Cath Avery is the typical, introverted bookworm with her glasses, always pulled back hair and hobby of writing fanfiction on her favorite book series. Although, writing fanfiction isn’t exactly a hobby for her—more of a lifestyle. The books she writes about are very Harry Potter-like and Cath just cannot remove herself from the magical world of “Simon Snow”. All of her hard work has paid off now, and after two years, millions of people are now reading “Carry On, Simon”. However, as a freshman in college, multiple distractions are occurring and it’s getting harder and harder to finish her story before the final book of the “official” series comes out and the ending is set in stone.

       In Rainbow Rowell’s book “Fangirl” readers get to meet one of the most relatable characters written in a YA novel. None of that perfect-pretty-girl-experiences-sudden-drama business—Rowell isn’t afraid to display all of the quirks and irregularities that so many people have been taught to hide about themselves. Our main character, Cath, is suddenly and forcefully dragged out of her comfortable bubble once she reaches college. Her twin is for some reason avoiding her, fanfiction counts as plagiarism in her fiction-writing class, credit for stories are stolen and an oddly attractive boy won’t leave her alone. Readers have the pleasure of experiencing the roller coaster of life after school through the eyes of Cath and will find page-after-page of things to which they can relate.

       This book depicts perfectly what the life of a true fangirl is. They are not just nerds with their noses always in a book. They are living, breathing people who love a story so much, they write fanfiction so as to explore all the nooks and crevices of a magical world that the original author failed to cover themselves; or didn’t reach the expectancy of the audience. Honestly, I have been waiting for a book to show this kind of person for what they were—and not just a devastatingly gorgeous girl who posts a few tweets about how much they love a book.

       My favorite part, though, was that there was a lot of believable drama. It wasn’t the hot-boyfriend-breaks-up-with-you-the-same-week-all-your-family-members-die kind of drama that some authors seem to think teenagers want to read. It was siblings arguing, anxiety and boy troubles. There were parts that could have been incredibly dry, had some authors would have written, but somehow Rowell managed to keep us reading by adding in all the worries of Cath and little details that just make it interesting. The way Rowell wrote was just so, so relatable and well-done you couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters and all their little quirks and irregularities.

       If you’re between-books and you want to read a messy, compelling story about modern day problems, this book is for you. Don’t throw it out before reading, because you will surely be missing out. Rainbow Rowell takes a new view and takes herself back to the reality of college and writes it so you have no doubts that’s what it would really be like for Cath if she were real. This was an extremely impressive book and I cannot think of any way it could be better than it already is.