Friday, October 30, 2015

Cephalopod Coffeehouse: Fangirl --- Baby's got Voice!

Hello, Cephalopod Coffeehouse participants!

This month I read Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell. I picked it up at Costco, because I liked the cover:


Costco. Pretty Cover. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, right?

Fangirl is about Cath, a college freshman whose world is out of whack. Her mother walked out on her family a long time ago (on September 11th - the September 11th), her twin sister Wren (Cath, Wren - get it?) wants space and declines to room together and takes up partying at the frat houses instead, her dad is living alone for this first time in years and struggling with depression. Cath is falling for her roommate Reagan's boyfriend Levi. And the fanfic Cath obsessively writes about Simon Snow (a Harry Potter-ish character/series), isn't cutting it as "original" in her Fiction Writing course.

Fangirl is heavy on dialogue. At times, it felt more like I was eavesdropping on the characters than reading about them. The pacing is slow and the book at times seemed to drag -- although this also made the book feel more real. There are also several long passages of Cath's fanfiction that frankly did not interest me.

But ultimately, I kept reading because of Rainbow Rowell's voice. She has a I-want-to-take-it-behind-the-bleachers-and-get-it-pregnant kind of voice.  Fangirl is a story about voice, too. It is about writing and the many different reasons why we write. It is about leaving the comfort of the stories of our childhood and having the courage to write a story of our own. And it has some fun lines about writing, like this one:


“Cath felt like she was swimming in words. Drowning in them, sometimes.”

Or this one:

“Sometimes writing is running downhill, your fingers jerking behind you on the keyboard the way your legs do when they can’t quite keep up with gravity.”  

In conclusion, once again Costco came through for me. It always does.

15 comments:

  1. I've had this one in my Kindle app for.... too long. I have heard complaints about the pacing, but I probably should dig in and read it. I loved Eleanor & Park, so I'll probably enjoy this one.

    Thanks for sharing!
    V:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would say it is worth a read. I'll have to try Eleanor & Park and see how it compares. Thanks for stopping by :)

      Delete
  2. I love your description of the writer's voice. I won't pretend I know quite what it means but I do like it.

    Thank you for joining us this month!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure! Thanks for hosting.

      Delete
    2. Also, the voice description - it's one of my favorite lines from 30 Rock :)

      Delete
  3. Sometimes writing is running uphill, your fingers unable to reach the keys. I'm your newest follower.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting review--often books can use more dialogue... I see you are from Utah--I spent ten years in Cedar City

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmm... Okay, sounds interesting. Not enough for me to just want to go out and grab it but enough to keep an eye out for.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is one very mixed up but possibly interesting family.

    cheers, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
  7. I haven't read this but I did read Eleanor & Park, another Rainbow Rowell book which I adored. Like your analogy ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I apparently need to read Eleanor & Park!
      Thanks for stopping by...

      Delete
  8. The cover really is appealing. This sounds like an interesting book. I kind of like dialogue-heavy novels.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like an interesting premise...dialogue heavy can be annoying after a while, though. It makes it feel like it's a movie script!

    ReplyDelete
  10. No question, she writes beautifully!

    ReplyDelete