Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (audiobook)

genre: young adult fiction

For Cath, the Simon Snow book series is not just comforting, not just an escape - it's a world she's more comfortable in than the real one.  When she begins her freshman year of college - sharing a room with someone other than her twin sister for the first time, meeting all kinds of new people, learning her way around campus - Simon Snow is a safe zone.   Passionate about writing and anxious to a diagnosable degree, Cath's first year in college is going to stretch her more than she'd ever imagined.

I chose this audiobook because I liked Eleanor and Park so much.  SO much.  This one has the same reader and she is, again, fantastic.  Cath's fears are portrayed so gently - we feel so deeply for her, what's she's lost and what she's so afraid to gain.  Her family dynamic is so, so well thought out.  The mental illness piece, the twin piece, the "fandom" piece.  Rainbow Rowell just nailed it.  I loved how Simon Snow stories were woven throughout the story - but, to be honest, I could have done with a little less of it.  I just didn't care as much about that as I did about Cath's.  It would have been a sure 5 star read for me if I had felt more engaged - it was just a LITTLE too Harry Potter, I wish she could've done something a bit more original. The truth is, I WAS that obsessed with HP for a while, before the 7th book came out - so I know how absolutely believable Cath's obsession is.  I loved that so much of it was about WORDS - writing them and reading them - the power that they have.  How words can make our lives so much bigger.

A real coming-of-age story, a first-real-love story, a love-letter-to-all-fans story, a mental-illness-doesn't-mean-a-horrible-life story.

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