Another book by the amazing Rowell. I read her “Eleanor & Park” and I was totally in love with her style, so I decided to buy this book. And she didn’t disappoint me. Yes, it is not like E & P, but still it was good. I’m particularly enchanted by the way she projects love. It is not the traditional picture of love which we might read in Romance or YA, but rather she draws a real, down to earth image of love. Her characters are drawn to each other not because of their looks or other superficial reasons, they are drawn to each other for some mutual interest, some deep interest in something…in FanGirl’s case Levi loves Cath because he found something beautiful underneath the wall she builds to shy away people in an attempt to protect herself of being hurt. But eventually Cath allows herself to love Levi, because she realized that for the first time she found someone who really cares about her, wants to listen to her, shares and allow her to share his interests. The way Rowell wrote about their time together is brilliant. My friend Maha said she loves a particular scene in the novel, and I was super excited to read that scene. And I didn’t only love that scene ( when Cath reads the book for Levi) but well I loved Levi himself…ok, another incident of falling in love with a fictional character 😛

FanGirl is another novel that proves how important YA literature is. Rowell in the book tackles two other important issues: sisterhood, motherhood/ fatherhood. The author presents the importance of the bond between sisters. She shows that no matter what we go through, or how estrange we get from each other…when we are in trouble, our sisters will rush to be beside us. Sisters never abandon their sisters. Christina Rossetti best described this beautiful bond between sisters in her poem Goblin Market:

For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whilst one stands

The other essential topic is the relationship between mother and daughter. Rowell did not try to present solutions to her reader, but rather shows that not all the relationships are alike and not all people are the same. While Cath found it hard to approach her mother without a serious attempt from her mother’s side, her sister was willing to go ahead with her mother’s offer to reconcile. Rowell shows that both sisters were eager to go to their mom’s bosom even after she abandoned them as kids, but their mother was not serious about her offer. The author shows us a realistic slice of life: not everything works in this life as we wish. On the other side, Cath’s father did the impossible to raise his daughters. His love for them is unconditional, and he is ready to sacrifice everything to protect them. This beautiful image of father-daughter’s bond does not particularly mean that Cath’s mother did not love her kids. But it shows that everyone of us at some point needs help, and maybe in this case their mother was in need for help more than her kids.

I loved this book, and it is one of the book I’m willing to reread again