From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

Fangirl

Rainbow Rowell

Start date: August 22, 2014

Finish date: August 30, 2014

Discussion: Books of the Month

Why we're reading this: To get to the discussion, CLICK HERE

We voted and you picked this one as the Young Adult BOM. …more
[close] To get to the discussion, CLICK HERE

We voted and you picked this one as the Young Adult BOM.

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 163 topics — 23,363 comments total

Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 11 posts · 69 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 04:38PM

* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Sep 25 Theme BOM - South and South East Asia (Starts 5 September)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 31 posts · 66 views

last updated Sep 10, 2025 04:48PM

showing 10 of 226 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 06, 2014 Kirsten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wow. What an incredible book. I probably would never have picked this book up if it hadn't been a book of the month choice. But I am so glad I did. I have never met a character that I identified with more. A real girl with real problems and real joys. It was just magical, but still real. I was sad to turn the last page. I wanted to spend more time with these people.

...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2014 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014, fiction, _own-ebook

Rainbow Rowell is just amazing ... I've loved each of her books but I was concerned this one wouldn't work as well for me since I'm not really a fan of fan fiction but she did her magic and I really liked this one a lot! The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is that I didn't love the fan fiction/story inserted within the novel. Those parts were not my favorite. They didn't take away from the rest of the novel but they didn't work as well for me. I highly recommend this or any of Rowell's wor ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2017 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-books, library, read-in-2017

I enjoyed this story way more than I expected.

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 27, 2014 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, almost-read, contemporary, 2015-reading-challenge, female-authors, one-word-title

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because of Simon Snow. This is the first book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read, and I had high expectations. Were they met? In some ways, but I found the book slow going.

Cath, our main character, is having a hard time starting college. She doesn't want to meet people, and has a crippling sort of social anxiety. She doesn't go to the cafeteria for a month because she doesn't know where it is, and she isn't asking. She's also a popular writer of fanfiction in the Simon 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because of Simon Snow. This is the first book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read, and I had high expectations. Were they met? In some ways, but I found the book slow going.

Cath, our main character, is having a hard time starting college. She doesn't want to meet people, and has a crippling sort of social anxiety. She doesn't go to the cafeteria for a month because she doesn't know where it is, and she isn't asking. She's also a popular writer of fanfiction in the Simon Snow fandom (an obvious Harry Potter knock-off, though strangely enough Harry Potter does exist within the book's universe.) She has a twin sister who she's growing apart from. And she finds the social scene of college to be impossible to navigate, as she's not interested in frat parties or drinking.

Let me say that I related to Cath very much. In fact, she's the reason I kept reading. I myself was once a shy, socially awkward college freshman attending a large state University. I also stayed in my dorm room with the door shut (because I was not interested in the things the other girls were) and read large amounts of fanfiction (on the X-files, to date myself a bit.) I feel that Rowell caught her Cath's personality perfectly. She was sometimes frustrating, as she refused to move outside her comfort zone, but it was consistent with her character.

I thought this was going to be a 5 star read for me. The thing that held it back for me was the lack of forward motion in the plot. I understand that this is a coming of age story, but I sometimes felt the plot meandered around, with no central conflict. I also thought that Cath's love interest was much too perfect, and not believable to me. I wasn't super invested in Wren's plotline either (view spoiler)

Recommended, just know that it's not in a hurry to get anywhere. ...more

Like · see review