Fangirl

TW/CW: parental abandonment and theme of mental illness (specifically social anxiety, bipolar disorder and alcoholism)

Fangirl  is about an 18-year old, Cath, who is going off to college and is quite nervous since it’s the first time she’s going to be all on her own without her twin sister Wren at her side. Cath is also worried about her dad, who struggles with bipolar and is not very good at being alone. Cath finds comfort in writing fan fiction for her favorite book series of all time, the Simon Snow series, and she’s one of the most well-known fan-fiction writers online. When she meets her tough-love new roommate and her roommate’s interesting boyfriend, Cath starts to wonder if there is more to college life after all. This book, which I have read more than once, is very good (it’s much better than Eleanor and Park, written by the same author, which I really didn’t like at all). I like Cath’s character a lot and thought she was very relatable (I guess she’d technically be neurodivergent since she has social anxiety); I also thought she was autistic-coded, even though she most likely was not written that way.  Cath’s dad and Levi, who is dyslexic, would both be considered neurodivergent. Levi was a good character too, as he could be very funny, and I liked his interactions with Cath. I’m not a huge fan of Raegan’s character (Cath’s roommate) but she does have her moments. I also thought it was interesting how the book portrayed parental abandonment and mental illness and how it handled these topics; it’s not the best I’ve ever seen but I think it dealt with these reasonably well (I do struggle with anxiety so I can judge that part at least). Keep in mind that if you have any of the mental illnesses mentioned in the TW, the book could trigger you a bit so research with caution before reading. The fan-fiction bits scattered throughout the book don’t mesh super well with the rest of the book in my opinion, as they are a bit boring. Also, to the manga fans reading this, a Fangirl  manga was released recently too. Overall, Fangirl  is a fun, interesting and heartfelt book!

“I don’t trust anybody. Not anybody. And the more that I care about someone, the more sure I am they’re going to get tired of me and take off.”

In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can’t Google.)”

To really be a nerd, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”