Fangirl

"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell...where does one start? Wait, isn't that how I started the captain to "Carry On"? I guess it's fitting, isn't it?

Remember how I said that "Carry On" is a book about a book described/created from another book. "Carry On" is that book (the described/created from one).

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, yeah, so the entire world is a Simon Snow fan, but Simon Snow is Cath's entire world. It's her life. And she's really good at it.

Cath and her twin sister, Wren, started as die-hard fans when they were little. Now they're starting college and suddenly everything is changing. Wren doesn't want to room with Cath. Wren doesn't want to be an openly die-hard fan anymore. Wren gets a new boyfriend. Cath's roommate is horrible. Their dad, who has never really been alone, gets sick. And the author of the Simon Snow series is about to publish the last book, which means her ride-or-die ship might finally happen, or might never, ever happen.

Cath's solution? Drown herself in Simon Snow, in her widely popular Simon Snow fanfiction ("Carry On" (see the connection now?)). 

Except, therein lies the other problem. Her creative writing teacher--a person she has admired for a while, a subject she plans on majoring in--doesn't believe that fanfiction writing is real writing (and honestly, what does that even mean?).

Oh, and there's a few cute boys that try to warm Cath's sheltered heart.

I first read this book while I was working on my graduate thesis for my creative writing degree. And honest, I was feeling pretty much everything that Cath felt. Did it make me feel any better? No, honestly, it made me feel worse.

Like Cath, I didn't think I could write anything of worth, real worth, if it wasn't fanfiction (I started my passion for writing in fanfiction (Jonas Brothers, if i'm going to be completely, completely honest with you)). And these are not feelings one wants to have during their final semester in grad school, working one of the most important academic assignments of her career. 

But, after some distance and re-evaluation, Cath did help. Okay, okay, okay, and so did reading "Carry On" (twice).

Again I ask, what book changed your life so much?

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