a wonderful, fast-paced, witty coming-of-age novel that's not afraid to explore heavier topics that come up for young teens heading into their college years (sex, drinking, mental health, etc.) the author weaves in fanfiction throughout, keeping the tone relatively light hearted while also being respectful of the overall plot and tone. teens can lose themselves trying to be someone else in college--fangirl lets them know that they can be themselves, and still have it all.

If you enjoyed this, then I'd recommend Alice Oseman's novels, which are more somber and tense than the Heartstopper comics. This reminded me of Loveless in particular with regards to the setting and general character dynamics, but the main character in that book and the one in this book have quite different problems. This book is also a bit of a product of its time and some of the dialogue and attitudes are bit less culturally sensitive than a more contemporary book would probably be. I usually give books that I had a pretty good time with but didn't get really excited about 4 stars, but I can't quite give this book that rating. I started the book disliking all of the characters at least a tiny bit and none of them managed to fully grow on me. I mostly felt uncomfortable and worried while reading, right up until the end I just didn't trust that anything would be resolved or that Cath was going to make good decisions. I will say that it was interesting to read this after having read Carry On, since a decent percentage of the book is references to that story and the Simon Snow in-universe series. The audiobook narrator was a little too monotone for me, I had her sped up to 1.7 speed. 

"She had to make him another omelet." 🥹 My god, this was not destined to be a 5 star read, but it so so so was. I connected so deeply, in my heart and soul and stomach, with Cath, right from the beginning. And Wren, Reagan, Levi, Dr. Piper, and Art, even Courtney, Nick, and Laura—the whole cast did such justice to the beauty, fragility, strength, brokenness, wit, and charm of Cath.

This is one of my favorite books ever. I could write a 10 page essay on all the things i love about it but its 530am and I haven’t been to sleep yet so im gonna cut it down a little. The relationships really make this book for me. Caths relationship to wren, to her father, to regan, to levi, and to her professor are the reason I love this book so much. I love romance and of course watching the romance unfold in this book was incredible and I love love love the way her relationship with

levi

goes but i would read and love this book even without it. I cried about her father and sister and mother. As someone with a dysfunctional relationship with my dad seeing the love between them was so healing, even though they had a lot of problems. And wren, rowel can write a sister relationship like nobody’s business. If she doesn’t have siblings this is the greatest piece of fiction of written because she truly captures what its like to have a sister in such an incredible way. The way she weaves in simon and baz’s story and connects it subtly to what cath is going through is amazing (read carry on!!!). As someone who read this book for the first time in 8th grade and is now writing this review as a junior in college caths freshman experience was so well written. It was VASTLY different from my experience and actually made me feel really good about how im handling college but it felt real and it felt genuine and it felt accurate. College is hard. Despite the book having some more intense themes its really funny and I regularly laughed out loud reading it. I know this review is all over the place but of youre trying to decide if you should read it just do it. I know its long but its worth it. It is so worth every second you spend reading it. 

I thought the book was really good! I didn’t really see the point of all the Simon content before each chapter, I didn’t really understand how it related to each chapter but maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention to it. There were some little things that I felt took away from the ability to be immersed into the story and connect with Cath but I found her and the other characters relatable enough that it didn’t matter. Overall, I really liked this book!

A good fluffy read if you want to explore how the character experiences their first year of university and how they navigate the new and changing dynamics in their life.