When I was in college, I went through a reading slump. With all of the studying and textbook reading I had to do, the last thing I wanted to do was read for fun. I pulled myself out of my reading slump thanks to friends and rediscovering what I liked to read. One of the books I credit for pulling me out of this was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Fangirl had been on my list to re-read for a while, and it seemed like every time I wanted to start the book, something would get in my way. Since this is a re-read post, I won’t be covering the plot of Fangirl; however, you can read my original review here: https://bizarrebrunette.com/2015/04/03/fangirl-review/

Fangirl will always be a five-star book for me; however, I had a couple of critiques this time around with this book. I think Fangirl is a bit too long. The first half of the book tells the reader about Cath’s routine at college. She locates her classes, she’s writing a fiction story in the library, and she’s too afraid to go to the dining hall. I found this part of the book to be boring to read. There could have been sections taken out without the book’s plot suffering. Fangirl is 433 pages, and it felt long to read. The second half of Fangirl does pick up, but the first half took me a long time to finish.

When I read Fangirl, I loved Cath as a character. I felt like I identified with her being introverted and her love of fandom. This time, I started to notice how judgmental Cath is. She makes negative comments about how much Wren likes to party. Now, Wren was a bit out of control in some ways, but it felt to Cath that if Wren was living her life differently from her, it was wrong. Additionally, Cath seems to have a pretentious attitude because of her scholarship. This can be seen in her relationship with Levi, who struggles academically and finds it challenging to read a physical book. I think Cath grows up a bit towards the end of the book, but I was surprised at how some of her statements made me resent her.

Finally, I noticed Rainbow Rowell makes some weird comments about race in her books. There are examples from both Cath and Wren regarding how they comment on race. Wren comments later in the book that she doesn’t realize a certain race lives on one part of campus. I’m not sure if Rowell wants to hammer into readers how Cath and Wren grew up in a diverse area, but the statements come off more cringey than anything else. There has been some controversy surrounding Rainbow Rowell and how she writes characters from a different race, specifically in her book Eleanor and Park. It’s interesting reading Fangirl and noticing some of these comments, even though this controversy is with a different book.

Fangirl will always have a special place in my heart. I read this book at a time when I was struggling at the time. Reading about Cath helped me accept myself for who I am. I can understand why other readers rated this lower than I did. I’d love to hear any additional thoughts regarding Fangirl. Let me know in the comments section below.