Book Review: Fangirl

Relatable. Charming. A page-turner.

One thing is for sure, Rainbow Rowell is undeniably one of the best storytellers of the modern times. I was able to read two of her works— Landline and Attachments, both were five-star reads if you would ask me. And here I am making another blog post about one of her “brainchildren”— Fangirl.

This book is super relatable, most especially for those who will be going to college or those who are already college freshmen. As for me, it brought back many memories of my first year in college. The awkward feeling of going to a place for the first time without knowing anybody, adults expecting you to act like one of them and to know what you want to do in life when deep inside, you are still struggling to put your life’s puzzle pieces together. The first college year experience was vividly described in this book that one would find himself/herself smiling cause one way or another, he/she found himself/herself in the same situation, too. 

Fangirl, just like Attachments and Landline, was a story that would lighten up a reader’s mood. It tackles family issues, school-related concerns, working hard to get that A in all subjects because a scholarship was at stake, and also the confusion and unexplainable emotions of meeting your first love. Every conflict was carefully placed in the storyline and nothing was in disorder or unnecessary. Everything was needed to make each character grow and develop to how they should be in the last chapter. Likewise, these same conflicts were resolved by the time you turn the last page, leaving no loose ends. 

(Continuation in the comments. ⬇️)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Book Review: Landline

You have to believe me when I say that Rainbow Rowell weaves perfectly magical stories because she really does! Read Attachments. Read Landline. These books are magical not in a way that the stories include fairies and spells but in a way that she based her stories in an ordinary person’s life and put in the word extra. Who would have thought that one can create a masterpiece out of something we go through every single day?

Rowell told Georgie’s and Neal’s story so vividly that I could almost feel everything Georgie felt and went through. She knew what she wanted from the start and she was really good in her chosen career. However, this took so much of her time that her marriage suffered and she felt like Neal was slowly slipping away from her. She was stuck in a crossroad. She was so near to achieving her dreams and at the same time so near to losing her family.

On the other hand, Neal was so perfectly patient and truly a man who stood by his promises. Though he was not sure what he wanted to do in his profession, he knew that Georgie was the right woman for him. He did everything he could to make her happy, to make their marriage work. He built his world around Georgie and their daughters and never said anything about Georgie coming home late at night because of work. He knew it was everything his wife wanted so he supported her, kept quiet, and just made sure that there was food waiting for her in the fridge after her long busy day.

This book just tugged a lot of heartstrings: Would you sacrifice your family to achieve your lifelong dream? Is pursuing your dream worth losing the person you are married to? How far would you go to fight for the love of your life?

Landline is a solid 5-star read for me. It is something written not only to entertain but also to remind everyone who reads it about the most important thing in this life: FAMILY.

Book Review: Attachments

Jodi Picoult was right when she said, “If Attachments were an e-mail, I’d be forwarding it to my entire list of contacts.” Sure enough, I would do the same. This book was simply phenomenal, entertaining, and all the good words I could think of. No chapter had I encountered in which boredom claimed me and decided to put this novel down and do something else. Beth and Jennifer were just so easy to relate with. Most especially when you had experienced sending and receiving messages from your colleagues during work hours which were not quite work-related but entertaining enough to make your day. Their friendship was so real that one would believe that it was based on something in real life.

Lincoln. Let us talk about this cute guy, Lincoln. He had a lot of things going through in his mind and in his life that he was not able to be fully present to enjoy the present. His past relationship broke something in him that made him doubt who he was and what he was capable of. It took quite a handful of e-mails and pieces of good-intentioned advice from his friends to remind him that he was just wandering, not lost. All that he needed was to focus on things that were right in his life and everything will fall back into place.

I fell in love with Beth and Lincoln even before the first time their eyes met. Rainbow Rowell did a terrific job weaving stories out of these characters’ pasts to make them perfect fit for each other: a woman wanting to be seen and appreciated by the man she loved and a man who had all the love in the world to give but was left behind.

In addition, this novel was set in year 1999, when computers were newly-introduced and people were going loco over the Y2K bug, coupled with their personal concerns about their own lives as the millennium was coming to an end. I did not know year 2000 had been a huge thing. Maybe I was so busy with life back then to even notice. I was 9 then, by the way 🤣

This book is a solid 5-star read for me. I know it is Rowell’s first novel but that only thrills me even more. If her debut was this good, then what adjectives would best describe her next books? We will see, I still have Fangirl and Landline in the shelf. 😊