Cath is a fan. More importantly she is a Simon Snow fan. But who isn't in love with that magical world? However Cath is more than just the passing fanatic. Simon Snow is her life. She reads and re-reads the books. She has loads of internet friends met at Simon Snow forums and chat sites. She herself is a fanfiction writer of Simon and Baz fics, and her writing is so good she is known the world over among fic readers. However things are changing. She and her twin sister Wren are off to college and unlike Cath, Wren is no longer interested in the enclosed fan life she used to lead or the sister she once was so close to. Wren wants space. So while Cath struggles to adjust, dealing with a scary roommate and said roommates always there, always happy boyfriend, Wren is out getting drunk. Worst yet, the Simon Snow series is coming to an end, the last book due out at the end of the year. Can Cath survive college until then? And if she does, what about life after Simon Snow?
In this poignant and wittily told novel, Rowell builds the perfect modern day coming of age story. Because though there has been every type of reclusive geek meets world version of this scenario since it became a popular story trope, the online world and it's prevalence in today's culture is one that is largely ignored. After all, what could be interesting about the reclusive and anxiety ridden night blogger/ fanfiction writer. What's more, fanfiction is such a touchy subject in the writing world. In most cases many literaries have problems accepting genre fiction, let alone unpublished fan work posted on the internet. The fact that fanfiction also has a bad rap because of numerous badly written renditions of stories overly loaded with sex doesn't help the case either. And that's where this novel comes in and creates a beautiful thing. Rowell writes a story in which you get to see that world, the online one, how enticing and magical it can be, as well as how easy it is to lose touch with reality when given the chance to chose. Another wonderful thing this story does is highlight how amazing fanfiction can be. It is not a useless past time or a place to vent out horribly written smut. It is story telling. It is, yes taking, an already established idea or world or set of characters, and building it into something new and unique. It is not a waste or wrong. It is creative expression and that is how Rowell shows it through Cath.
Now as I think you can surmise, I already have a lot of opinions on this subject and I have written about it before. So if you want to hear more about what I have to say on this subject, you can find those writings here and here.
Now, interpretation of the fanfiction world aside, I loved this book. It had great character and plot. I never got bored even when the characters were doing mundane things, which is a lot of the time considering how long the book is. I got very emotionally involved. Here again is yet another example of writing that does it right. You aren't just reading it, you're feeling it. It is a very identifiable story for anyone who has gone away to college and had a hard time fitting in, who has felt what it's like to grow apart from friends and family and not know how to fix it. It is a book that any type of fan can catch onto, especially the generation who grew up loving Harry Potter. I don't think I'd be too far from the truth if I surmised that the Simon Snow books elaborated on in this novel was a mimicry of the Harry Potter sensation that swept the world. Another subject that is addressed is anxiety. The novel is an amazing characterization of Cath and the anxiety that she deals with. It isn't overdone, it's real. I live with anxiety and I also have a best friend who struggles with it even more than I can ever fathom, so I can say that this is a very realistic painting of what it is like to live with it.
There are a lot of hard subjects tackled in this book and they are all approached with grace and executed fantastically. This is a novel well worth reading. I plan to look into other books the author has written simply because I was so blown away with this one.
So all in all I give it a high recommend. It was a fun read and a touching story that staid fresh from beginning to end. And don't let the length scare you. It is a big hunk of book, but I zoomed through it in a day or two.
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