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melissa_bookworm's review against another edition
5.0
It took me so long to finally pick up this book. I shelved it as to-read 5 years ago! I think with all the hype surrounding it I was a little hesitant, afraid it wouldn't live up to it. I can safely say, it surpassed my expectations.
The characters are so real, flawed in the most perfect ways. I'm not even sure if I can describe how I feel adequately.
Things I loved:
1. Parents existed in this world (regardless of how shitty they might be. )
2. Cath - she is so relatable, her anxieties and coping mechanisms ring so true.
3. The friendships and relationships. Reagan and Levi really pulled my heartstrings in the best way possible. I found Wren to be a bit shit in some sections, but she redeemed herself. Cath's lecturer really backed her, when she didn't back herself.
Things I loved a little less:
1. Some of the Simon Snow segments brought me out of the flow of the book - I would pay good money to get more Cath and Levi instead of Simon and Baz. For this reason I don't think I'll read Carry On - that isn't the story I was invested in.
2. That it ended - there isn't any more. I am sad.
The characters are so real, flawed in the most perfect ways. I'm not even sure if I can describe how I feel adequately.
Things I loved:
1. Parents existed in this world (regardless of how shitty they might be.
Spoiler
This is only in relation to Cath and Wren's mum [was her name Laura?] Their Dad did the best he could and sometimes he slipped. I enjoyed that even though Rowell could have made them all 'happy families' by making Laura stay when Wren was in the hospital, she didn't.2. Cath - she is so relatable, her anxieties and coping mechanisms ring so true.
3. The friendships and relationships. Reagan and Levi really pulled my heartstrings in the best way possible. I found Wren to be a bit shit in some sections, but she redeemed herself. Cath's lecturer really backed her, when she didn't back herself.
Things I loved a little less:
1. Some of the Simon Snow segments brought me out of the flow of the book - I would pay good money to get more Cath and Levi instead of Simon and Baz. For this reason I don't think I'll read Carry On - that isn't the story I was invested in.
2. That it ended - there isn't any more. I am sad.
just_alyx's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
beau82's review against another edition
To long drawn on and I didn’t like the characters
alfredothegoose's review against another edition
5.0
I loved every bit of this! I'm so sad I didn't find this beautiful gem sooner.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't like this book, and I think it's for one of three reasons:
1) I am not Rowell's intended audience: I assume she's writing for a younger audience (of a certain generation), and an audience who enjoys fan fiction. I am much more firmly entrenched in Prof. Piper's camp, and had a hard time sympathizing with (or caring about) Cath.
2) I didn't like Rowell's style: She really, really, really, really likes similes. Everything was like something else. It got tiresome.
3) I didn't agree with Rowell's choices: Rowell added so many subplots to this story that they all seemed to cancel each other out and, at the end of it, nothing felt important. Cath can't find a way into a story for her fiction assignment first semester, so she doesn't do it; then she gets a second chance and is able to write the story in a week. Wren goes to the hospital for alcohol poisoning and is told by their father that she can't drink anymore, and she quits, no problem, and it's a non-issue. Their mother comes into the picture and then, after getting yelled at by Cath in the hospital waiting room, she leaves and is a non-issue. Their father is hospitalized because of his manic episodes, and then he comes home and he's fine and it's a non-issue. Is anything an issue? No. It wasn't even that the stakes were low; at the end of the story, there were no stakes. And the choice to have the characters live (at home, not college) in a neighborhood with a large Mexican population felt like the laziest kind of ersatz diversity: instead of making the characters themselves Mexican American, let's just put them in an environment where they can eat tacos and date Mexican American young men. That's diverse, right? Sure, Rowell. Sure.
Maybe it's because of all three of these reasons. And add on top that Levi was just a mary sue in a flannel shirt, and that Cath was unlikable (for me, a 39-year old creative writing teacher [I would not have given Cath a second chance]), and it's just not my kind of book.
1) I am not Rowell's intended audience: I assume she's writing for a younger audience (of a certain generation), and an audience who enjoys fan fiction. I am much more firmly entrenched in Prof. Piper's camp, and had a hard time sympathizing with (or caring about) Cath.
2) I didn't like Rowell's style: She really, really, really, really likes similes. Everything was like something else. It got tiresome.
