Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Fangirl

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Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

92 reviews

spworley's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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crufts's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I picked up this book one morning, and was pleasantly surprise to find myself having blitzed the entire thing in less than a day. It is good.

The premise of the story is established in the very first page, an imaginary Wikipedia article about the Simon Snow series - a seven-part fiction series that's effectively this world's equivalent of Harry Potter, having sold millions of copies, spawned seven movies and achieved worldwide fame.

Meanwhile, our protagonist Cath is a big-name Simon Snow fanfiction author. Her magnum opus fanfic is Internet-famous; but in real life, she's a nobody. The world of fandom is comfortable for her, whereas her new world of college life is unfamiliar, frightening, and worst of all, real. With a group of college roommates, friends, and classmates around her, Cath is thrown into this new world and has to learn how to deal with it.

Amongst its many fine points, I adored Fangirl's depiction of anxiety. The author takes Cath's irrational fears and writes how they twist and bend to become rational and believable, showing the true, internal experience of anxiety.

How can [my roommate] just fall asleep like that with a stranger in the room?

The depiction of mental illness and mental disabilities in a few other characters was also sensitive and realistic.

It also made me laugh that the Simon Snow series had all these parallels with Harry Potter, tiny details that fans will enjoy:

[They were watching] Simon Snow and the Selkies Four [i.e. the fourth movie of the series]. All the actors had longer hair in this movie.

I liked that we actually get to read many, many excerpts from the Simon Snow series. It's not just a handwaved plot device that we have to believe; we get to see for ourselves why it charmed so many people. (It was a bit odd that the Harry Potter series also existed in this world, though.)

Fangirl ended a little abruptly, with some of the climactic crisis decisions being resolved in less than a page - e.g. the conclusion of Cath's university fiction writing course was resolved in a one-paragraph text excerpt. However, perhaps the author knows this because she added a little FAQ section to this edition, answering the questions of what the characters got up to after the story. A little odd, but hey, it worked.

I really enjoyed this book, and I hope you will too.

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caitlin_doggos's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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marshiereads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This books was so cringey at times it was difficult to read. I honestly should have stopped reading and not finished it but I did and it was an okayyyy ending, like the last 60ish pages were such a wash for me honestly and in terms of a romance that takes place with college kids it’s incredibly PG. if you’re looking for even second base I’ve got bad news. I wanted this book to be a dedication to artists and writers who’ve struggled to find their way and I genuinely did not care if she failed or succeeded. Also it felt wrong for literally everyone in this story to be straight and have a huge part of the story being a obsessed with writing gay relationships, not just Simon and Baz but when she’s writing with Nick too. It felt fetishizing to me? Because I finished it, it gets 2 stars but I was just genuinely disappointed and unhappy with what this book turned out to be.

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kate_1910's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Me in a book form.

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sjscho95's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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thesalalmon's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

When I need a good cry or I’m especially struggling with my anxiety and feeling alone, I re-read this book to feel seen and valid and loved.

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k_meredith's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful relaxing

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I really like this book a lot. It wasn't as fluffy as I thought it would be, but it gives some really great context for the Simon Snow Trilogy. It's definitely going to be a comfort read for me. I like the journey we go on with Kat that is, honestly, mostly in her head. It's nice because there are some big events, but most of them are her developing confidence and self awareness the way that ideally everyone does in college. She fights for herself, and that's pretty kick ass. I do have some issues with the way mental health is portrayed. The twins' dad is bipolar who pretty typically lives unmedicated, in spite of some pretty serious and apparently dangerous periods, currently and previously. The girls support him choosing to go off meds-- and I mean that literally. They provide support for him to do that. And there isn't ever any pushback or time given to learning to manage behavior with meds as a valid tool. I'm not saying everyone has to be medicated, but I feel really strongly that presenting unmedicated as better adds to mental health stigma, and I was disappointed to see that. And I was disappointed in the lack of transparency specifically about meds between Art and his daughters. Like, written into the text- not just as an omission. This review probably says a lot more about me and my state of mind RN than it does about the book, so let me end with this- books about creative process and/or personal growth are my absolute favorite, especially with a fantastic element, and I really do love this one.

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abiggal's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“‘Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,’ Wren said. ‘It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.’”

Dang it this book was stinking cute. I really enjoyed the complexity of the plot, it felt more just like someone’s life story than something you would chart. That said, the ending was rather abrupt for a contemporary fiction book over 400 pages, and

Cath really never addresses her abandonment issues outside of Levi

Overall still fun and complex and hard to put down.

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cynosure's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Spoiler warning
I enjoyed this book, it’s not what I usually read however I like Rainbow Rowell’s writing. Some parts are kind of cringe and I really hate how a straight girl writing about a gay relationship is seen as deviant and interesting. It felt kind of mlm fetishy especially coming from a female writer. I really enjoyed how Cath and Levi’s romance bloomed and I loved some of the romantic parts, Rowell writes romance so well :-)

Overall a very interesting but cliché book.

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