This was great. It didn’t feel like a four-hundred-page book, as I read it in just under two days- spent way too much time doing that, actually- this one was hard to put down! The words flow so easily, and you quickly get caught up in what’s happening with the characters. I thought I wouldn’t relate well because the main character, Cath, is deep into writing fanfiction, which is something I’ve never even read. She has thousands of followers online, but in real life, very few friends- being an introvert and struggling with anxiety. She writes fic about a Simon Snow fantasy series (also fictional, an echo of Harry Potter). When she was younger, her twin sister wrote alongside her, but now that they’re at college, they seem to be drifting apart. Cath feels rather bereft and at loose ends without her sister around to help her through things, but she gradually makes some friends, although that doesn’t always turn out for the best. A writing partner takes advantage of her to boost his grades. Her roommate’s boyfriend is around all the time which first makes her annoyed, and then nervous. Nobody really seems to get the Simon Snow thing- they think it’s weird, or childish- but she’d still much rather be writing in her room than going out to parties. However, there’s this one awesome scene where she runs into a girl in the library who recognizes a fanfic reference and turns out to be an avid follower of her online persona- they get into a whole conversation about it but she never lets on that she’s the writer!
So many things addressed in this story, I don’t know how to discuss them all. Finding yourself is the biggest one. For Cath, it’s finding herself as a writer. Especially when a professor accuses her of plagiarism when she turns in a short fanfic piece for an assignment. The awkwardness and tenderness of first love- I really did like this part of the story. The guy Cath ends up with – after a very long phase of just knowing each other casually- is so sweet and good. (Almost unbelievably good, but he does make a few blunders almost as if to prove he’s a real person and not some perfect prop of a nice guy). Then there’s family problems back home- Cath’s father is emotionally unstable, so there’s trips home for the weekend (just a few hours from campus) to make sure he’s okay, and sometimes respond to emergencies when the situation slides backwards. Throughout the course of the story more of the picture gradually unfolds, how Cath’s mother left them when she and her sister were in third grade, and the family is still recovering from that. I thought it was ironic and also amusing that while Cath at one point doesn’t want to return to school after the first semester, while her sister had the opposite issue- after getting deeper and deeper into drinking bouts at parties, she finally winds up in the hospital, and is forbidden to go back to college unless she meets some rules laid out by their father. (It’s kind of refreshing to read a novel about young adults where the family is not only present in the story, but also an active part of it!) While all this is going on, Cath is struggling to keep up with her coursework, because she’s set herself a deadline with her fanfic writing, and doesn’t want to disappoint all the followers waiting to read her next chapter online.
Whew. It was a lot. But so easy and fun to read. Lots of great lines, lots of funny moments. Some wonderful characters (and some annoying ones too, but they were just foils to show the better qualities of the ones you care about). Between some chapters are little excerpts which are supposed to be from either one of the Simon Snow books, or from Cath’s fanfic. They were intriguing and made me want to read that- and guess what, I just might, because I found out afterwards that the author really did write three novels of the Simon Snow series. How great is that. I’m eager to read those, even though there’s vampires (not usually my thing).
Some other readers complained about how many loose ends were left at the end of the story, that it wrapped up a bit too quickly. I wouldn’t have minded reading another hundred pages to get more conclusion, but on the other hand, most of those points didn’t really bother me. I could see the direction things were going in, and I’d hope they continued on a steady course- Cath’s dad getting over a setback with his mental illness, her sister heading off alcoholism, even the boyfriend perhaps getting help with his learning disability (it was obvious he’d learned to cope, but no indication if he’d ever sought or received professional help for it). I admit there’s one thing that did disappoint me with this book: there’s no sex. The characters talk plenty about sex, and it’s obvious some of them are doing it, but there’s not one actual scene. There’s a lot of buildup to it, though, and then plenty of hints that it happened- but somehow I was expecting that to be on the page, handled without too many blunt details, of course (it’s what I’d expect as this novel is so clean in that regard). I can’t believe I was actually disappointed not to have that scene. I’ve never had that response to a book before- usually I’m relieved when those things are left out! And what’s funny is that from the way the characters talk, Cath herself writes steamy scenes into her fanfic. But the author didn’t put a scene for her in this book.
Borrowed from the public library.