3) I didn't agree with Rowell's choices: Rowell added so many subplots to this story that they all seemed to cancel each other out and, at the end of it, nothing felt important. Cath can't find a way into a story for her fiction assignment first semester, so she doesn't do it; then she gets a second chance and is able to write the story in a week. Wren goes to the hospital for alcohol poisoning and is told by their father that she can't drink anymore, and she quits, no problem, and it's a non-issue. Their mother comes into the picture and then, after getting yelled at by Cath in the hospital waiting room, she leaves and is a non-issue. Their father is hospitalized because of his manic episodes, and then he comes home and he's fine and it's a non-issue. Is anything an issue? No. It wasn't even that the stakes were low; at the end of the story, there were no stakes. And the choice to have the characters live (at home, not college) in a neighborhood with a large Mexican population felt like the laziest kind of ersatz diversity: instead of making the characters themselves Mexican American, let's just put them in an environment where they can eat tacos and date Mexican American young men. That's diverse, right? Sure, Rowell. Sure.
Maybe it's because of all three of these reasons. And add on top that Levi was just a mary sue in a flannel shirt, and that Cath was unlikable (for me, a 39-year old creative writing teacher [I would not have given Cath a second chance]), and it's just not my kind of book.
ciuli's review against another edition
4.0
4/5
CW:Bipolar disorder and manic episode, anxiety and mentions of panic attacks, mentions of cheating, alcohol abuse
Every time I need a nice read to take me out of my reading slump, I always find myself turning to Rainbow Rowell's books. It happened in the past with Carry On, which I read I don't even know how many times, and it keeps happening now with Fangirl! Since 'Carry On' is one of my favorite cozy Christmassy books, I have always been curious about the books that started it all, and let me tell you I was not disappointed. It had all of Rowell's trademarks: complex characters, a cute romance and magic. What more could I have asked for?!
Cath is a freshman at University, she has just moved there with her twin sister, Wren, but their relationship has definitely seen better days. They have always been huge fans of Simon Snow, one of the biggest fantasy books to ever be published, and Cath is also one the most famous fanfiction writers of the Simon/Baz fandom. They have always shared this passion, but now that they're at uni, Wren has decided to turn over a new leaf and has been distancing herself from Simon's world and from Cath ever since they started there. But Cath is not ready to leave the fiction world yet, it's been with her for so many years that she doesn't know how to be away from it, she doesn't know how to live in the real world.
I liked the representation of the social anxiety and of the Bipolar disorder. I don't have much knowledge about anxiety, but I know more than a few things about BD and I found the way she depicted things to be quite spot on. Cath's father is bipolar and not medicated, and I could see an accurate representation of it in all his highs and in his coping mechanisms and in refusal of meds, because he didn't want his mind to be numb.
Let's talk about Wren now, because i think that deserves it's own paragraph Okay so, at the beginning I was like, Wren is acting like a b*tch but I can kind of understand her. Being the younger sibling, I've always felt this pressure of being compared to my older sister and I could understand that for twins it's even worse, especially when living in symbiosis. However, she just kept pushing that behaviour, and acting like a selfish brat. Her lying to Cath about calling their mother, her not spending Thanksgiving or Christmas with Cath and their father as if she'd forgotten who she spent the last ten years of her life with, it was just so wrong. And she could provide every explaination ever about why she acted that way, but that doesn't mean that what she did wasn't wrong and selfish. And I'm not going to condone her behaviour and I think she got off too easy for the way she behaved a whole semester.
Levi is a national treasure. I so wish more guys like him existed in the world. I loved how his character wasn't one dimensional, how he was more than just a very nice guy who has smiles for everyone. He was understanding toward Cath's love for fanfiction, never once making fun of her and her passions, he was insecure about himself and hard-working and dorky and geeky and I just think he deserves the world ok?!
I think he may be dyslexic, but I'm not really sure and it's not been made explicit anywhere, so don't take this as an absolute statement, it's just my opinion. Even though he has impressive memory, he has difficulty focusing on written words, and for that reason he listen to audiobooks and to his lectures on a recorder, instead of reading books and studying on papers.
The main reason why I didn't give this book 5/5 stars is because it got too cheesy over the end, in my opinion. One of the things I liked the most at the beginning was how the story involved a romance but that wasn't the main focus, it was just something more that added to the story. But toward the end everything was about Levi and Levi was everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love Levi and definitely wish there were more people like him in the world. I just wished it hadn't become the only thing she was talking about for 150 pages.
I think this book reads similarly to "Eliza and her monsters", they both focus on people who are living in fandoms, and who both suffer from anxiety. If you liked Eliza, you're definitely going to like this one.
