I finally read Fangirl!!!! While this is my third of Rowell's works, this seemed to receive the most unanimous praise from my peers. I loved Eleanor & Park, and thought Landline was okay. I really enjoy this author's signature style. I know what kind of writing I'm going to get, and it's nice to enjoy consistency every once in awhile. Simple, fun, engaging dialogue is one of her specialties.
I like the cultural references that pop in and out of the story. A conversation over the comfort and unabashed appeal of Uggs in Nebraska was one such scene, as well as the dining hall scenes that brought back a lot of memories from my time at Virginia Tech. Rowell does a superb job of including a sweet, but manic father figure. His job in advertising provided fun banter, with serious touches included. As for Cath, I found her often too whiny, and Levi was a little unrealistic in his ardent devotion...but still cute.
I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion among die-hard fans of this book, but I didn't connect to the interspersed sections of Carry On with Simon and Baz, nor Cath's fanfiction. I know this was necessary to the subject of the story, but it pulled me out of Cath's actual life, which I preferred. I did enjoy the sweet parts where Cath read to Levi...what a great love language for avid readers.
I connected to this story in reverse. I was social in college, but feel introverted now that I'm older. This is partly due to stage of life with small children and being a stay at home mom, but I found the irony interesting. Again, this was a fun and simple story that went exactly as I expected. I was a little curious at the ending. It seemed to just taper off and stop. I've never heard anyone else discuss this, perhaps Carry On was already a known follow up at the time of this one's publication? I think this book will delight all Rainbow Rowell fans, and isn't a bad place to start. Eleanor & Park is still my firm favorite.
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