3.75 Stars. I enjoyed this book, but I didn't resonate with it as a fangirl the way I had hoped I would. I also felt frustrated that Rowell did not seem strongly committed to any of the subplots except the romantic one. I don't know if it just became too unwieldy to manage them all well or if she was trying to portray the way in which problems in real life often do not follow a smooth, timely progression to resolution. Either way, the end result of the way she managed them left me wanting more from her (e.g. information, consistency, resolution). Ultimately, I think this is a pretty good book, but it is missing something crucial I can't quite pinpoint that would have made it a great one. ( )

Fangirl est à classer dans ces livres nostalgiques qu'on déguste comme un petit bonbon.

Je suis de cette génération qui a grandi avec le plus célèbre héros magicien à lunettes de l'histoire. Comme beaucoup j'ai attendu en trépignant entre chaque tome et pour combler ma soif d'aventures, j'ai découvert le monde des fanfictions.

Vu comme ça, c'était évident que ce livre allait parler à mon petit coeur de fangirl. J'ai beaucoup aimé les thèmes abordés dont celui de l'écriture évidemment mais aussi autour de ces univers créés, ceux dans lesquels on aime se plonger pour oublier le monde, s'oublier soi-même et ceux qui nous marquent à jamais. J'aurais aimé que ces thématiques soient encore plus mises en avant car finalement je n'ai retrouvé ces réflexions que dans le 1er tiers du livre.

Je me suis aussi beaucoup retrouvée en Cath, notre héroïne principale. Anxieuse, fuyant les situations sociales, se sentant parfois en marge de la société et se retrouvant plus dans un univers virtuel. Les relations qu'elle entretient avec ses proches, son angoisse, son effacement, tout cela m'a beaucoup parlé.

La romance était très mignonne mais aurait très bien pu ne pas exister pour moi tant Cath est un personnage important, central et marquant.

En bref une petite lecture doudou, qui apporte beaucoup de réflexions intéressantes qu'on aurait aimé voir encore plus qui se relira sûrement avec beaucoup de plaisir et de nostalgie. ( )

OK, this is a YA romance novel. Things that it has going for it, if you are not a big fan of the genre:
1) The main character is endearing. Perhaps the characters are a bit too obviously designed to be endearing (too coy and cute?), but endearing all the same.
2) The fanfiction. The main character is very shy, with social anxiety and obsessed with writing fanfiction for the "Simon Snow" fandom, a series of fantasy books obviously inspired by Harry Potter. Fragments of the character's fanfiction are included within this novel. For me this was what gave the story something distinctive among so many similar YA romances. The fact that some reviewers say they skipped the fanfiction sections, because they were not important for the story, goes to show how much tastes vary. Sure, you do not need to read them, but then again you do not need to read the book at all. You read it for pleasure.

The main fault is how cliched and shallow the romance is (except for the original element of the fanfiction). Not much subtlety. Very quickly the author lets you know who you need to root for. This is the bad romantic candidate. You see, he does not care for the main character's safety. Sure enough, soon he is trying to steal her work and present it as his own. This other character is the good romantic prospect. See how he goes out of his way to make sure to escort the main character at night in the campus. The main character of course has no idea she is going to fall for him, but she is the only one.

If you are expecting a book about fanfiction about a community, forget it. It gets into writing fanfiction, but the community element of it is only glossed over.

Entertaining, easy to read... no more, no less. ( )

3 stars.

So I gave Fangirl a second chance after DNFing it two years ago. In a way, I'm glad I gave it a second chance, because there were aspects that I ended up loving.

However... I was still pretty let down.

My main problems with this story are the beginning and the ending. The beginning is super slow - it takes a while for the story to go anywhere. But when the story picks up, I started to really love it! I loved how Cath got pushed out of her comfort zone, and I enjoyed the way her character develops. I LOVED Levi!! I was honestly living for these characters and their interactions. I could really relate to the way that Cath deals with the change of entering college. I think the family issues Cath deals with also added complexity to the plot.

Buuuut then the ending came around and I was disappointed again. The way the story ends is really abrupt and felt inconclusive. I felt like there were so many loose ends left, and that there wasn't real closure. I was left wanting more.

Another thing I felt was unnecessary was how much of the story is devoted to excerpts from Simon Snow and Cath's Simon Snow fanfic. Yes, okay, fanfiction is a major plot point and aspect of Cath's character... but honestly, towards the end I was just skipping those sections. I didn't feel that reading them added a whole lot to the plot - I found them to be distracting.

Overall, I'm glad I did give Fangirl a second chance, but I still think it was flawed. The characters are amazing! I would definitely read Rainbow Rowell again for characters alone. But the plot was... lacking. It could have been more polished and resolved. ( )

This book is unexpected and refreshing. The main characters are fleshed out and flawed, in such a relatable way. It gave me a lot of insight into the perspective of people who process the world's inputs in a different way than (maybe) I do.
( )