This is has got to be my third re-read of Fangirl and it just never gets old. This is one of the sweetest g-d books out there, I will never stop recommending or adoring it. Rainbow Rowell just writes these wonderful warm blanket books that are perfect for so many situations up to and including when you’re spending Valentine’s Day cooped up in a hotel room a thousand miles from your husband. This book is a hug.
I know this is the umpteenth Rowell/Fangirl review here on CBR so I’ll go easy on the plot recap. Cather is a freshman at the University of Nebraska and she’s not adapting well to change, unlike her identical twin. Wren is all about college and new things and new people – new friends, new habits, new haircut – and Cath feels like she’s being left behind so she largely retreats into their shared world, that of Simon Snow (this world’s Harry Potter). She sees Wren for the occasional lunch, regularly calls their father back home in Omaha, and other than that her interactions are with her fiction professor, her writing partner, her roommate, and her roommate’s … friend.
No one paints a word picture of a person quite like Rainbow Rowell. All of her characters dance right off the page but I just can’t quit Levi. He’s described as the consummate people person, the kind of guy who can seem like he’s always flirting because that’s just his brand of kindness. The guy who exudes good energy and positive vibes and it’s all genuine. Maybe I’m in love with Levi because he’s an exaggerated version of my husband, but I’m also in love with Levi because he’s impossible not to love.
I’ve finally figured out that Goodreads will store my Kindle highlights so here are a few snippets to give y’all non-converts a glimpse into the never-ending cleverness of Rainbow Rowell.
Cather and her father discussing her absent mother:
“I’m about to go all King Solomon on your asses.”
“Who’s King Solomon?”
“It was your mother who wanted to raise you without religion.”
“She also thought you should raise us without a mother.”
The roommate Reagan despairing the identical twin-ness:
“Are you Zack, or are you Cody?”
Cather, visiting Levi’s room for the first time:
A calculus test would feel intimate in here.
Levi, flirting with Cath as she bemoans Wren as the pretty twin:
“You’re just the Clark Kent.”
And so on and so on. Warning: be prepared to feel all the feelings.
I got this for Christmas in the Cannonball exchange and after your review I’m super pumped to read it, thanks!