“Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell – Breaking Free of Herself

For many people, heading off to college is a defining experience, and perhaps the first time some are thrust into a completely alien setting on their own.

Needless to say, there are countless novels out there detailing this rather common experience, but frankly-speaking, most of them feel like copies of each other and rather coarse attempts at sensationalizing the experience and portraying it in nothing but its extremes.

That is what, in my opinion, makes Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell stand out amongst the countless other novels detailing the college experience.

In this story, we follow the life of Cath, a young girl heading off to college, finding herself all alone once her sister declares she doesn't want them to be roommates. To make matters slightly worse, Cath has spent virtually all of her life obsessed with the Simon Snow series, her one infallible escape from reality which allowed her to get through the countless hurdles of her childhood.

As she discovers however, to live her life and move forward may mean to leave that which she holds most precious behind. Needless to say, on this internal journey Cath ends up making the acquaintance of numerous people who end up shaping her life, showing her not only the world outside of her, but also the one within her.

Contrary to the countless books that have been dished out on the subject, this one takes a much more realistic, rational and down-to-Earth approach to the whole thing; Rowell doesn't aim to shock viewers with infuriating rape scenes nor does he make his characters behave in ways uncharacteristic of new college students.

Fangirl details the sort of journey that virtually all of us who have had lives free of truly big negative factors, delving into the alienation, angst, confusion, fear and occasional hopelessness that comes with being a stranger in a strange land.

What really makes it enjoyable though is the fact that things are explored with a certain amount of subtlety; not once does it feel like you are being beat over the head with moral lessons and messages.

In the end, you can actually make your own, personal connections to Cath's experiences; the ease with which virtually anyone can relate to her is, in my opinion, perhaps the book's strongest aspect.

With this being a character-driven work, it should come as no surprise that each and every one of them is amazingly-constructed. They all develop in their own ways throughout the story and have multiple layers of complexity and intrigue to them.

What's more, they all actually feel like people you could meet, or most likely, have already met in real life. Regardless of whether or not you can actually relate to them, you will find yourself often trying to delve deeper into the characters' feelings and thought processes, attempting to understand them. As for the writing itself, it is rather simple and flows smoothly throughout the whole thing, complementing the overall comic and light tone of the plot.

If you are finding yourself tired of typical college experience novels, if you want something more down-to-Earth that explores the whole thing from a realistic perspective and gives you a lot of food for thought, bringing you back to those nostalgic days of your own careless youth, Fangirl will certainly prove to be an entertaining read.

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Rainbow Rowell Personal site Rainbow Rowell is an American author hailing from Nebraska who made her debut in 2011 with a contemporary romantic comedy, Attachments. In 2013 she published two additional novels, Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, both of which received accolades from The New York Times, being classified amongst the best young adult fiction novels released during that year.