FANGIRL

by Rainbow Rowell

young adult // contemporary

 

 

 

Just one short month ago, I read my very first Rainbow Rowell words and fell in love.  Her short story, Midnights, had drive, purpose, emotion, and stand-out, stick-with-you characters-- all in the space of about twenty pages!  I thought, wow if she can pull off such an impressive little holiday story, her novels must be fantastic.  Since Fangirl seems to be every single reader's new favorite book, my good friend and I decided to buddy-read it.  We were so excited to finally get into it. 

 

And...it... flopped.

 

This book earned a solid 3 stars from me, because my 3 stars means "it was ok", and Fangirl was "ok".  It would have earned 2 if not for Reagan, the Dad, and a few details I really appreciated, but I should explain first why Fangirl did NOT work.

 

I'm so lost right now.  The hype, the HYPE, oh my god I was prepared to read the greatest novel I'd ever read in my life... and I got a book about nothing.  That's right, nothing.  There was no plot. 

No plot! 

This main character, a writer, actually tells us she discarded a piece of writing because it had no rising and falling action.  Ummmm... let's think about that for a minute.

No rising and falling action-- essentials of basic dramatic structure. 

Exposition --> Rising Action--> Climax --> Falling Action --> Resolution. 

Of course, there is room to mess with this structure, but all characters should have goals, whether it's saving the world or getting a job or stepping out of the comfort zone.  They have a goal to be reached through the telling of the story.  You follow their struggles in obtaining the goal(s), you root for them to succeed (or maybe you root for them to fail if that's what you do).  The story builds, the characters learn and grow, and it all leads up to some sort of explosive moment before things settle in a way that has changed the character's life or outlook. 

 

But that's not Fangirl, no.  Fangirl is about a girl who goes to college and putters around, writing and being awkward.  That's it.  That's ALL.  What is the point of this book? because 433 pages later I HAVE NO IDEA.  That's right, four-hundred-thirty-three pages of nothing.

 

This girl, Cath, was so painfully awkward I could hardly stand it.  I actually relate to her very much--  The hermit writer-girl with social anxiety and fear of new situations, who turns down every single party invite extended to her because, honestly, what is worse than a party?  Right down to the obsessive fan with glasses who lives in t-shirts and goes out of her way to not make friends, this girl is me.  But despite our substantial similarities, I felt such a disconnect.  She would do things sometimes that were just so freaking weird I couldn't take it.  Or she would do something ridiculously stupid, like turn in fanfiction for an advanced college writing assignment, and get pissed off at her professor for calling her out on it.  smh.  There was also the fact that she had NO GOALS.  

Cath wrote fanfiction for Simon Snow, which was basically a Harry Potter rip-off, and it was her entire life.  She had no aspirations outside of writing gay Simon stories (literally gay, just to be clear). 

I love people who are passionate.  It's fantastic when someone becomes so invested in something and gets excited about it in a life that could otherwise be painfully monotonous.  To quote one of my favorites, "I respect people who get nerdy as fuck about something they love." (L. Raeder "Unteachable"). 

So that's all fine and good.  I'm glad our main character has a nerdy passion, but I wasn't prepared for this contemporary novel to throw mini-CHAPTERS of these Simon stories in my face.  I have less than zero interest in Harry Potter-- I certainly don't have any interest in reading a wizardy rip-off when I picked up a contemporary book.  After the first few pages of this, I completely skipped all mention of Simon stories.  I came for Cath's story.  Not the magician's.

But then... Cath didn't have much of a story either.  She had her extreme Simon passion and nothing else-- no interest in school, in a career, in her relationships with the people around her... nothing.   

 

It took 290 pages for the love interest aspect to get rolling.  And once it did, the dates weren't interesting, the conversations weren't interesting, and my reading buddy, Lauren, and I had to suffer through the single most uncomfortable, awkward makeout session we've ever read.  But even this "love story" was not the pinnacle or even a turning point.  It was just kind of there.  And the story kept plodding along with no purpose until it stopped, and it stopped in a place that didn't provide any real closure or change.

 

Reagan was the best character.  Her strength, her smartass attitude, and her honesty were endearing.  And the Dad was so funny.  He always made me laugh and he had more of an arc than any other character in the whole book.  I did appreciate the stance this book took on fanfiction.  Even though writers borrow characters from other worlds instead of creating their own, these writers are WRITING.  That's all that matters in my opinion.  It's writing practice.  Of course it shouldn't be turned in as school work or monetized, but it gets people writing.  It's a fun way for fans to interact, to reach out to others with the same interests, to keep their favorite stories alive in different ways just for fun.  Fanfiction is treated with distaste so often and it was nice to see a high-profile author/book treat it with care.  

 

However, if I hadn't read and loved Rowell's short story, I wouldn't be inclined to pick up another of her books after this.  But Midnights showed me how much I do enjoy her writing, so I'm hoping to find that again in Eleanor & Park.