Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
438 pages
Published 2013
Read from June 5 to June 19
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
At what point this year will I learn to quit when I'm just not feelin' a particular book? At this rate I doubt I'll be able to finish even sixty books by the end of the year. A sad state of affairs.
Fangirl was all right, really. The problem was my inability to get invested in anything lately that doesn't immediately grab my interest. The first fifty or so pages were off-putting because, frankly, the central character reminded me too much of me when I was 18. Representation in fiction is vital, but Cath represented 18 year old Rick a little too well. That paralyzing social avoidance and panic is not something I wish to revisit. Even when the viewpoint character had begun to adjust, I found my interest in her growing love affair outstripped by my concern about her grades and her writing assignment. Hardly the stuff of a swooning romance, not at all as well-observed and deeply-felt as the central relationship in Rowell's Eleanor & Park.
I did enjoy the snippets from Rowell's fictional Harry Potter pastiche, as well as Cath's fanfic of the same -- I especially liked the fact that both were written in subtly but noticeably different voices.
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