Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I love it because it is basically a squee-fest where book lovers can choose one book that they are DYING to get their hands on. Check it out!
Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?
DO NOT TEASE ME with this fanfiction story, Rainbow Rowell. DO NOT. As a nerd, that angle appeals to me endlessly. But if ELEANOR & PARK is any indication, Rainbow Rowell knows how to pack an emotional punch, and look at all the goodies jammed into that synopsis: sisters, a mother leaving, not wanting to/being afraid to let go of childhood comforts, being in a new place, boys. But what strikes me the most is that little bit about Cath’s dad. I am an absolute sucker for dad stories. I can’t wait to see what other touching and lovely things Rainbow Rowell gets up to in FANGIRL.
(FANGIRL is coming out on September 10, 2013 from St. Martin’s Press)
