It is a truth universally acknowledged that Rainbow Rowell is one of my two favorite new authors of the past few years. She and Lyndsay Faye have been rocking my literary world, and I am so glad for it. I saved Fangirl to be my 26th book this year, and timed it to coincide with my vacation. I had planes and beach ahead of me, so the timing was perfect.
And there is so much to love about the story of Cath. So much that is good, and interesting, and superbly executed. Really, I’ve come to expect that I will simply fall in love with Rainbow’s characters because they are so real, and I do. Every. Single. Time. We love Rainbow Rowell around here, and it’s easy to see why.
But, (and there is a but) several days after finishing the book I’m still hung up on the ending that wasn’t. I follow Rainbow on Twitter, where she is just as lovely as you could hope, and there are a lot of people who tweet at her about those three words at the end of Eleanor & Park. I have never understood those people. Until I got to the last 5 pages of Fangirl. And then I just wanted more. I wanted more Cath and Levi, more Simon Snow and the Eighth Dance, and more Carry On, Simon. I wanted more of all of it. I wanted more than just the signposts pointing me in the direction of the resolution; I wanted to see it there, on the page, right in front of my nose.
I am apparently very needy.
I think I’m needy because in oh so many ways, I am Cath. I was the girl who wouldn’t go down to the cafeteria because “all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can’t Google.” I’m the person who doesn’t understand how people are naturally ‘on’ all the time and don’t need time alone to recharge. Writing can feel like running downhill towards the thing that makes sense, while real life seems to be out on the edges. I need my own Wren or Reagan to pull me back in from the outside edges. Heck, I want to be as quippy as Reagan.
So, what am I trying to say? That I loved this book. That I wanted to live in it some more. That I get fanfiction now more than I did before. But I just can’t seem to round this one up to a 5 star book. (I have actually had a change of heart and now rate this 5 stars after reading Landline.)
All my cannonball reviews can be found here.
I think that’s the (infuriating) beauty of Rowell’s work, that she has this pesky affinity for leaving things unresolved and up to your imagination. It makes her books that much more memorable and it beats running the risk of straight up bungling things like Stephen King in half his books or going all Harry Potter epilogue up in this ish. (There was a lot of unintentional rhyming in that sentence.)
P.S. If you think Rainbow Rowell’s bad when it comes to this, listen to Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mipc-JxrhRk). It literally does a quick fade to silence mid-song. Yet it’s their most popular song, which seems to strengthen my argument that this tactic (assuming it’s intentional on their part or Rowell’s) is a valid one.
P.P.S. Rowell tweeted this earlier today: “If you’d like an update on a couple from one of my earlier books, READ LANDLINE CAREFULLY. (But don’t ruin it for anyone else.)” Just thought I might as well mention that while I’m at it.
P.P.P.S. Thought for a moment someone had somehow beaten me to being the first one to review Landline, which I’ll be getting in the mail tomorrow, reading non-stop from front to back, and reviewing. I’m still 50+ reviews behind, yet I’m not about to let that stop me from reviewing it while it’s fresh on my mind. The other 50+ books can wait in line.
For sure Rowell’s habit of ending her books like this does make them stick around longer and longer in my brain. Since finishing this book Ive also finished the Veronica Mars book, but I’m STILL thinking about Cath and Levi and the gang nearly a week later. It works.
But I would’ve loved for her to stick the full landing on this one. I’m going to read your and Malin’s reviews of Landline as soon as possible. I preordered the book, but I don’t know if I’m going to read it yet. I had the idea of using these two books to mark the half and full cannonball this year, but that means likely waiting until December based on my reading speed. I am always astonished at your speed of reading. But so happy that you commented!
P.S. I listened to the dream theater song as suggested and it is stuck in my head after one listen… I think you’re on to something there.
It’s not just you! Fantastic beautiful book (Levi3EVA) but I want more too. More than an Epilogue, like lots more. I love Rainbow but she needs to add another 100 pages to this and Attachments. Yes it’s hard to stick the landing and many greats (King, Martin – I’m assuming anyway) fumble with the big finish. But she does everything else so elegantly I have full faith that she could stick the landing, should she choose to!
Travis – I’ll be not reading your review of Landline until I finish MY copy of Landline. And while I’ve entirely given up on writing reviews, I will definitely come chat about it on yours :)
I follow her on tumblr and, from what I’ve seen there, it doesn’t sound COMPLETELY out of the realm of possibility that she’d continue on with Fangirl, whether it be based around Cath or Simon Snow. Or maybe that’s just me projecting my wishful thinking onto her statements. I just don’t think this is a JK Rowling situation where she’s closed the book on her characters (that Landline Easter egg I mentioned her tweeting about goes to show that). Fangirl’s the only book she’s left me wanting more with, however. Eleanor & Park aggravated me initially, but it’s like the Lost in Translation ending where I grew to love that we don’t know what he whispered to her. But you don’t make Simon Snow and Cath’s Simon Snow fan-fiction half the book without leaving readers wanting to see an actual Simon Snow story. The Simon Snow parts were probably my least favorite thing about the book, though I still loved them, yet I wanted more just the same.
You’ve given up writing reviews? But why!?
Oh, and thanks for the heads up about the tweet, I missed it entirely. :)
I thought the Attachements ending was perfect, but I owe that book a re-read because I read it in the middle of a big depression last summer and know I didnt’ give it the attention it deserved. Maybe a re-read this summer if I can stay on time with my reviews, I wouldn’t count another review of that book towards by Cannonball.
Good luck with the book! Please come back to writing reviews when you can, but we’ll see you in the comments just the same :)
I would entirely buy a Simon Snow slash fan fiction book by Rainbow. I would buy the hell out of that!
I’m writing (and am desperately behind schedule) a non-fiction book on kids and sleep. So rare moments of solitude to write need to focus on that. But I love jumping in to chat about books I’m reading with like-minded people so while I’m officially a “cannonballer” in truth I’m just an avid commenter :)
Commenting is still good. Just keep visiting (and click an ad or 2) and you still help kick cancer’s a–!
“I would entirely buy a Simon Snow slash fan fiction book by Rainbow. I would buy the hell out of that!”
Can we start a Kickstarter or something and force her to do this?
And congratulations to faintingviolet on the 1/2!!!
Thanks!
Congrats on the half a Cannonball. I have now finished Landline, but am sufficiently behind on my reviews that I doubt I’ll be able to get my review of it up here until later this week. The minute I finished it, I had to re-read Fangirl, which I adored.
I didn’t actually find the ending of Eleanor and Park that unsatisfying, rather hopeful and happy because she finally sent Park a postcard, and from the final snippets of the Simon Snow book and the excerpt of Cath’s short story (which was clearly well received as she won an award for it) in Fangirl, it suggests that she’s moving on with her life successfully. I’d love to read more about Cath and Levi, but I’d rather not have to read about them possibly eventually drifting apart and breaking up, so I’d rather the book end with them in a happy place than a sad one.
I was satisfied with the ending of E&P, but I’m also pretty confident about those infamous three words. I really felt like people were being petulant, and then I had my own mini meltdown on the beach where my best friend and my mom just looked at me like I’d lost my mind and all of a sudden, their reactions made sense.
I’m also happy that the book ended in a happy place, but I’d offer up some unsavory things for 50 more pages fleshing out the last 6 weeks of the Spring semester.
I’m looking forward to your review!