did, but I read to my roommates ALL the time (literally anything from passages from a book I had to read for class to stupid but entertaining magazine entries to… yes… fanfiction). 

Basically what I’m trying to say is, this book was amazing, and it was amazingly nostalgic. I’ve never missed my roommates or even my dorm room as much as I did whilst reading this book. I actually even missed Simon and Baz, which is strange considering I never knew them before this book? But it was written in such a way that I felt like I had grown up loving those characters! I had even sent a message in one of my writing group chats that said, “Fangirl is making me have feelings for characters I DON’T EVEN KNOW,” and I successfully managed to get all of them to laugh at me. But, the nostalgic feeling of Fangirl will do that to you!

Small, nitpicky note. There is one point in the book where Cath comments on how one day she had written 10k words for her fanfiction, Carry On, in one night. That didn’t bother me. That sounds completely reasonable. What bothered me was how she said that her wrists had really hurt the day after. Not to be that person, but even though writing 10k in one sitting is strenuous, I’ve never had my wrists be sore after such a long writing sprint? Maybe tight fingers, or an achy back/neck, but… I’m looking too far into this, aren’t I? 

Small, nitpicky note aside, this book was amazing, and I loved it, and I’m DEFINITELY going to be reading it again. It’s going on my favorites’ shelf!

If you don’t have the book, I suggest you pick it up!

To fall in love with Simon and Baz, you might want to look into Carry On… and Wayward Son. Will there be peace when you are done? Probably not… I’ve heard Wayward Son ends on a cliffhanger… But hey! That means that there will be another book with these two!