On a different note, I am SO glad to have read 'Carry On' before this book! I know that some people didn't care about, or skipped, the Simon bits at the end of each chapter, but I loved them! Having read Carry On first, I was over the moon to find out all these additional bits of story! However, I can also see why there were people who skipped these parts. They break the rhythm of the main story, especially when a chapter ends on a cliffhanger and you have to go and read about a complete different story. I think the best way to read this book would be to read them separately, first reading the main story and once done that, reading all the Simon bits. My advice is, if you intend on reading Carry On, read that book first and then come back to this one! Considering how they weren't planning on publishing Carry On, they didn't care about the spoilers that might have been written in this book, but if you want to read them both you will care, because they're major spoilers!
CW:Bipolar disorder and manic episode, anxiety and mentions of panic attacks, mentions of cheating, alcohol abuse
Every time I need a nice read to take me out of my reading slump, I always find myself turning to Rainbow Rowell's books. It happened in the past with Carry On, which I read I don't even know how many times, and it keeps happening now with Fangirl! Since 'Carry On' is one of my favorite cozy Christmassy books, I have always been curious about the books that started it all, and let me tell you I was not disappointed. It had all of Rowell's trademarks: complex characters, a cute romance and magic. What more could I have asked for?!
Cath is a freshman at University, she has just moved there with her twin sister, Wren, but their relationship has definitely seen better days. They have always been huge fans of Simon Snow, one of the biggest fantasy books to ever be published, and Cath is also one the most famous fanfiction writers of the Simon/Baz fandom. They have always shared this passion, but now that they're at uni, Wren has decided to turn over a new leaf and has been distancing herself from Simon's world and from Cath ever since they started there. But Cath is not ready to leave the fiction world yet, it's been with her for so many years that she doesn't know how to be away from it, she doesn't know how to live in the real world.
I liked the representation of the social anxiety and of the Bipolar disorder. I don't have much knowledge about anxiety, but I know more than a few things about BD and I found the way she depicted things to be quite spot on. Cath's father is bipolar and not medicated, and I could see an accurate representation of it in all his highs and in his coping mechanisms and in refusal of meds, because he didn't want his mind to be numb.
Let's talk about Wren now, because i think that deserves it's own paragraph Okay so, at the beginning I was like, Wren is acting like a b*tch but I can kind of understand her. Being the younger sibling, I've always felt this pressure of being compared to my older sister and I could understand that for twins it's even worse, especially when living in symbiosis. However, she just kept pushing that behaviour, and acting like a selfish brat. Her lying to Cath about calling their mother, her not spending Thanksgiving or Christmas with Cath and their father as if she'd forgotten who she spent the last ten years of her life with, it was just so wrong. And she could provide every explaination ever about why she acted that way, but that doesn't mean that what she did wasn't wrong and selfish. And I'm not going to condone her behaviour and I think she got off too easy for the way she behaved a whole semester.
Levi is a national treasure. I so wish more guys like him existed in the world. I loved how his character wasn't one dimensional, how he was more than just a very nice guy who has smiles for everyone. He was understanding toward Cath's love for fanfiction, never once making fun of her and her passions, he was insecure about himself and hard-working and dorky and geeky and I just think he deserves the world ok?!
I think he may be dyslexic, but I'm not really sure and it's not been made explicit anywhere, so don't take this as an absolute statement, it's just my opinion. Even though he has impressive memory, he has difficulty focusing on written words, and for that reason he listen to audiobooks and to his lectures on a recorder, instead of reading books and studying on papers.
The main reason why I didn't give this book 5/5 stars is because it got too cheesy over the end, in my opinion. One of the things I liked the most at the beginning was how the story involved a romance but that wasn't the main focus, it was just something more that added to the story. But toward the end everything was about Levi and Levi was everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love Levi and definitely wish there were more people like him in the world. I just wished it hadn't become the only thing she was talking about for 150 pages.
I think this book reads similarly to "Eliza and her monsters", they both focus on people who are living in fandoms, and who both suffer from anxiety. If you liked Eliza, you're definitely going to like this one.
On a different note, I am SO glad to have read 'Carry On' before this book! I know that some people didn't care about, or skipped, the Simon bits at the end of each chapter, but I loved them! Having read Carry On first, I was over the moon to find out all these additional bits of story! However, I can also see why there were people who skipped these parts. They break the rhythm of the main story, especially when a chapter ends on a cliffhanger and you have to go and read about a complete different story. I think the best way to read this book would be to read them separately, first reading the main story and once done that, reading all the Simon bits. My advice is, if you intend on reading Carry On, read that book first and then come back to this one! Considering how they weren't planning on publishing Carry On, they didn't care about the spoilers that might have been written in this book, but if you want to read them both you will care, because they're major spoilers!
lenajean's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
meganbharrison2's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
heidi_84's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0