This is another solid YA novel by Rainbow Rowell. There are no vampires here or dystopian futures but there is a young woman named Cath, who is struggling to find her way. Cath is a huge fan of Simon Snow, a Harry Potter-esque hero featured in seven books (soon to be eight) that Cath and her twin sister Wren devoured from the time they were little. The series has helped them both deal with the realities of their life—that their mother has abandoned them and that their ad-exec father struggles with manic episodes. Cath begins writing fan fiction under the pseudonym, Magicath, and though Wren helps sometimes, it is Cath, the less social and more anxious twin, who really lives and breathes the series. Her fan fiction, which creates romantic tension between the two main characters, Simon and Baz, is becoming more popular by the day.
The novel begins as Cath and Wren are beginning their freshman year at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Cath is feeling particularly abandoned. Wren has decided she doesn’t want to room with Cath and is asserting her independence. Cath’s roommate, Reagan, barely acknowledges she exists and her boyfriend, Levi, is constantly around. Cath’s fiction writing class seems promising but Cath can barely get herself to leave the dorm except for class. She worries about getting lost, she worries about her Dad in Omaha, and she worries that she won’t finish her “story” of Simon and Baz before the 8th and final book in the Simon Snow series comes out.
There’s a lot to like here—it’s a coming of age story, it’s a love story, and there’s even the story within the story—snippets from Cath’s fan fiction and from the actual Simon Snow series. Once again, Rowell creates a very “real” set of characters that you care about from the very beginning and hate to leave at the end.
(Read 5/18/14 . . . behind on posting reviews)
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