_edited.jpg)
LITERALLY FANGIRLING OVER FANGIRL RIGHT THIS INSTANT. So I'm gonna post my discussion in two parts separated by each semester because I just have so much to talk about.
Non-Spoilery Summary:
Fangirl is a story about Cather, preferably called Cath, who is starting as a freshman in college. She has a twin sister, Wren, who she did absolutely everything with, but once they got to college, Wren wanted to break away and meet new people. Wren being the social one had no problem with this. Cath, on the other hand, has extreme nerves and anxiety over meeting and talking to new people. Not to mention she is a renowned fan fiction writer for the Harry Potter reminiscent books called Simon Snow. The story continues with Cath having to learn to adapt to a new environment without her twin and move away from her fandom land into the real world.
Pros to this story:
Cath experience is very relatable. Going to college and dorming (which means you’re usually far away from any family or friends from your hometown) can be really scary. Me being myself, am an introvert and I do not like to go up to strangers and try to make friends. I just like to go with the flow, so I was able to feel what Cath was feeling in the story.
Now, some people may not like her attitude towards some things, but I never found her personality to be annoying or weird. I don’t think I would’ve acted any different in any of the situations she was faced with. That on it’s own made me like Cath even more.
The character Levi is quite lovable. He’s the happy go lucky type of smiley guy you wish would be your older brother to me and him being in this book made me never want to put it down. I just wanted to keep reading for the next section that Levi would be in.
All in all, I really loved this book and I’d give it a STAR RATING GOES HERE
*SPOILERY DISCUSSION BEGINS HERE*
Plot for FALL SEMESTER, 2011:
At first I really thought Cath was WAY too clingy, but I interpreted it more as spiteful later on. Her sister really was leaving her hanging and not even trying to really help her adjust which I thought was rude and immediately I was on Cath's side. When we met Levi, I was just like.. instantly in love with his smiley self. He was really easy going, obviously the opposite of Cath. The opposing personality gave this book a lot of balance between overly anxious & needy and calm & laid back.
When Cath comes back to her room after class and Levi is just chilling’ there sitting on the floor and Cath doesn’t even let him in I was laughing out loud. Like what she’s doing isn’t necessarily rude, but to just leave him hanging out there. Poor Levi!
Then much later on Nick asks Cath to write with him for their fiction writing class and I thought that date was going to downhill right away, but it didn’t. Their first story was actually REALLY FUNNY. I could no stop laugh as I read the first piece of dialogue she wrote. Nick was trying to write a love story and then Cath made it a gay love story and named the boy after Nick. I. Was. Weak!
As the story went on and we had more interactions with Wren, I couldn’t stop thinking that Wren was an oblivious selfish git who only wanted to have fun on her own terms and couldn’t care less if her sister floundered in college. Thankfully we got to see more interaction with Reagan who I actually enjoyed hanging out with Cath. Reagan has that type of bitchiness that doesn’t make you angry, but you just go along with it and she managed to get Cath out of the room and socialized.
We also get more and more Levi as the story goes on. Levi is just so sweet. When he came to her room during her Emergency Kanye Party and just starts dancing and rapping along with her and making her laugh and smile after a really bad day at school. Then later that night when Cath thinks her sister is in 911 trouble at the club and he drops all his plans to take her. Afterwards, it ended up being a total disaster and he takes her to a diner to see if she wants to talk about her problems. HE IS SO CARING UGH.
She tells Levi about her fan fiction writing and he asks her to read one to him one day and I went crazy before I even knew she would actually read one to him. I was so excited to read a full chapter of Carry On, Simon. She is hella good at writing. I was not expecting how awesome her fan fic was. I also started noticing that Levi was getting really close to Cath and Reagan was sort of becoming a side note. This was starting to worry me. I had a nagging feeling that somewhere Cath was going to get hurt by Levi and low and behold.. She does. And this just amped up the drama right before Christmas break.
Characters:
Cath: I have no problem relating to her. She’s one of the most relatable characters I have ever read about in a college type perspective. I seriously felt like I was Cath because the way she acts and talks and the things she says exactly would be just like me. Her relationship with her dad is adorable too. I like it when there are close family connections in books, which made me really dislike Wren's treatment toward Cath. Cath seems like a drama queen, but in my eyes I think she has the right to freak out all she wants in all these situations because.. Well maybe because I’m the same way, but she deserves to be crazy as much as she wants for whats being thrown at her.
Levi: Sweet. Caring. Smiley. Laid back. Easy going. Fun. Smart. Works at freakin’ Starbucksssss and knows how to make a good hot drink. Need I say more? I like Levi a lot. I enjoy his carefree type of atmosphere, but how he can be serious when necessary. The times he handled the bar scene with drunk Wren and when Cath was telling him about her bad day at the diner, those were complete greatness. I needed his smiles and jokes in this book or it would have been to anxious and sad. Levi is the perfect balance to Cath. Sad because he hurt her right before Christmas break, but I don’t think he’ll ever stop being there for her.
Reagan: She’s like a greaser to me. She’s the cool one that thinks being older makes you wiser and smoking is cool. At first I didn’t really care for her presence. Then she managed to starting breaking Cath’s shell and I appreciated that. Her loyalty is heart warming. Its easy to tell how much she really tried to be there for Cath.