Last year, my Cannonball book was a crashing disappointment. A one star disaster that I HATED. I didn’t want to repeat the same problem this year. I wanted book 52 to be a treat, a rave review, a delight. A book I tore through in a day because I couldn’t put it down. After loving Eleanor & Park so hard, I bought Fangirl so this was the obvious logical choice to take centre stage as book 52 this year. An obvious shoo in for a gushing and effusive review. Alas, it’s not to be. While it’s miles better than last year’s crap out, Fangirl still really disappointed me.
Again, I know I’m not the demographic Rowell is shooting for, but I also know I don’t believe in limiting my book consumption based on something as arbitrary as that. So we have twins Cath and Wren (their mother didn’t want one child, let alone two, so when she had twins, she took the one name, Catherine, and split it in half. Already, I’m like “oh fuck off”), who have been abandoned by their mother and raised by their bipolar father. They both love Simon Snow (a painfully obvious stand in for Harry Potter) and Cath writes Simon Snow fan fiction. They’re about to go to college, the same college. Wren decides not to share a dorm with Cath because it’s time to put away the childish things but Cath won’t let go of her Simon Snow obsession, her fan fiction and her huge online following. Cue much angsty hand wringing as twins separate from each other.
I would possibly have cared more about Cath’s awkward social behaviour or Wren’s journey off the rails by way of too much drinking if either of them were likeable. But Wren is a shallow little mean bitch, so we’re supposed to side with Cath. Poor sweet awkward Simon Snow loving Cath. Problem there is Cath is a TOTAL FUCKING DRIP. She’s so wet and lame and boring and OH MY GOD you just want to smack her in the face. When her roommate’s ex-boyfriend falls for her, Cath is so intensely, well, Cath about it that I was rooting for Levi (for it is he) to give up on her and go find someone who doesn’t hyperventilate when you mention touching her boobies. Levi is the sole decent character. He’s ace, and Rowell clearly has a hard on for him, and so she should. He’s the only reason, pretty much, that I slogged on to the end.
The biggest problem with the book though is Simon Snow. Each chapter is prefaced with an excerpt from either one of the official Snow books, or Cath’s fan fiction. After reading one or two of them, I found them so eye gougingly awful that I skipped them. I love Harry Potter books so much, that for someone to try and emulate them, and to then have fan fiction of that emulation, it’s like trying to read a photocopy of a photocopy. We are treated to whole chapters of Cath’s fan fiction later in the book, which I simply couldn’t bear to read. She has Simon Snow and the bad vampire boy go gay for each other and the thought of someone as messed up as Cath trying to portray that, I just couldn’t bear to find out how awful it was. And then, as if I didn’t already want to smack her enough, when Levi asks her to read him some more when he’s at his fraternity, Cath replies something like “I don’t think I can read this to you with actual gay people in the house”. Oh wow just FUCK OFF.
It’s saved, just about, by a nice last chapter and some actual non-fan fiction from Cath (who spent the whole book being told what a great writer she is and whining about how she didn’t want to write anything other than Simon Snow. Fuck off.). But all in all, after the dizzy and gorgeous heights of Eleanor & Park, this was a disappointment, to say the least.
I am being a little harsh with the star rating. It’s 2.5 stars, but we can’t do halves on here. Having thought about it and being increasingly annoyed by things like the huge overreaction to Wren’s drinking and so on, I’ve chosen to round down and not up.
Congratulations on your Cannonball! As always, when someone doesn’t love Fangirl, which is probably my favourite Rainbow Rowell, I cry a little inside. But you are entitled to your opinion. It just saddens me.
“Someone who doesn’t hyperventilate when you mention touching her boobies.” This made me laugh. It also stings a bit because I can also remember hyperventilating when I was just starting down the path of boobie touching myself. I suspect thats true of many people. But I can also imagine how somebody who never hyperventilated about this would get justifiably annoyed about all the boobie angst (still laughing).
I’ll also admit with entirely no shame that I would buy an entire book of Simon Snow slash stories if Rainbow decided to write it. Preorder hardback and everything.
But there have been books here that everybody loved that I didn’t simply because it wasn’t my genre. So I understand how this much beloved book could be just not your thing. And I respect your willingness to read it nonetheless!
Malin, you have no idea how much I wanted to love this book. E&P made me so happy and the Rowell love around here made me certain I was on to a winner in terms of finding a new author who knocked it out of the park with every single book. So feeling mainly indifferent and occasionally irritated by this one makes me cry inside as much as it does you, believe me.
As for Simon Snow, no. Just no. If I see the word “merwolves” one more time, I swear I won’t be responsible for my actions. Ugh.
Congratulations on the Cannonball!
I loved Fangirl but not E&P as much. I DID really really love Attachments. Have you read that one yet?
Happy Cannonball!
I hear you on your complaints (especially merwolves), even if they didn’t hit me as hard.I’m going to read Landline for my 52nd for much the same reasons you read Fangirl so here’s hoping.