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Read Faves: Fangirl

I wonder why Fangirl didn't become half as popular as Eleanor and Park when it's so much better? :)




Sorry Eleanor and Park fans, but this one definitely bumps off the previous one on my Rowell reading list. :)

Although Rowell's style can be compared to Cabot and Dessen, Rainbow Rowell has her signature writing -- she has a distinct voice in which her words tumble together beautifully to describe something so common and yet so new. How does she do that??!

Same goes with her dialogues--they come easy and natural. They're sweet without being overly cheesy, and yes, I teared a few times but not the gasping-for-air kind.

It was just right.

This story is about Cath and how she meanders through her freshman year in college, trying to grow into an independent young woman with all the other characters in her life. Growing up as a Simon Snow fan, her world revolves largely on the fanfiction world, where she gets to escape life's dramas by writing chapters and chapters of Carry On, Simon -- her version of the Simon Snow series.

Unlike most books, where the plot is clearly defined by a problem and the exciting part is how the lead character will solve it... Fangirl is one of those books that is more of lets-see-how-this-story-pans-out-for-Cath -- it's a story of her freshmen year. Period. It's like a diary without the first person POV, so it doesn't say it as it is. Sometimes the readers need to read between the lines and its only after reading page after page that you get to know the characters more deeply and understand the background of the story...


Here are some really-great lines:
“Underneath this veneer of slightly crazy and mildly socially retarded, I'm a complete disaster.”
“There are other people on the Internet. It's awesome. You get all the benefits of 'other people' without the body odor and the eye contact.”
“You know," he said, "I keep wanting to say that it's like Simon Snow threw up in here... but it's more like someone else ate Simon Snow—like somebody went to an all-you-care-to-eat Simon Snow buffet—and then threw up in here.”
“But it’s not you. You don’t push through every moment. You pay attention. You take everything in. I like that about you—I like that better.”
“Just... isn't giving up allowed sometimes? Isn't it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?”
“It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“For avoiding pain?”
“For avoiding life.”
“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.”

Fangirl is goooood :)

It's a story about growing into your skin and *cue cliche spotlight* letting others see through you.

Great job, Rowell!


Credits:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16068905-fangirl



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Eleanor & Park

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