Fangirl is a coming of age novel by Rainbow Rowell that explores the themes of fadom and social anxiety through the protagonist, Cather Avery. Cath is an avid fan of Simon Snow, who is a fictional character in a world of magic, much like Harry Potter. She is very active in the fandom and writes fan fiction about Simon and his nemesis Baz as gay lovers. Fangirl is highly relatable to anyone who has been an avid fan of certain book series, particularly Harry Potter.
The book is written in Third Person but follows the thoughts of Cather. Apart from the story from Cather’s viewpoint, certain excerpts from stories of Simon Snow are also placed after every chapter. This helps establish the story the original writer, Gemma Leslie has written and the stories Cath has written. A major point in the book is the involvement of the fictional characters in Cath’s lives. Despite having Simon Snow memorabilia and merchandise, she is often thinking about them in terms of real persons. She is far more comfortable writing about Simon and Baz, than doing regular freshmen stuff. While her twin sister, Wren seems to be moving on from Simon and Baz into a world that is more real, Cath seems to be getting more withdrawn, partly because of her social anxiety and partly because of her determination to finish Carry On, her fanfic, before the release of last Simon Snow book.
Cath’s devotion to writing fanfiction also raises questions to plagiarism. Her professor calls it plagiarism if she decides to use Simon Snow universe to tell a story of her own, which Cath finds difficult to understand. She calls it ‘borrowing the characters’ and that it’s ok to use those characters if she is not getting paid for it. But, Professor Piper feels that doing so would affect the originality of plot and emotions she feels Cath is talented enough to create. This is imminent in the last story that is featured in the book, an award-winning original by Cath who so far has written only fanfics on that large level.
Another major theme is social anxiety. Cath experiences acute social anxiety, which leads her to not eating in college for weeks. She avoids people in general and likes to read or write in her spare time. She is exact opposite of her sister who is an extrovert and likes to go out. A lot of her social anxiety comes from her experience of abandonment at the hands of their mother and bipolar behavior issues of her father. She is scared of having a nervous breakdown like her father as she feels she is too like him.
A majority of characters are dynamic in nature and don’t just exist for the sake of plot. Characters like Wren and Arthur are complex and a lot of Cath’s traits are resultant of their characters’ traits. Characters like Reagan or Levi undergo very little development but help move the story forward. Nick could be considered as an antagonist. He characters takes a very sharp turn as he decides to turn his story in to Professor Piper with no credits to Cath.
