2013 book 125

Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl
Basically, when I got an e-galley of this, I was like "YES. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE." Because now I didn't have to wait till September to read a book by RAINBOW ROWELL (who has quickly become one of my favorite authors) about college freshman Cath, caught up in the fanfiction world of a Harry-Potter-Like character--a world she used to participate in with her identical twin, only now that they're in college, her twin only wants to do college-y things and refuses to be her roommate. I should say here that I was never super into fanfiction myself--I actively avoided Harry Potter fanfiction (wanting to keep the books pristine), though did occasionally read fanfiction for cartoons I liked, and currently read a fair amount of Teen Wolf fanfiction for some reason (I am a really weird kind of nerd). That being said, I was SUPER into the Harry Potter fandom and spent hours dissecting possible future plot points with friends, so can definitely relate to Cath, along with her general social awkwardness and willingness to rely on the internet for socialization. Luckily she has an awesomely hilarious roommate and a couple of cute guys--and a GREAT writing professor--to help her leave her dorm room sometimes--and deal with her family drama. As always with Rowell, the characterization is great and I was sad when the story ended because I wanted to spend more time with them. I had some mixed feelings about the insertion of Simon Snow stories--not the ones Cath wrote, but the "official" ones--the change in tone was just a bit jarring. But it totally fits with the world, so I'm not complaining. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in September.

PS I will probably buy this in physical book form--which I NEVER do--just b/c Noelle Stevenson did the cover and it is sooooo cute.